Baldwinsville, N.Y. – The “ Seneca Chief ” sailed into Baldwinsville’s Paper Mill Island Friday evening, its polished wooden frame catching the fading sunlight as a crowd gathered along the canal’s edge.

The packet boat is a replica of the vessel that carried Gov. DeWitt Clinton in 1825 during the grand opening of the Erie Canal, a feat of engineering that connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean and transformed New York forever.

Two centuries later, this hand-built reproduction is retracing that historic journey.

“This was a community project,” said Doug Hartley, a volunteer boatbuilder who helped construct the “Seneca Chief.” “We had over 200 volunteers — engineers, teachers, bus drivers, housewives — just people who wanted to be part of history.”

Hartley, who started volunt

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