The Erie Canal Lockkeeper Logged a Boat That Never Reached His Lock

In 1907, Erie Canal lockkeeper Elias Ward finds an official entry saying the freight boat Miriam Voss passed through Lock 24 at 2:15 a.m.—although he never opened the gates and the boat is still moored miles upstream. Elias begins with the lock book, water gauge, gate chains, and telegraph records. The deeper he follows the discrepancy, the more the empty canal suggests that someone needed an impossible passage to appear routine. This is an original fictional story from DEADFALL DISPATCH, told with historically plausible period detail. It is not presented as a real case. The gates stayed closed. The record did not.