Chris Martin ducked through the waiting crowd to peer down into Lockport’s Deep Cut, that fateful autumn evening in 1825. Then in the silence came the sound of Lake Erie waters lapping through the cut to fill the last stretch of the Erie Canal!

Cannon boomed, people cheered, and Chris grinned with pride. The canal was finished, and he had been a part of it! Chris thought of the boats on which he had worked his way from Albany to Lockport - the packet Fast and Fair, the freighter Honest Lad, and the Polly Ann. Then he had pitched in to help dig the last link in the canal that was to span the breadth of New York State, from Albany to Buffalo.

The year before, Chris, his twin sister Kathy, and their two younger brothers had come to live with their great-aunt Jane. But the Martins’ welcome in the bustling Hudson River town had soon been marred by the loss of two fifty-dollar notes. Pat O’Malley, the town bully, had found them. Then both he and the purse disappeared. And so Chris had set out for the west, following the canal in search of Pat.

Those were exciting days, and two startling adventures still awaited Chris before he would be reunited with his family when the triumphant eastbound Seneca Chief reached the Albany basin, bringing Lake Erie water to mingle with the Hudson River.

This USA Back Then book is an exciting story about the building of the Erie Canal in 1825. It is based on true historic events, and it provides an entertaining way to learn more about the amazing history of the United States of America.