The content was collected by Sandy Sorlien from numerous primary and secondary sources, with new written material and images. Sandy’s research and photography has been supported since 2013 by the Fairmount Water Works, the education arm of the Philadelphia Water Department. Her book-in-progress about the Navigation, Inland, is partially supported by a 2020 Charles A. Peterson Senior Fellowship from the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

Thanks are due to these outstanding cultural centers, and to canal researchers Larry Whyte, Glenn Wenrich, John Bambrick, and Stuart Wells – Sandy’s accomplices in Schuylkill Valley bushwhacking. We also thank Laura Catalano, formerly of Schuylkill River Greenways Association, and PWD’s infrastructure historian Adam Levine at PhillyH2O.

Our research sources, including public archives and historical societies, can be found on the Links page.

The mission of the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center is to foster stewardship of our shared water resources by encouraging informed decisions about the use of land and water. The Center is located below Philadelphia’s Fairmount Dam, where once the Schuylkill Navigation Locks 71 and 72 released all boats to tidewater.

This website connects Fairmount to the head of navigation in the Coal Region, Schuylkill County. It also connects our shared future on the river to a past of innovative engineering, rapid industrial growth, catastrophic water pollution, and heroic environmental restoration.

Contact sandy@sandysorlien.com with questions, information, and corrections, or just enter a comment in the Guest Book. Uncovering the Navigation ruins is a work in progress, and you may have found something interesting.