Lockbourne: Locks 29 and 30 and Locke Meadow Park

Commerce St.
Lockbourne, OH 43137

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Lockbourne: Locks 29 and 30 and Locke Meadow Park

Lockbourne may be a small village today, but it was a very busy place on the Ohio & Erie Canal. It was the junction of the main canal and the Columbus Feeder, which served Ohio’s capitol city. There are the remains of four locks, a guard lock, a surviving canal-era tavern, and the Magnolia Trail, which follows the right-of-way of the canal in Locke Meadow Park.

Lockbourne may be a small village today, but it was a very busy place on the Ohio & Erie Canal. It was the junction of the main canal and the Columbus Feeder, which served Ohio’s capitol city. There are the remains of four locks, a guard lock, a surviving canal-era tavern, and the Magnolia Trail, which follows the right-of-way of the canal in Locke Meadow Park.

The small village of Lockbourne was busy place on the Ohio & Erie Canal. At the east edge of town the canal turned sharply west to Lock 28, later destroyed by railroad construction. Lock 29 is intact just to the west, and Lock 30 is in Locke Meadow Park at the bottom of a steep hill on the north edge of the village. Two intersecting basins here, visible during times of high water, formed a triangular piece of land where boats moored to load and unload out of the main canal. Just downstream, the Columbus Feeder joined the main canal by means of some innovative engineering. The feeder, about 12 miles long, was navigable and drew water from the Scioto River in downtown Columbus. At Lockbourne, the feeder passed through a lock on the west bank of Big Walnut Creek just upstream from Rowe Road. About 300 feet downstream, a dam created a “slackwater pool” that enabled boats to cross the creek in still water and re-enter a short stretch of feeder through a guard lock that protected the main canal from floodwaters. About 400 feet to the east of that lock the feeder’s water flowed into the canal. Draft animals pulling boats on the feeder crossed the creek on a floating towpath on the feeder’s downstream side.

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Notes for Travelers

Locke Meadow Park has parking, Lock 30, a picnic shelter, and the Magnolia walking trail. The trail is named after one of the boats owned by the Monypenny Distillery, one of Lockbourne’s most successful canal-era businesses. This area had a canal basin at one time, as can be seen in areas where water is still evident.



Credits

Jeff Darbee, Nancy Recchie, David Meyer

Additional Resources

Meyer, David. Life Along the Ohio Canal – Licking Reservoir to Lockbourne and Columbus Feeder

Meyer, David. Life Along the Ohio Canal in the Scioto River Valley

https://www.columbusmessenger.com/lockbourne-and-the-ohio-and-erie-canal.html

Seasonal events are held in the Old School House. Check this link for upcoming events. https://www.lockbourneohio.us/old-school-house

WOSU-TV, Columbus Neighborhoods program had a short segment on preservation of the canal locks in Groveport and Lockbourne. The link is below.

https://columbusneighborhoods.org/video/preserving-the-locks-groveport-and-lockbourne/

https://www.columbusmessenger.com/take-a-hike-along-lockbournes-magnolia-trail.html