![]() A packet boat was usually 14 feet wide to fit the narrow width of the canals, but could be anywhere from 70 to 90 feet long. The smaller packet boats, or later known as canal boats, were used to carry mail, cargo, and passengers using the canals and rivers. The 363-mile Erie Canal was built in 1825. Unknown to the colonists were the Hohokam's canals in a land they never dreamed of visiting. In America, canal building began in the 1790s to connect the 16 States to the lands west for commerce, as well as for taking passengers and families wanting to relocate further west. This was known as the Packet Trade, named for the mail packets they carried. When sails were invented between 2000-5000 BC, travel speed improved for canal and river boats, sometimes considerably, depending upon wind direction.ĭuring the 1700-1800s, ships would sail between Europe and America only when they were full, so scheduling regular trips became a priority. Still, seven mph was an improvement over trying to get your horse and favorite chariot out of the mud. Night travel on rivers such as the Nile wasn't possible due to the risk of running aground on a sandbar. The downside was that travel was still slow poles and oars meant manpower to move the boats. Passengers wanting to relocate or trade with merchants could carry more goods by boat and arrive sooner. Early roads that washed out with the rains made for slow travel. In the Middle Ages, travel by water was cheaper and faster. The deserts now encompassing the Phoenix area had a large prehistoric population, proving that canals were useful in sustaining life.īut canals were used for more than possible drinking water and providing irrigation to crops. The Hohokam people of current-day Arizona built canals around 500-1450 CE (current era). And in Egypt and China, canals date back to 2332-2283 BC and 481-221 BC, respectively. In Pakistan and North India, elaborate irrigation and reservoirs were constructed. The history of canals goes back to ancient times to the irrigation canals dating around 4000 BC in Mesopotamia, now Iraq and Syria. At a time when we are looking for sustainable agricultural systems, the Hohokams have much to teach us.Back in Time The Packet Boat-Transportation By CanalĪn Ohio Packet Boat compliments of the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library Staff, from their Photograph Collection They transformed the earth of the Valley, creating some of the finest agricultural soils in the world. They laid out a template or design followed by our modern canal system. The legacy of the Hohokams is a lasting one. The Hohokams were a unique culture whose descendants, the O'odham people along the Salt and Gila rivers, continue as a living and vibrant culture today. In fact, the Hohokams created a system of sustainable agriculture that survived for at least 1,500 years. They transformed their environment, creating a cultural landscape with agricultural fields that stretched as far as the eye could see.Īlthough some have suggested that they caused environmental catastrophes, such as salt buildups on the fields that would destroy the crops, more recent research dismisses this notion. The Hohokams were also the only prehistoric culture in North America to rely on irrigation networks to raise crops. It was the largest canal irrigation system ever developed in the prehistoric New World. This avoided problems of channel erosion from fast-moving water and the depositing of silts that occurs when the water slows down and drops the particles of soil it carries.Ĭanals today still follow the same routes, and many were built by simply cleaning out the original Hohokam channels.īy the Classic Period, 1150 to 1450, the Hohokam irrigation systems could deliver water to over 110,000 acres and support the largest population in the Southwest at that time. The canals were engineered to keep water flowing through the canals at a constant rate. The main canals were precisely mapped onto the landscape to achieve a gradient, or drop, of only a few feet per mile. The engineering of the irrigation systems was amazingly advanced. One prehistoric canal investigated in Mesa measured 15 feet deep and 45 feet wide and was rebuilt at least 13 times. ![]() Unprecedented in size, Hohokam canals often extended to 16 miles or more in length. To provide water to their crops, these early farmers began to construct well-engineered networks of irrigation canals across the Valley. ![]()
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