The Parklands of Erie
County: 2
(This column was first published in
the June 9, 2003 issue of The Buffalo News.)
This is the second of my reports on the parklands of
Erie County.
Akron
Falls County Park
It is little wonder that the Erie, Huron,
Neutral-Wenro and later Seneca Indians chose this lovely glen for their
campgrounds. Although the park is scarcely a quarter-mile from the bustling
Village of Akron, on my three recent visits it could best be described as
serene and peaceful. With schools still in session I had even the athletic
fields and picnic grounds largely to myself.
This park is already familiar to me. I have attended
faculty picnics here; while I was still hiking, I occasionally followed the
paths set out by the Foothills Trail Club along this section of Murder Creek; I
used my GPS device to locate one of the hidden caches here; and I've recorded
the park's breeding birds as part of the state atlas project. The park lies
within one of my census blocks.
Yet on each visit I find new areas and am even more
impressed. On my most recent tour I followed the nature trails through the
forested lands separated from the rest of the park by the athletic fields.
There in the park's southernmost section I found trilliums still in bloom and
red-eyed vireos calling from the hardwoods.
Like so many of our attractive natural settings, this
park was largely constructed during the Depression era by public works
projects. I'm old enough to recall how those projects were decried by opponents
as "make-work give-aways." So much for thinking ahead.
Murder Creek is, of course, the centerpiece of the park.
It flows over the falls for which the park is named and forms midway a lovely
pond, providing one of those rare outdoor skating rinks in winter. (I suspect
that too many hockey-playing youngsters today think that ice rinks are only
indoor features.)
That creek's name derives from a possibly apocryphal
tale about a young Indian girl named Ah-weh-hah or
Wild Rose who was coveted by a local settler. His advances spurned, the
settler kidnapped the maiden, in the process killing her father, a tribal
chief. Escaping from the settler, Wild Rose obtained temporary protection from
a sawmill operator at the falls. A stalwart brave who had been courting her
arrived to return her to her tribe just when the settler reappeared to attack
him. In the ensuing battle both men were killed leaving the young woman
devastated.
That legend may not meet the standards of Washington
Irving, but it must surely serve well over an evening campfire.
The northern section of the park - the lower
creekside areas and the lands above the glen - is largely given over to picnic
areas, but there is a rich mixture of beautiful trees, enough to make this an
arboretum: the many pines and spruces joined by beeches, sycamores and other
hardwoods.
Any visit to this park is well rewarded.
Beeman
Creek Park
This is one of the five undeveloped county parks.
Northwest of the intersection of Lapp and Salt Roads in Clarence, it is a
largely forested area with two creeks running through it. It is posted and as
yet has no trails.
I walked down Parker Road between the park and a
privately owned woodlot, for much of the way wading through inches deep water.
It was well worth it: veeries and wood thrushes sang nearby and a rare breeder,
a northern water-thrush, called from a swampy thicket.
Although many trees are second-growth, some older
oaks and maples attained trunk thicknesses of several feet.
Protecting this land represents another good
investment, this one for future generations to
enjoy.-- Gerry Rising
Note: There are two excellent websites about Erie County parklands. One is the county site and the other is Buffalo's Olmsted Parks site.