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| Letchworth State Park, near Wolf Creek, photograph by the author. |
Another
COVID-19, social isolation, phase-two, leading into phase-three weekend in
Western New York, so what do you do and where do you go to get out of the house
and out into nature? Well, how about going
to Letchworth State Park, the Grand Canyon of the East?
“Letchworth,
Grand Canyon of the East”, you ask, “what is that”?
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| Letchworth State Park Official Map & Guide, photograph by the author. |
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| Letchworth State Park, near Wolf Creek, photograph by the author. |
First
off, Letchworth State Park was listed by USA Today in 2015, as the “#1 State
Park in USA” and as the “Best New York State Attraction”, in 2017. It is only 57 miles (92 kilometers) south
east from Buffalo, New York and 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Rochester,
New York.
Letchworth
State Park covers 14,350 acres (5,807 hectares) in a strip along both sides of the
Genesee River gorge, a strip that is almost 1-1/2 miles wide by 17 miles long (2.4
by 27.4 km), and surrounds three water falls, the Upper, Middle and Lower
Falls, which cascade through the gorge as the river runs north to Lake
Ontario. The deepest part of the gorge,
which the river has cut through the hills, is 590 to 600 feet (180 to 183
meters) and Upper Falls is 70 feet tall (21 meters), the Middle Falls is 107
feet tall (33 meters) and the Lower Falls is also 70 feet tall (21 meters)
1.
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| Letchworth State Park Official Map & Guide, photograph by the author. |
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| Letchworth State Park, near the Gardeau Overlook, photograph by the author. |
Originally,
this part of the Genesee River valley was home to a portion of the Seneca
People, who were the Keepers of the Western Door, and are a part of the Haudenosaunee
or Iroquois League, and who had three villages in this part of the valley,
which they called "Sehgahunda", which means the "vale of three
falls"2.
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| Letchworth State Park, near the St. Helena Picnic Area, photograph by the author. |
Later,
this valley was the home of William Pryor Letchworth, who was born in
Brownsville, NY on May 26, 1823. He
became a successful businessman in Buffalo, New York, before he visited the
Genesee river valley and the three falls.
He became so entranced with the valley and that he eventually acquired
1,000 acres on which he built Glen Iris, his estate. In 1906 he gifted his property to the State of
New York, to protect it from developers and Letchworth State Park was born!3
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| Letchworth State Park, near the Gardeau Overlook, looking towards the area of the Big Sycamore Tree, photograph by the author. |
Today,
Letchworth State Park has beautiful views and overlooks, picnic grounds, forests,
a museum, the Glen Iris Hotel, the Humphrey Nature Center, campsites, almost 74
miles (almost 119 kilometers) of trails to hike along, white-water rafting and
kayaking and hot-air balloon rides!
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| Letchworth State Park, the Hogsback Overlook, photograph by the author. |
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| Letchworth State Park, a trail near the Hogsback Overlook, photograph by the author. |
So,
if you are looking for a place to go, in this world of COVID-19, to get out
into nature and still stay six feet away from the nearest human, go to
Letchworth State Park!
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| Mount Morris Dam, in Letchworth State Park, photograph by the author. |
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.
Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s
Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I announce
new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
From the Letchworth State Park Official Map & Guide, which is given out
when you visit.
2 The three villages were, “Deowesta”, which was the
most southern village and was located on the hill east of Portage Bridge, “Gadaho”
located near today’s Gardeau Flats, and “Deyuitga'oh” or "where the
valley widens”, which is the most northern of the villages and was located near
today’s Mount Morris entrance to the Park.
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| The Gardeau Tract, photograph by the author. |
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| Nancy Jemison’s Cabin, today located near the Glen Iris Hotel, photograph by the author. |
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| Plaque on the side of Nancy Jemison’s cabin, photograph by the author. |
Gadaho village was home to Dehgewanus,
or "Two Falling Voices", who is also known as Mary Jemison or the
“White Women of the Genesee”. She was of
Scotch-Irish descent, having been born during the voyage across the Atlantic,
to the New World, in 1743, and was captured in 1758,at the age of 15, by a
raiding party of French and Shawnee warriors during the French and Indian War,
or as it is called in Europe, The Seven Years War, which lasted from 1754 to
1763. She was sold by the Shawnee to a
party of Senecas, who were returning to their homes along the Ohio River. Later she would move with her first husband,
a Delaware, to his home in the Genesee Valley, where she would live most of the
rest of her life, only leaving the Genesee Valley for the Buffalo Creek
Reservation in 1831, before dying, in what is today, Buffalo, New York, in
1833.
During the late 18th
century the name of the northern most village changed from Deyuitga'oh
to “Squawkie Hill” or “Squakie Hill”, a name by which this village was known to
the American pioneers during the late 18th and early 19th
centuries. This is because, early in 1780
a group of the Fox people, who were also called the Meskwahki-haki or Squawki-how,
and who had come to what is today, Western New York, either as captives or
refugees, a half century earlier, settled in Deyuitga'oh. These people gave
their name, Squawki-how, to the old village of Deyuitga'oh.
The last Seneca, Buffalo
Tom, left the area that is today’s Letchworth State Park in 1828: the other
Senecas had left the area after the Treaty of Buffalo Creek, in 1826, and had
moved to the Tonawanda, Buffalo Creek, Cattaraugus, or Allegany Reservations.
From
Tom Breslin & Tom Cook’s; “Exploring Letchworth Park History”, http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/senecavill.html, and http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/jem.html.
3
From Tom Breslin & Tom Cook’s; “Exploring Letchworth Park History”, http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/glimpse1.html
Sources
Breslin,
Tom & Cook, Tom; “Exploring Letchworth Park History”, May 2000, http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/table.html,
accessed June 14, 2020
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