Letchworth State Park

[JSchihl]

Thanks Matt - I will post here after the trip...

[Matt]

Civilian Conservation Corps transformed Letchworth 75 years ago
75 years ago, the work done through FDR’s New Deal work program did a great deal to make state park breathtaking place it is today

Letchworth State Park’s stunning scenery — its waterfalls, chasms and forests — has drawn millions of visitors for more than a century.

Few, however, would have had the chance to fully enjoy and explore that natural beauty without the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The post-Depression Era federal work program, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, transformed what had been mostly wilderness into an accessible park — building Letchworth’s main road, its first cabins and many of its trails, picnic areas and drainage culverts.

“This wasn’t ‘make work,’ ” said Tom Cook, a park historian and one of the authors of the newly published book “Images of America: Letchworth State Park.”

“It was about what can we do that can really make a difference now and into the future,” he said.

That difference refers not just to the sturdy stone tables and shelters still in use today.

It also refers to the difference it made to the more than 3,000 people — mostly men — who worked at the park during the CCC years, from 1933 through 1941.

Men like John Maniscalco.

Maniscalco was 17 — “You had to be 18, but they snuck me in with my brother,” he said — and one of 11 children of a gardener/landscaper from Geneseo when he joined the CCC in 1937. He headed for one of four camps established at Letchworth.

Now 87 and still living on the street where he grew up, Maniscalco is one of a dwindling number of CCC alumni. He keenly recalls his years in the CCC as some of the best of his life, even if the work was often physically demanding.

“It was no office job,” he said, recalling his initial duties pulling stumps during the construction of trails for walking and skiing that are still in use today.

But it was work, which was in short supply as the nation recovered from the Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929.

The CCC was one of the first actions taken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after the election of 1932. He had pushed a conservation-based work relief program during his campaign.

“In creating this Civilian Conservation Corps, we are killing two birds with one stone,” Roosevelt told the nation. “We are clearly enhancing the value of our natural resources, and second, we are relieving an appreciable amount of actual distress.”

But, he noted in the same radio address, “This is a big task because it means feeding, clothing and caring for nearly twice as many men as we have in the regular Army itself.”

Nearly 3 million men served in the CCC, in camps in all 48 states, the then-territories of Hawaii and Alaska, and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Other Western New York locations where CCC work was performed include Niagara Falls, Fort Niagara, Salamanca, Panama, Birdsall, Almond and Attica.

The Depression had essentially stopped the development of Letchworth, which was in transition from the private estate of William Pryor Letchworth of Buffalo to a state park, according Brian Scriven, the park’s historic site manager. The CCC jump-started that process.

“Without them, a lot of the modern stuff that draws the public in wouldn’t have happened,” he said. “Automobiles were coming into favor at that time, and everything coincided to make the expansion of the park possible.”

Run mostly by reserve Army officers and roughly organized around a military regime, CCC camps featured barracks and buglers blaring reveille wake-up calls at 6 a. m.

Maniscalco, who later worked at CCC camps near Bath and Alexander, was paid $30 a month, but he saw only $8 of that. The rest was sent home to his family.

In addition to landscaping work, he hauled stones that were used for tables at the park, planed logs to use on bridges and delivered coal to the buildings in the winter and water to the workers during the summer.

“You’d get up and go to breakfast,” he said. “You get your tools from the shed. You get in the truck and go to where you were working. If it was cold, they would give you a little can of gasoline and set a little bonfire to warm up.”

It wasn’t all hard work. There were classes through which many men earned their high school diplomas. There were basketball and baseball teams. There were weekend trips into town, where 3.2 percent alcohol beer flowed.

“The Lamont Dance Hall in Wyoming County . . .,” historian Cook said. “That stood out and was kind of a wild place.”

Maniscalco couldn’t recall any real serious confrontations between campers.

“We had a good bunch of people, sociable guys,” he said. “We got along [well].”

Many, including Maniscalco, went straight from the CCC to World War II battlefields, and the teamwork and military discipline they had learned proved invaluable.

The job skills they acquired also paid off during and after the war, according to Scriven. Many went on to earn their livings as masons, truck drivers, landscapers and printers.

“Most of the [alumni] have great memories of the camp,” he said. “They base a lot of their success in later life on what they learned in the camp.”

For the past 25 years, they’ve conducted an annual reunion. This year’s gathering is scheduled Aug. 31.

After averaging a dozen or so participants in recent years, only three attended last year, although Scriven said the low turnout might have had to do with confusion following the death of one of the participants’ chief organizers.

