One of the more scenic sections of the Eighth Avenue Canal looked like this on Oct. 28, 2025.
A few days ago residents along Albany’s Eighth Street Canal were wondering why the decorative waterway was nearly dry. By Friday the usual water flow, scant as it is, appeared to be back to normal.
The flow had almost stopped when a bike ride took me to Eighth Avenue on Tuesday, Oct. 28. A property owner had told me about the canal’s muddy state.
The shallow stream along Eighth Avenue is fed from the Albany-Santiam Canal on Vine Street. It is one of the remnants of the Albany’s ingenious network of open ditches that powered industries along the Willamette riverfront before and after 1900.
On Thursday, Kristin Preston, the city’s acting director of public works operations, explained the situation:
“City crews are doing some maintenance on the Eighth Avenue canal to address debris and the channel backing up,” she wrote in an email. “So they temporarily diverted the flow for this work.”
The canals — Santiam, Eighth and what’s left of Thurston — are important reminders of Albany’s early days. That’s one reason they should be maintained. (hh)
West of Washington Street, the canal was reduced to a trickle through the muddy bottom on Oct. 28.
With the flow reduced, here there was barely enough standing water for the ducks.
I love the pictures, Hasso. Thank you.
Love this Albany quirk. As a kid in the 60s, I always considered people living along the canal as special and wealthy
I always wondered why the shallow canal flowed through town. Now I know! Thank you, HH.
I hope the city always keeps these canals flowing. Lovely fall photos!