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22 Mud Sucks As I struggled through the chest-deep mud that filled the old Santee Canal after nearly 150 years of neglect, I realized the past reveals its secrets reluctantly. They often hide in the most awful places. This revelation came as no sudden epiphany. It came after days in the thick muck, probing for the remains of canal boats and lock structures. It came after repeatedly falling face first into the ooze as a stuck leg suddenly came free. It came after becoming too exhausted from struggling through the deeper mud and having to be pulled out by rope. It came after . . . well, you get the picture. When we began the Santee Canal Project in November 1987, we had no idea the mud would prove to be such a formidable foe. For one thing it slowed our work. Immensely. Tasks that should have taken minutes took hours to accomplish. With a tight budget, this presented a major problem. For another we were accustomed to working in open water. The debris and mud blocking the old canal was a new environment for us. Some of our established archaeological techniques worked. Others did not. Moreover we often worked completely submerged in the ooze. At the end of most days, we emerged from the canal dog tired and gritty, with mud stuffed, crammed, and caked in every orifice and crevice. The canal project taught us one of the great lessons of maritime archaeology : mud sucks. The Santee Canal, which connected the Santee River with the upper reaches of the Cooper River, opened in 1800. Its claim to fame is in being America’s first summit canal, meaning a canal that uses locks to go up in elevation and then back down to another body of water. In addition it was a true marvel of engineering, taking thousands of workers seven years to complete its 20.42-mile length. The canal was intended to open up the interior of South Carolina to the port of Charleston. The products of upcountry farms and plantations, Mud Sucks 23 cotton and other goods, brought down the Congaree, Broad, Saluda, and Wateree rivers into the Santee would have a shortcut to Charleston. Conversely the imported commodities from abroad would have an easier path into South Carolina’s hinterland. Imagine the relief William Buford felt as he maneuvered his small cargo vessel out of the flow of the Santee River at White Oak Plantation and entered the Santee Canal in May 1801. Buford, who owned a plantation on the banks of the Broad River some ninety miles above Columbia, was bringing his crops to market in a boat built at his plantation . No information as to the size or method of propulsion of Buford’s boat is available. We know, however, that his boat was less than sixty feet in length, ten feet in width, and drew less than four feet of water. We know this because that was the maximum interior size of the canal’s ten single and two double locks. No doubt Buford looked forward to a leisurely two-day journey through the canal. Not only had he successfully managed the falls and sandbars along his journey, but with the new canal connecting the Santee River with the Cooper River, he no longer faced the shoals and breakers at the mouth of the Santee or the forty or so miles of open ocean between the Santee and Charleston Harbor. Less than one hundred feet after leaving the river, Buford came to the first lock. With the momentum built up from the river flow, he could easily maneuver his boat into the lock. Behind him the lockkeeper closed the lock gate. When closed, the gates angled slightly inward toward the lock. Above Buford a roadway sixteen feet wide crossed the lock, providing shade for Buford and his crew. The lockkeeper then moved to the upper gates and began working a crank that opened sluices built into the gates, releasing water into the lock. As the water rose, pressure pushed against the lower gates, providing the force to keep them shut. When the water in the lock reached the height of the water above the lock, a rise of five feet, the pressure against the upper gates eased, and the lockkeeper easily opened them. On the draw paths that bordered the canal, black workers hooked teams of either horses or mules to Buford’s vessel. These teams effortlessly pulled the boat from the lock, starting...

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