Burkes Landing Marker

At the southeast corner of the intersection.

Inscription: 1835-1873    The canal boat "Indiana" docked here on the evening of July 3, 1835, opening the Wabash and Erie Canal to traffic from Fort Wayne to Huntington. This was the first section of the canal opened in Indiana. John Burk, for whom the lock was named, was a member of the first Board of Commissioners of Huntington County.

From the 1879 Combined Atlas:

“July 3, 1835, the water of the St. Joseph River Reached Huntington in the canal, and, on the evening of the same day, the canal-boat “Indiana,” Capt. Fairfield, an “old salt” in command, arrived from Fort Wayne and landed at the upper lock, then known as “Burk’s Lock,” bringing a large and very enthusiastic party of gentlemen from Fort Wayne, who, on their arrival, were greeted with loud cheers by and equally enthusiastic assemblage of people of Huntington , and repeated salutes with the cannon which Dr. George A. Fate had brought from Dayton, Ohio, expressly for the occasion of celebrating the opening of the canal to Huntington. After the interchange of enthusiastic greetings and partaking of the hospitalities prepared by the citizens of Huntington, the party returned to Fort Wayne early in the morning of the “Glorious Fourth,” with a large number of people of Huntington, including Dr. Fate with the cannon, the booming of which announced their arrival, to the delight of the boys and the great sacrifice of glass on Columbia Street of that City.”

Locks are one of the features of a canal which allows the passage of canal boats to travel on uneven terrain. One of the pictures shows the basics of how locks work. Just 8 years after the first landing at Huntington, the canal was open to the navigable section of the Wabash at Lafayette. The canal’s heyday was short-lived. Twenty years after the Huntington to Fort Wayne section of the canal opened, the first rail line connected the same two cities.

1. Combination Atlas Map of Huntington County, Indiana. 1879. Kingman Bros. p16, 21
2. Meeks, Thomas & Julia, Profile of the Wabash & Erie Canal, Anthony Wayne Printing, 1984.
3. “Burk’s Lock”, historicalmarkerproject.com, https://historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM4NY_burks-lock_Huntington-IN.html. Accessed 13 May 2022.