Lock 25 - Restoration project

The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L) Trail Tenders and the Walnutport Canal Association will be working together next year to restore the grounds in and around the historic Lock 25 also known as Sheckler's Lock on the Lehigh Canal in Walnutport. Cleanups at the site have been organized since late September.Lock 25 site contains an intact, non-working lock, ruins of the locktender's house and the foundation of the mule barn that was part of the lock complex.The site is overrun with shrubs, vines and other vegetation that is threatening the integrity of the remaining walls of the locktender's house and mule barn foundation.The D&L contracted J.C. Ehrlich Co. of Reading this past summer to apply two applications of herbicides to kill vegetation east of the locktender's house and on top of the mule barn foundation.The dead vegetation will be removed by volunteers and replaced with a mix of native grasses and wildflowers.Eagle Scout candidate, Ryan Fronheiser of Slatington, is building picnic tables for the site.One will replace a deteriorating table that rests atop the mule barn foundation and a second will be placed in the area behind the locktender's house, which will become a grass meadow when the project is complete.The D&L hopes to add interpretive signs that will recall the site's history for visitors.