"Information is hard to find on this place but there is some out there and I have found it. Back when the canal started construction in 1857 many men worked on it complex structure. The man who was head of this operation caught wind of the government shutting down the Canal Fulton operation. He was angered and while working burned many of the workers and him self with acid. His hateful spirit still haunts the building and waterways of lock four along with many of the poor souls he killed. "

Of course, research has not confirmed the grisly, acid mass killing.  But, is there any truth to this tale?
 

This is a popular expression associated with the Ohio & Erie Canal, and for good reason.  The canal diggers were mostly  Irish immigrants.  The work was grueling and dangerous.  Hundreds of young men died from various microbes festering in the mud and stagnant water--malaria (or "Canal Fever") and acute diarrhea. 

Many were buried in shallow, unmarked graves along the canal, or in mass paupers graves at nearby cemeteries.

For over a 12-hour day of strenuous labor, the canal worker received a pittance in pay, tent or shanty housing, and meager meals (consisting mostly of coffee, bacon, beans, potatoes and, on every other day, maggot-ridden meat).  Not surprisingly, there were several labor uprisings as a result.

In addition, many internal conflicts brewed among the workers that often turned violent, even fatal.  This may have been due to the "daily jigger of whiskey" allotted to the men as part of their compensation.  Perhaps stereotypical of Irish immigrants--or perhaps not--local law enforcement officials attributed as much as 90% of homicides to drunken Irish perpetrators.

In light of this perception of the canal workers as expendable trouble-makers, it is logical to conclude that the "murders" as alleged in the story were either deliberately unreported, or were misreported to place blame for the deaths on an Irish immigrant.

Construction on the Ohio & Erie Canal began in 1825, and was completed in 1832--long before the date of 1857 as mentioned in the tale.    Canal operations in Ohio reached its peak in 1851, but rapidly declined following the development of the railroad system.  By 1857, many canals were in serious fiscal trouble.  In the early 1860's, the government leased Lock 4 to a private contractor.  However, the company failed to properly maintain and operate the canal, and stopped paying rent.  The government took back the lock in the 1870's.

The Great Flood of 1913 was the final nail in the canal system's coffin.  In addition to causing numerous deaths, many canals were destroyed by the flood, bringing about the end of the Ohio canal system.

Lock 4 is now part of a park that is open during the summer until dusk.  It is the only Ohio canal lock still "operational" in the sense that the restored mechanisms can conceivably work.  Next to the lock is the old Lock Tender's Cabin, pictured on the right.