Seneca Chief Passengers explore the cabin of the historic replica. (Lily McDonald/Lily McDonald)

A full-scale replica of the Erie Canal boat Seneca Chief will make several stops in Central New York this month as part of its Return to Buffalo Tour, giving community members opportunities to view the historic vessel and learn about the canal’s 200-year legacy.

The Seneca Chief, built by Buffalo Maritime Center volunteers over several years, replicates the boat that led the inaugural flotilla celebrating the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The vessel is retracing that historic route in reverse during a June 6-27 tour across New York State.

After commemorating the canal’s bicentennial with a voyage to New York City last year, the boat will return home to Buffalo where it will serve as a floating classroom and ambassador for canal history.

Doug Hartley, a volunteer boatbuilder who helped construct the Seneca Chief, described this as a “community project.”

“We had over 200 volunteers — engineers, teachers, bus drivers, housewives — just people who wanted to be part of history,” Hartley told syracuse.com last year. He described the process as both painstaking and rewarding.

Built using 19th-century techniques, the boat’s cherrywood panels and handcrafted joinery give it a timeless quality. The building team relied on sketches, written descriptions and paintings to recreate the vessel as faithfully as possible, since no photos of the original Seneca Chief exist.

Seneca Chief The “Seneca Chief” docked at Baldwinsville’s Paper Mill Island. (Lily McDonald/Lily McDonald)

On Monday, June 15, the Seneca Chief will travel from Brewerton to Onondaga Lake and stop at the Syracuse Boat Tours dock on the Seneca River in Baldwinsville at approximately noon. A community welcome ceremony is planned for the Village of Baldwinsville.

The boat will continue to the Inner Harbor for a 3 p.m. welcome ceremony in Syracuse.

The vessel will be open for public tours from 3:30-7 p.m. on June 15 and from 2-5 p.m. on June 16. An exclusive behind-the-scenes tour with the Erie Canal Museum and Buffalo Maritime Center is scheduled for 5:30-7 p.m. on June 16. Tickets for that event are available at eriecanalmuseum.org/events.

Syracuse Boat Tours will escort the Seneca Chief from Onondaga Lake on June 17 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. as a special commemorative cruise.

Limited tickets are available for members of the public who wish to accompany the historic vessel on its journey to Paper Mill Island in Baldwinsville. Tickets can be purchased at syracuseboattours.com.

Seneca Chief The replica kitchen below deck on the “Seneca Chief.” (Lily McDonald/Lily McDonald)