Kayakers, paddleboaters, have at it: I&M Canal mostly filled in Ottawa and ready for recreation

The Illinois & Michigan Canal in Ottawa isn’t full of water quite yet, but kayakers and paddleboat enthusiasts should have more than enough water to do their thing now the water pumps have filled it two-thirds full.

Ottawa Canal Association President Arnie Bandstra said the canal should be full in about four days, but he’s not going to stop anyone who wants to start using it now. He plans on taking his own kayak through the water in the days before the canal finishes filling.

“The pumps were put in April 2 and they started pumping on and off,” Bandstra said. “For the most part, it’s been pumping for seven days.”

Bandstra said the canal association has a ribbon-cutting planned at 2 p.m. May 22, and the group would like to get as many people out on the water as they can that day.

“I’m looking to have everybody who’s got a canoe or a kayak or a paddleboat or a stand-up paddleboard to be in the canal that afternoon,” Bandstra said. “I’d like to invite everyone to come out and flood the canal with activity.”

Ottawa’s stretch of the canal was active from the 1840s through the 1900s. It was emptied in 1933.

A rewatered and usable canal has been a project at least three years in the making for Ottawa, and both the city and the Ottawa Canal Association have expressed interests in using it for recreation activities such as canoeing, fishing and ice skating.

Before former Mayor Bob Eschbach decided not to run for reelection in 2019, he said rewatering the canal was a goal of his, referring to a canal without water as similar to a ham sandwich without ham.

The area, just to the north of downtown, figures to play into the city’s goals for tourism and recreation. Bandstra said he is encouraging the city officials and the canal association to work together on a comprehensive plan for the canal’s use.

The Ottawa Canal Association will have the toll house open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Sunday from April through October so people can learn the history of the canal and the rewatering project.

Bandstra asked anyone who makes use of the canal or even drives by the canal to avoid littering. Trash in the canal always had been a problem when it was dry, he said, and he’d like to avoid that problem now that there’s water in the canal.