Play Boat

Relive the Canal Days on our play boat with friends. Send passengers and cargo to distant lands, getting people home for the holidays, delivering the high-quality Delphi limestone products from the Hubbard and Harley Warehouse, and toughing out rough weather during your very own imaginary adventure!

Kids will spend hours and hours playing on this “on land” Play Boat. Built by the Canal volunteers, it was constructed to represent a full size 1850s canal boat and proves to be a mystical experience for children as they enjoy climbing, playing hide and seek, trying their strength in propelling the overhead bars, or acting as though they are steering the stationary craft with its swiveling “tiller” from the deck.

In addition to the play boat, we also have a model boat riding on an underground rail, begging passersby and especially kids to “pull me” with the extended rope. It is a favorite interactive among our many guests. Test your strength—it may take 6-8 kids like a tug-of-war to move the weighted boat! This is a simulation of how boats were towed through the Canal in the old days—only they were pulled by animal power instead of kid power!