Augusta

This was written in April 2014 but not finished. I have a new promise to myself to do a better job on this blog going forward and not just when we travel.

The headquarters of the Augusta Canal Authority is housed in the old Enterprise Mill. They have a nice museum which is interactive enough to amuse the children (a passel of home schoolers were on tour) but informative enough to satisfy adults. There was also a ten minute film telling more about the history of the canal. It was started in 1845 but proved not to provide enough water power to run many factories and so was expanded in 1875. It was later abandoned but brought back to life through a movement of the citizens in the late 90's and now provides recreation in an urban setting.
To our great delight, we found ourselves to be the only passengers on our boat tour. These boats, built just for this purpose are the largest electric boats in the US. The captain is Coast Guard certified. At one point our 13ft. wide craft went through a 15ft gate designed to control water flow. We passed under the very ornate Butt's bridge dedicated to a man who had been on President Taft;s staff and who perished on the Titanic. Survivors told stories of his bravery and dedication to saving lives and Taft had the federal government fund this memorial. Our guide told us we might like to go see the head gates of the canal where the water is channeled from the river into the canal which was several miles north.
We enjoyed a nice lunch at Fat Man's restaurant right there on the grounds. They serve sandwiches, salads and full meals. They were friendly and the food was good. We then checked out the river walk area where a brick wall shows the levels of the varying floods over the years. The beautiful cotton exchange building is now a bank with the gorgeous original wood doors and entryway. The far wall of the lobby is a museum of sorts featuring the old blackboard with commodity prices on it that was found intact behind a wall during renovation.
We drove around looking at old houses for awhile and then headed north to the head gates where there is a nice park, picnic pavilion and jogging trails. You can see the old gates, now on dry land and the current ones with water rushing through. People had put locks on the gates across the walkways, many with dates and some with names and sentiments written on them. The dam was beyond the gates with rapids below. These rapids were one reason for the canal because a lot of cotton was grown north of here and it was a lot easier to get it down to the mills in Augusta with the canal.