“I would assume we’re not going to get a big turnout,” Scriven said. “It has been steadily going down. We’re hoping we’ll still get a dozen of them.”

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/401493.html

[cbobcat49]

Every time I go there I'm always impressed with those stone tables in all of the picnic areas. I presume those were made by the CCC.

[Matt]

We definitely need to resurrect the CCC this day and age.

[cbobcat49]

I just came upon this site...
http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/

Very interesting.

[JSchihl]

Going to Letchworth State Park was well worth the trip. We spent a day there taking about 500 pictures and the Lord blessed us by keeping the rain away from us. Shooting conditions were not ideal but the sights were beautiful. If interested you can view some of our pictures from our New York trip here http://picasaweb.google.com/WeekendPhotography.com/NewYork?authkey=SxfUsoz5b5o. We also visited Chimney Bluffs State Park along with a few lighthouses and Niagara Falls...

If it were not for this website we never would have taken this trip, thanks...

[Matt]

Nice pics. I'm glad you had a nice time. I see you also checked out 30 Mile Point Lighthouse. I was there last weekend.

[cbobcat49]

I got a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas so today I bought the Images of America Letchworth State Park book. I've only thumbed through it so far but it's really interesting. Lots of great historical photographs.

[Matt]

yeah- it's a great book. I especially like learning about how they let people go down in t he cave below middle falls.
I wish those books had more of a summery or even a timeline rather than just describing what they have postcards for.

[cbobcat49]

Yeah, not much textual content. It's virtually all photographs. It's amazing how many of those books there are though. It seems like there's one for every little town and community in America. There's got to be thousands of them.
http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/sr2/locator.php

[Matt]

Here's some more info on that book.
http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/artic ... 018405.txt



Did anyone know about number 6 ?
http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/artic ... 009190.txt

2008 IN REVIEW: Top local entertainment stories

6.) LETCHWORTH'S STAR TURN: Letchworth State Park got a moment in the spotlight when the ABC soap, One Life to Live, visited in July. Several famous storylines were recreated for the show's 40th anniversary, including one in which vixen Tina Lord rode a crate to her apparent death over Iguaza Falls.

[hobkyl]

Visited Letchworth yesterday, the way the mist freezes on the surrounding landscape is awesome. I've visited the Grand Canyon of the east many of times, however this was the first trip there in the winter.

[Matt]

great photos, especially the last one!

[backpacker]

I second that,
It looks like you were on the east side?
Are the park gates open durning the winter?

[hobkyl]

I believe I was on the east side. The park is open at the Mt Morris entrance. It is closed about 5miles up for snowmobile use. You can leave the park here, and travel south to the Castile entrance (also the year-round entrance) on Rt. 39. Here you access Inspiration Point with a view of the Lower Falls, and you can bearly make out the Middle Falls through the frozen mist. The road to the Middle Falls was closed for some reason, as well as the walkway. You can also get right up next to the High Falls which is just awesome. I will try to get some pics of that on later this evening when I get home.

[hobkyl]

Here's some more pictures.

[Matt]

http://www.13wham.com/content/news/this ... Ml75w.cspx

[cbobcat49]

I bought this book a few months ago. I highly recommend it.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=218&p=25607&hilit=images+of+america#p25607

[Matt]

Letchworth park inspires movie crew

LETCHWORTH STATE PARK -- It wasn't publicized, but film crews spent Friday morning shooting a sequence for an upcoming comedy.

The crews set up at Letchworth Inspiration Point for a base jumping scene to be featured in Get Him to the Greek.

The Universal Pictures film stars Jonah Hill as a record company intern asked to accompany an out-of-control British rock star Aldous Snow to a concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.

The film is a spin-off to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, with co-star Russell Brand revising his role as Snow. It's set for release next year, according to the Internet Movie Database.

The film's also slated to include appearances by dance singer Pink, rap mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, and heavy metal rockers Lars Ulrich and Dee Snyder, the Web site said.

Brand also hosted last year's MTV Video Music Awards.

Letchworth's by no means a stranger to film crews. The park was featured in last year's One Life to Live 40th anniversary episodes, and the 1993 return of lovers Luke and Laura to the TV soap opera General Hospital.

The park has also been used in several commercials.

http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/artic ... 132093.txt

[hobkyl]

Base jump from InspirationPoint? I'm guessing that it was just used a back drop, that can't be tall enough to actually do, can it?