KINGSTON, N.Y. — When the replica Erie Canal boat Seneca Chief navigates into the Rondout Creek as part of a statewide tour commemorating the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal and docks at the Hudson River Maritime Museum on Oct. 21-22, it will give a sampling of what was once a ubiquitous sight in the Rondout Area in the 1800s and early 1900s.

The canal boat, owned by the Buffalo Maritime Center, replicates the Erie Canal boat Seneca Chief, the first vessel that navigated from Buffalo to New York City in 1825 to mark the completion of the canal, which stretches from Waterford in Saratoga County to Lake Erie at Buffalo. Then Gov. DeWitt Clinton traveled aboard the original Seneca Chief on that journey.

The vessel set off from the canal’s western terminus the Buffalo’s Co

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