Memories of Letchworth State Park, New York   Matthew Hannum
  Feb 25, 2007 09:16 PST 

Greetings, fellow ENTS!

While looking through some of my old vacation photos, I happened across
photographs taken at Letchworth State Park in New York State. This is a
large and very impressive state park, well know for its magnificent
waterfalls that are created as the Genesee roars through deep gorges,
some as high as 600-feet in places. What Letchworth State Park is
probably less well known for is large trees. I don't know how many big
trees lurk in that park, and it is long way from home here in Maryland,
but as one good photo below will show, there are certainly some big
trees in that park.



My brother and I visited this park in late August of 2003 while on our
way on a road trip to Niagara Falls. Finding the park itself was a
challenge for those of used to cramped suburbs - New York state
("upstate New York" in this case) is BIG and very open. Okay, it's not
like the Great Plains, but still... there is a lot of room there, and so
we wandered around through tiny towns (some of which barely counted as
more than an intersection between 2 roads) and past countless farms
while driving down one small road after another until we reached
Letchworth Park. Upstate New York is beautiful, though the huge
snowstorms they get are probably tiresome in the winter. Still, that's 3
seasons a year that are very nice, land is probably quite cheap, and
there's still a good amount of forest that hasn't been paved over.

When we reached Letchworth, it had started to rain and thunder, but the
clouds soon parted once we entered the park and drove deeper into it.
This gave us a wonderful view of towering storm clouds passing away from
the park with the sun piercing through the mist and haze over the canyon
walls. After getting some ice cream at the "tourist trap" and
information center that is within the park along the main road, we
continued our drive and walks through the woods and along the gorge. The
place is really wonderful - a real beauty of a park - and there are
plenty of trees, lots of nice views of the deep gorge, and several large
and exciting waterfalls.



At the time, I wasn't focusing much on taking photos of big trees and we
didn't have the time to really hunt all over the place for large trees,
but I did manage to get one good photo of a huge oak tree that stood
bravely along the edge of the gorge. I don't know the exact type of oak,
though looking at the leaves it is of the red oak family, and I didn't
measure, but it was BIG! I figure that if a huge oak can still exist in
good health along the edge of the gorge and in plain sight of the main
roads and walking paths in Letchworth, there have to be other, bigger,
trees hidden in the forgotten areas of the park. Someday, some ENT in
the upstate New York region may want to pay this place a visit and see
what else lives in the park.

After a good time, we left Letchworth and drove on to Niagara Falls. As
much as I loved Niagara Falls, the primitive and less-crowded nature of
Letchworth - the big park full of canyons and waterfalls in the middle
of nowhere - calls to me. What a place!

Matthew Hannum
RE: Memories of Letchworth State Park, New York   Doug Bidlack
  Feb 26, 2007 13:42 PST 

Matthew,

your post reminded me of the time that I visited Letchworth State Park
with my wife back in the fall of 2002. The state park was also a
sidetrip for us too. We were actually there to visit the largest known
bur oak in New York. We were told that the point total for this tree
was 408. It is located just north of the town of Geneseo, northeast of
the intersection of Rt. 63 and Chandler Rd. in a farm field. This is on
private property and unfortunately I've lost the name and address of the
people that own this farm. Terrible, because they were so nice to us.
We ate breakfast with them at their house and then we were shown their
very large dairy operation (I think he said it was the largest or one of
the largest in western New York). Later, we stopped by the tree, took
some pictures and looked for acorns. Since we didn't find any acorns,
he said we could come by any time to collect acorns from this tree.
Very nice people. Very nice tree. The tree is growing in a field that
appears to be part of a floodplain and it was planted in alfalfa and
fertilized with cow manure. Think that tree is gettin' enough nutition?
I think we were told that there was some kind of law in this part of
New York that said something like you had to leave at least one large
tree for every five acres (or someting like that). I guess the trees
were good for shade to rest when plowing the fields.

Anyway, there is another big bur oak on public property just to the
southwest of Geneseo. It is called the 'hanging tree' and there is a
plaque by this tree that tells how it got it's name...I'm afraid I
forgot the details but it goes back to when this area was the frontier.
I think this roadside park is located on the left hand (south) side of
the 39 as you drive from Geneseo to Cuylerville. I think it is located
along a tributary of the Geneseo River rather than the Geneseo River
itself.

I think much of the info on these trees and how to find them came from
a local NY forester over the phone. Unfortunately I no longer have this
info either. However, I do remember him telling me that the largest
Swamp White Oak is also around Geneseo but they lost it! He really
wanted to go back out and find this tree and GPS it's location.
Apparently all this land was once owned by the Wadsworth's, but much of
it had been sold off, including the land that includes the champion Bur
Oak. However, I think the Swamp White Oak is still on Wadsworth land.

I guess the bottom line is that this area definately does have some
really nice trees.

Doug
Back to Matthew   dbhg-@comcast.net
  Feb 26, 2007 12:25 PST 
Matthew,

I heartily second everything you've said. Much of western and northern New York is unpopulated by the standards of most of the East. New York is a great state with such varied scenery that it is hard to know what to make of it.

Bob