Seneca Chief Launch Starts Countdown to Erie Canal Bicentennial

A parade with a procession of one — the 73-foot-long, 44-ton replica of the Seneca Chief — advanced on a flatbed trailer out of Canalside’s Longshed building shortly after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday and under bright sunshine, so as hundreds of spectators lined Lloyd Street to applaud and take photos.

Nearly two hours later, a crane lowered the boat into the Lackawanna Canal in the Port of Buffalo, in the presence of a smaller but equally passionate audience.

The boat launch was the culmination of an extraordinary volunteer boat-building effort that began in October 2020 under the auspices of the Buffalo Maritime Center and involved 218 volunteers. It also started a countdown for the Seneca Chief to sail the Erie Canal during the historic waterway’s bicentennial next year.

“To see all the effort reach that water was incredible,” said Henry Schmidt, a Snyder volunteer who made the bronze casting for the boat after it landed. “And it was the shared community that built this – that put this thing in the water and brought this story to light.”

(Photos: Seneca Chief riverboat launches)

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