Project funding and time constraints limited work that year to an initial investigation. It is possible that the boat was built as early as 1840 and was simply left to sink in the canal when boat traffic stopped, but it may have been filled with earth and sunk purposely to close off the branch of the canal. Promoted by George Washington as a commercial link to the Ohio Valley, the canal opened in 1789. First made for freight boats called bateaux, it was upgraded between 1840 and 1850 to accommodate larger boats towed by mules and horses. It closed in 1880 after a railroad was built alongside.
Plans call for the boat remains to be reburied in place.
When the engineering firm installing a sewage pumping station there goes to work, it will dig through them. They plan to document the methods used to construct the boat and scan the woodwork for initials or other graffiti carved into it.