Page 47 - The Hunt Winter 2021

Once a harbor for wooden vessels, the the world’s largest producer of railroad
Wilmington waterfront became the largest manufacturer of iron-clad ships in the years after the Civil
War. For the next 100 years, it was the center of heavy manufacturing—especially during the two world wars, when factories ran around the clock. During that span, Wilmington produced everything from airplanes, automobiles and railroad cars to leather goods and (of course) chemicals. Now, the factories are mostly gone, save for some ghostly brick buildings.
An interesting curiosity along the riverfront, Lobdell Canal once cut into the marshlands just north of the Port of Wilmington on the west side of the Christina River. It was named after George Lobdell, whose company was
car wheels in 1867. More than a century later, the canal became a Superfund site,
its waters polluted by lagoon seepages from Halby Chemical Company, which ceased operations in 1980. By 2002, the surrounding marshes had been filled in and capped, and the short canal has become a haunt for fishermen.
White Clay Creek State Park encompasses much of its namesake’s lower watershed, the stream having originated
in the Chatham area before running south through Landenberg to Newark, where it joins the Christina River. Today’s visitors walk along hiking trails that were once road beds for steam locomotives that carried people and goods between Wilmington and Chester County. continued on page 55
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