Working at the museum is always a learning experience and we recently had a very fortunate learning experience. As we were sorting through artifacts to display, we found an old iron piece that appeared to be a piece of junk. Fortunately, our newest Trustee, Steve Dorsten, identified the piece as a part of a canal gate. The part looks something like a very large square nut with a bolt shaft in the middle. As it turns out, this is the bottom pivot of a lock gate. Further research has led to the identification of more parts and pieces of canal lock gates in our procession.