Through Lock No. 13 passed many canal boats carrying produce, goods, and passengers from Ohio and Indiana and from as far south as New Orleans and as far east as New York City. Boats were drawn by horses, or more often by mules, with 2 to 6 animals depending on the size of the load. Spare animals were either carried on board, to the discomfort of passengers, or stabled along the canal, and speeds varied from 5 to 8 miles per hour. Huge rafts of logs cut from virgin forests also floated on the canal to mills operated by canal water power, where they were sawed into lumber for many uses. Independence Dam, on the Maumee River just below this site, was built to provide slack water for the canal. It took its name from the nearby town of Independence, which sprang up during canal construction, grew into a thriving center of commerce that at one time rivaled Defiance, and nearly disappeared after the canal was abandoned. This place lay on the trunk line of both the Miami & Erie Canal and the Wabash & Erie Canal. The Miami & Erie Canal, built by Ohio, was begun on July 21, 1825, and completed in 1845, connecting the Ohio River at Cincinnati with Lake Erie at Toledo. By the time it reached the Maumee Valley, the Wabash & Erie Canal had already been projected from Fort Wayne to Toledo, and at Junction, about 15 miles southwest of here, the two canals joined and became one. Indiana built the Wabash & Erie Canal from Evansville on the Ohio River to Toledo on Lake Erie. It was begun on February 22, 1832, in honor of George Washington, who had first suggested canal construction in this region. When finished in 1856, it was 458 miles long and one of the longest canals built. By the time of the Civil War, swifter and more dependable railroads were superseding the canals, which were abandoned section by section, and in the early 1900’s the canal era came to an end.