Lehigh Valley residents and visitors can travel back in time aboard the Josiah White II canal boat which plies the Lehigh Canal.

Instead of pulling a canal boat laden with coal, produce or other items, today's mules, Hank and George, pull a canal boat of tourists.

The 40-minute trip passes canal-side greenery to the Locktender's House and Guard Lock No. 8. An on-board tour guide tells the story of the Lehigh Canal and what life was like for those working and living along the canal.

Four canal boat rides are offered, noon, 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Wednesdays - Sundays, through Aug. 31, and Saturdays and Sundays in September at the National Canal Museum, 2750 Hugh Moore Park Road, Easton.

Group rates, chartering of the canal boat and dinner cruises are available.

The next dinner cruise, 5:30 - 8 p.m. July 26, is "Conversations on the Canal: Life on the Old Lehigh Navigation," with musician Rich Pawling and author Martha Capwell-Fox.

Ed Petrocelli, chef and owner of Food with Style, will provide picnic cuisine aboard the boat based on 19th-century recipes.

One of the evening's highlights is a trip inside Lock 47 at Abbott Street in Easton, where the Josiah White II will be lowered and raised in the way canal boats were nearly 200 years ago. Lock 47 is one of only a few working canal locks in Pennsylvania.

Also upcoming at the canal museum: "Get Your Tail On The Trail," a picnic, Aug. 2; "Canal Boat Labor Day," Sept. 1, and "Smithsonian Museum Day," Sept. 27.

The Emrick Center, a 14,000-square-foot, two-story brick building built in 2006, is the home of the National Canal Museum and the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor offices.

The refurbished National Canal Museum reopened last month. Museum summer hours are: 11 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays - Sundays.

On a recent sunny afternoon, Dennis Scholl of Hellertown, Director of Education and Museum Services for the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, discusses the merger of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor and National Canal Museum.

"Our two very like-minded non-profits came together," says Scholl.

The Heritage Corridor's mission is to preserve the heritage of Northampton, Bucks, Lehigh, Luzerne and Carbon counties.

"Together, with the National Canal Museum we have renovated the museum to provide enhanced exhibits and interpretation of the history relating to the Delaware and Lehigh canals," Scholl says. "Our new welcome center is the point of entry for the museum."

The welcome center, formerly the gift shop, features interactive technology and educational materials with a focus on the City of Easton. Hands-on exhibits encourage visitors to learn what life was like on the canal.

"We are standing where the Glendon Iron Company once stood," Scholl says. "Most people aren't aware that our area was the world's leading iron-producing region."

The iron-making process inspired the name of the Philadelphia Phillies Triple-A minor league baseball team, The Lehigh Valley IronPigs, based at Coca-Cola Park, Allentown.

"From the 1820's to the 1860's, iron was shipped from here to the Morris Canal in New Jersey and then on to New York City. Canals were America's highways back then. It was the fastest and cheapest mode of transport before the development of the railroads," says Scholl.

"Josiah White, the canal boat's namesake, was one of the owners of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. He was truly one of the great entrepreneurs of history."

White and Erskine Hazard, Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company co-founder, built the Lehigh Canal, which paralleled the Lehigh River, from White Haven to Easton. The Lehigh Canal was in use from 1827 until the 1940s.

Information: canals.org, 610-923-3548, ext. 221