Terry K. Evans

Interesting to compare this to the Wabash and Erie canal by Thomas Castaldi: Woods' book is by far the more professional, as the author must have gone back and looked at every book published about, on, by, or near the canal in the last 150 years. He's covered financing, politics, culture, just about everything concerned with the canal that you can get out of one of those books.

Castaldi's book, meanwhile and bearing in mind that it is self-published seems to be more the result of the author getting out and slogging up and down the old pathways of the canal, looking for any trace of old bits of wood or stone he can find anywhere, and writing it down.

The Ohio book is therefore a lot more polished and easier to read, but just doesn't feel as real as the Indiana book. But I don't doubt that either book is a great summary of the available information on a period of time that we're rapidly forgetting.… (more)