A Transportation Enhancement grant through the Ohio Department of Transportation made possilbe the restoration of Lock 1 in 2014. The restoration preserves the lock for future generations to illustrate the long and vibrant story of the Miami and Erie Canal in western Ohio.
The remaining four locks that are visible at the site are maintained as a vestige of the canal system and as an important example of civil engineering in the 19th-century.
The extensive stair step canal lock walls, among the best preserved in Ohio, were part of the Miami and Erie Canal system, which opened for navigation in 1845 and connected Cincinnati and the Ohio River to Toledo and Lake Erie. For decades, the canal provided Ohio with valuable transportation and waterpower. The lockmaster’s house—now a private residence—and a dry-dock basin for boat repair are still visible.
Lockington Locks is locally managed by the Johnston Farm Friends Council.
