If a Northwest Territory state could gain access to the Great Lakes, these would be water transportation to and from the eastern markets. Constituents in those states thought that canals could provide the solution to the problem of isolation which was holding up the development of land-locked areas. Railroads were in infancy and not generally recognized as a viable means of transportation. Vehicular roads were wholly inadequate. Rivers and streams had been used by the predecessors of early pioneers, the Native Americans, as chief means of transportation.
Canals are quiet and very manageable.
So, it was only natural that the favored means of transportation were canals. As early as 1827, Indiana began to long for a system of canals. During that year the legislature appointed a three-member Board of Canal Commissioners to investigate the feasibility of a canal system for the state. Later it was determined that the canal would be dug to the mouth of the Tippecanoe River, just upstream on the Wabash River from Lafayette. Then, after the approval of the mammoth Internal Improvement Act in 1836, construction began on the Central Canal.