First Welland Canal was let into the Feeder and Welland Canals in November 1829. As with other locations in the peninsula, shantytowns sprung up along the Feeder Canal. These later developed into places like Dunnville, Wainfleet and Welland, among others. The Welland Canal was officially opened on November 30, 1829, exactly five years after the first turning of the sod. Two schooners, "Annie and Jane" from York, Upper Canada and "R.H. Broughton" from Youngstown, New York, left Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario and arrived in Buffalo on the eastern end of Lake Erie two days later. "Annie and Jane" returned to Lake Ontario
First Welland Canal Wainfleet, and had made significant progress before Deep Cut work was resumed the following April. However, the rains continued. On November 9, 1828, just two weeks' worth of work before completion of the Deep Cut, the banks of the cut near Port Robinson collapsed into the excavated channel, killing an unknown number of workers below. More landslides followed, and it soon became evident that making a cut deep enough as to use the Welland River as the source of canal water would not be possible. An alternate, sufficiently high source of water was necessary. Since the construction of a channel