Spring ? Summer - St. Margaret's Hospital

such as demonstrations on mule tending and teas with Mrs. Lincoln
(Abraham Lincoln rode the canal in 1848).
To complement the boat tour, Ana, whose background is in
historic preservation, also helped to convert a 1910 building in
downtown LaSalle into a visitor center. The Lock 16 Visitor Center
offers visitors a chance to take in a film about the canal and includes
a gift shop and café. Ana hopes it will become a community
gathering place.
The memory of the many hurdles overcome during the project
brings a rueful chuckle from Ana now. “As in most things in life
worth doing, when you get in you have no idea what it will entail,”
she reflects. “It was a much larger project than we anticipated and
more complicated in a lot of ways.”
The year the I&M Canal opened was “the end of one era and the
beginning of a new era,” says Ana, who is hoping that, likewise, the
revival of the waterway will launch a new era of appreciation for the
canal’s contribution to the history of our state.
“Before the canal, St. Louis on the Mississippi River was more
populous than Chicago,” Ana explains. “But when the state invested
in the canal infrastructure, the money moved to Chicago. That’s the
whole significance of the canal, and what I hope people go home
with.”
Lock 16 Visitors Center
The Lock 16 Visitors Center, open daily, is located at 754
First Street in LaSalle. Café & Gift Shop hours are Monday,
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.;
Tuesday, from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, from 8 a.m. to
7 p.m.; and Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Boat tours are offered several times daily from April 17
through November 13, 2009. Evening tours are also
available on Thursday and Sunday. For more information,
phone 815-220-1848.
The Gaylord Building Historic Site, which is also managed
by the Canal Corridor Association, offers canal exhibits and
a restaurant. It is located at 200 West Eighth Street in
Lockport. Call 815-838-9400 for information.
To learn more about the canal and the canal boat, visit
http://www.lasallecanalboat.org/ or http://www.canalcor.org.
30 spring.summer 2009 | spirit