Imagine a river cutting through ancient stone over the course of untold centuries, chiseling a chasm hundreds of feet deep. The river now flows strong, with rapids churning the base of the canyon. This is not a tale about the Grand Canyon, home to a national park in Arizona, but the origin of Letchworth State Park’s gorge. This rift spans almost 17 miles of the river and has become a picturesque paradise.
The park officially opened around 1907, but its history stretches back to the Seneca People who called the valley “Sehgahunda” or the Vale of Three Falls. They were exiled from their lands during the Revolutionary War and were mostly unowned until the late 1850s. A man named William Pryor Letchworth bought the land in 1859 after seeing it from a railroad the previous year and learning how a planned hydroelectric dam there would severely impact the fall’s water flow. He then hired William Webster, a renowned landscape architect to design a sprawling layout of trails and more and then began construction on his future home, the magnificent Glen Iris Estate. He then lived there until 1906, when he sold the estate and 1000 acres to the state of New York which was the start of Letchworth State Park.
The Estate was built on the edge of Middle Falls, the largest of the three primary waterfalls: Upper Falls, Middle Falls, and Lower Falls. Middle Falls is the largest waterfall, and alongside it rests the Glen Iris. Upper Falls is also notable because spanning over it is the Portage Bridge, a railroad bridge that is actively used by the Norfolk Southern Railway, which was recently rebuilt in 2019. Other notable locations include the Mount Morris Dam, the largest device for flood control east of the Mississippi River, the grave of the pioneer Mary Jemison, and the Humphrey Nature Center.
The hiking trails that spiderweb the park are all enjoyable, especially the trail that follows the river. One of the most popular activities is the white water rafting and kayaking that follows a multi-mile stretch of the river and includes intense rapids and an alcove along the banks. Alongside that, fishing and hunting sports are allowed at certain parts of the year, and certain activities like geocaching are year-round. To further sweeten the deal, the park even offers cabins to rent, and facilities such as showers and bathrooms are well distributed.
