Presented by the Medina Erie Canal Task Force

Welcome to Medina
An original port of prosperity along the historic Erie Canal
Incorporated 1832

It is to the Erie Canal that the Village of Medina owes its existence and prosperity.  Before the great idea, the present thriving village was an almost unbroken wilderness, with only a few settlers who had found the water power provided by the Oak Orchard Creek and had built mills. Medina was originally laid out at the intersection of two townships surveyed by Joseph Ellicott while surveying Western New York for a path for the Erie Barge Canal. Construction on the canal began in 1817 and passed through this surveyed spot in 1821. It was the building of the canal which brought the laborers for whom the first dwellings were erected on this land, and the village began its start on the very banks of the canal.  Early buildings began to erect on the business part of the place known as the ‘docks’. MORE
-text courtesy Kara Hartway

Downtown Medina, late-1800’s

Cycling the Erie Canal
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Canal Cruise & Trek
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Thank you 
J.P. Morgan Chase
for sponsoring this website!