Oldtown and Lock 70

The basin above Lock 70 provided a landing for canal boats, with a general store adjoining the original lockhouse and a feed store across the lock, giving boatmen a place to leave the bustle of Cumberland, tie up, and buy supplies and feed for their mules for the trip down the canal. Oldtown prospered with the canal, but after the canal closed in 1924 it became the quiet village it is now. The original lockhouse and general store burned in 1906 and were replaced by the present two-story frame lockhouse. A boat heading downstream entered the lock, its mules were unhitched and led downstream, the lock gates were closed, valves in the downstream gates were opened to let water flow out and slowly lower the boat, and then the mules were hitched again, the downstream gates were opened, and the boat continued on its course.

Maryland · United States