The State Museum, the Durham Project and Philip Lord, Jr. spent over 10 years researching this very topic.

See web site at:

http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/research/history/durham.html 

Here is the introduction:

This section of our website was created by a researcher who has retired. These pages are not maintained.
  
The Durham Project

 The Durham Project is a research and education initiative in transportation geography that locates and interprets the physical remains of New York’s earliest canals and navigation improvements. It combines geography, archeology and history in a research package that is dedicated to identifying, preserving, and interpreting physical remains of the works of New York's first canal Company - The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company [1792-1820] - and surviving historic environments of that era of inland navigation.  


David W. Palmquist
Head, Museum Chartering
NY State Museum
NY State Education Department
3097 Cultural Education Center
Albany NY 12230
518-473-3131
FAX 518-473-8496
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
web site:  www.nysm.nysed.gov/charter/

My deadline for the July 2006 Regents meeting agenda is May 23; 
Deadline for September meeting is June 27; 
Deadline for October meeting is August 22.


>>> [log in to unmask] 05/30/06 9:48 AM >>>
Can anyone recommend some resources for learning more about the inland water route from Albany (or Schenectady) to Oswego, prior to the building of the Erie Canal?  

Specifically, I'm wondering how much shipping took place on this somewhat cumbersome route, and to what final destinations?  Towns on Lake Ontario?  With NIagara Falls in the way, they would not have had good access to the rest of the Great Lakes, would they have?

Thanks for any help...

Dave R.