Creek, South Branch, Cacpon Creek, Opequon Creek, and the Shenandoah River. Operating the canal Matildaville, at its height, boasted the company superintendent's house, a market, grist mill, sawmill, foundry, inn, ice house, workers' barracks, boarding houses, and a sprinkling of small homes. Boaters stopped here to wait their turn through the locks, to change cargo, or to enjoy an evening in town before continuing their journey. Thousands of boats locked through at Great Falls, carrying flour, whiskey, tobacco, and iron downstream; carrying cloth, hardware, firearms, and other manufactured products upstream. Vessels varied from crudely constructed rafts to the long narrow "sharper," a keelboat that could carry up to 20 tons of cargo. The trip took 3 to 5 days down to Georgetown and 10 to 12 days poling against the current back to Cumberland. Many boat owners simply sold their boats for scrap and walked back instead. Here is a sample of what was carried down in 1811: Also carried in 1811 were firearms, pig iron, timber, rye, flax seed, hemp, butter oats, cloverseed, and staves. Gondolas were one-use log rafts, about 60 by 10 feet, and held many tons of cargo. Sharpers were flatbottomed boats 60 feet by 7 feet. These also were poled down the river, but were not used as much, since they could only get through the shallows of the Potomac 45 days per year during spring flooding. Wrecks and loss of cargo were probably frequent, since it is written that the people of Cooney (a hamlet near Little Falls) was well supplied with coal, flour, meat (etc.) from wrecks. Although the charter required year-round operation, the canal operated seasonally, from February until May. Summer droughts shut down operation until rains in the autumn. Built to support the canal industry, Matildaville's fate was tied to that of the Patowmack Company. Today, only a few fragile remains of Matildaville are visible. The greatest obstacle to the Patowmack project proved to be financial. High construction costs, particularly at the Great Falls section, and insufficient revenues bankrupted the company. Extremes of high and low water restricted use of the canal to only a month or two each year. The tolls collected could not even pay interest on the company debt. They planned to make more improvements on other major branches of the Potomac but doing so did nothing to increase the company's revenues. They issued more stock, borrowed from