The Whitewater Canal only carried boats from 1839 to 1865, but the canal was maintained to supply hydraulic power until 1936. The canal was the center of industrial districts in Metamora and Brookville, to the east. At one time there were water powered mills for processing cotton, grinding flour and making paper. Metamora is the location of Indiana's oldest and still operating water-powered grist mill. The state of Indiana provides canal boat rides pulled by horses, through the only existing wooden aqueduct in the United States (the Duck Creek Aqueduct), with a historical review of the canal history which fueled the southeastern Indiana economy until its displacement by the railroad. The canal is named after the nearby Whitewater river.