[4] The 12.5 miles (20.1 km) Lower Division of the Bald Eagle & Spring Creek was opened from Flemington to Howard, site of an iron furnace, in the fall of 1837.

The final segment along Spring Creek into Bellefonte, completing the 12.5 miles (20.1 km) Upper Division, was opened on September 1, 1848.

[5] The canal quickly became a major shipper of bituminous coal and pig iron to downstream consumers,[4] as well as a carrier of local agricultural traffic.

These waterways were initially given to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad, to help fund its completion, which in turn sold them to be organized as the West Branch and Susquehanna Canal.

[1] Stonework from one of the locks is still visible at the former site of the McCoy and Linn ironworks, in the water gap of Spring Creek between Bellefonte and Milesburg.

[6] The remains of Locks #4 and #5 of this canal were included in the National Register of Historic Places nomination for Harmony Forge Mansion, and listed in 1979.