Buffalo River (New York)
Encyclopedia
- For other rivers with this name, see Buffalo RiverBuffalo RiverBuffalo River can refer to:* Buffalo National River , a tributary of the White River in the United States* Buffalo River , a tributary of the Henrys Fork River in the United States...
.
The Buffalo River is a river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
that empties into the eastern end of Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
, one of the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
, by the City of Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
in the United States of America. This stream is called the Buffalo River only in the vicinity of the city and is known as Buffalo Creek as it flows through other parts of Western New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. This change in name occurs near the western border of the Town of West Seneca
West Seneca, New York
West Seneca is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 44,711 at the 2010 census. West Seneca is a centrally-located interior town of the county, and a suburb of Buffalo...
, where Buffalo Creek receives the contents of Cayuga Creek
Cayuga Creek
Cayuga Creek is a small stream in western New York, USA. The creek enters Buffalo Creek in the northwest corner of the Town of West Seneca just upstream from the New York State Thruway crossing...
. The river is further increased by the confluence with Cazenovia Creek
Cazenovia Creek
Cazenovia Creek is a small stream in Western New York, United States. The creek is named after Theophilus Cazenove, an agent of the Holland Land Company. Cazenovia Creek is a tributary of the Buffalo River, which empties into Lake Erie...
in Buffalo.
Buffalo River
The Buffalo River flows westward from the point of confluence, soon passing through a heavily industrialized part of the city. The river enters the lake between the United States Coast GuardUnited States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
station and the Erie Basin Marina. The grounds of the Coast Guard station include the 1832 Buffalo Lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
. The Buffalo River was the western terminus of the famed Erie Canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
. Entry to the River from the Canal was gained via the mouth of a small tributary, Little Buffalo Creek, which was excavated and stabilized to form the Commercial Slip
Commercial Slip
Buffalo, New York's Commercial Slip is a recently re-excavated and restored portion of the western terminus of the Erie Canal.The Slip was a remnant of Little Buffalo Creek, which flowed into the Buffalo River just before the larger stream entered Lake Erie...
leading from the Erie Canal. The Buffalo River formed the southwest boundary of the rough pentagon that enclosed the "Five Points" or "Canal Street
Canal Street (Buffalo)
Canal Street was the name of a thoroughfare as well as a district in Buffalo in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Originally called Rock Street, Canal Street ran parallel to and just to the west of the famed Erie Canal at its western terminus in Buffalo. The area had been the site of...
" district, bounded on the northeast by the Erie Canal. When the Canal was completed in 1825, New York Gorvernor Dewitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton was an early American politician and naturalist who served as United States Senator and the sixth Governor of New York. In this last capacity he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal...
's vessel was towed from the Canal through the Commercial Slip and Buffalo River to Lake Erie, where he poured Atlantic Ocean water into the Lake, and collected Lake water to place in the ocean after his return trip to New York City.
The entire river is now regarded as an urban canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
trail, and the portion nearest the lake is part of the Port of Buffalo, able to take on larger vessels. This part was once extended to expand the port by means of the City Ship Canal and its extension, the Lehigh Valley Canal. The canals paralleled the river briefly and increased the dockage available for shipping. The canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
s have now been mostly filled in. One exception is a portion which has been used for the Tifft Farm Nature Preserve in the southwest corner of the city. Parts of the canal are now ponds within the preserve.
Buffalo Creek
Buffalo Creek is a meandering stream before it becomes the Buffalo River. It originates in the south part of Erie CountyErie County, New York
Erie County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo. The county's name comes from Lake Erie, which in turn comes from the Erie tribe of American Indians who lived south and east of the lake before 1654.Erie...
and the western part of Wyoming County
Wyoming County, New York
Wyoming County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. At the 2010 census, the population was 42,155. The county seat is Warsaw. The name is from a modified Delaware Indian word meaning "broad bottom lands"...
. The Erie County sources are in the Town of Holland before flowing northward through the other towns in the county. In Wyoming County, the sources are in the Towns of Arcade
Arcade, New York
Arcade, New York is the name of two locations in Wyoming County, New York.*Arcade , New York, the Village of Arcade*Arcade , New York, the Town of Arcade...
, Java
Java, New York
Java is a town in Wyoming County, New York, United States. The population was 2,222 at the 2000 census. In the 2007 estimate, this had declined to 2,153.Contrary to practice elsewhere, the name is pronounced "Jay-vuh"....
, and Sheldon
Sheldon, New York
Sheldon is a town in Wyoming County, New York, United States. The population was 2,561 at the 2000 census.The Town of Sheldon is on the west border of Wyoming County. The town is southeast of Buffalo, New York.- History :...
, before flowing into Erie County.
Origin of the name
It is a well known fact that the City of Buffalo received its name from the creek of the same name, however, there are several unproven theories as to the origin of the name of the creek. Early FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
explorers reported the abundance of buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
on the south shore of Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
, but their presence on the banks of Buffalo Creek is still a matter of debate, so the origin of the name of the creek is still uncertain. Neither the Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
name ("Place of the Basswoods") or the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
name ("River of Horses") survived so the current name likely dates to the British occupation which began with the capture of Fort Niagara in 1759. The British engineer John Montresor
John Montresor
Captain John Montresor was a British military engineer in North America.-Early life:Born in Gibraltar 22 April 1736 to British military engineer James Gabriel Montresor and his first wife, Mary Haswell, John Montresor spent his early life there...
mentions the name Buffalo Creek four times in his journal of 1764, indicating that the name was in common use at that time. Another argument is that the creek is named after a Native American who once lived on the bank of the river, but there is no evidence to support this theory. The claim that the name is an Anglicized form of the name Beau Fleuve (beautiful river), which was supposedly an exclamation uttered by Louis Hennepin
Louis Hennepin
Father Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. baptized Antoine, was a Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollect order and an explorer of the interior of North America....
when he first saw the stream, is the least likely explanation.
History
Buffalo Creek is believed to have been held by the Neutral NationNeutral Nation
The Neutrals, also known as the Attawandaron, were an Iroquoian nation of North American native people who lived near the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.-Territory:...
prior to the 1650s, when the Seneca nation
Seneca nation
The Seneca are a group of indigenous people native to North America. They were the nation located farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League in New York before the American Revolution. While exact population figures are unknown, approximately 15,000 to 25,000 Seneca live in...
and its allies conquered the territory during the Beaver Wars
Beaver Wars
The Beaver Wars, also sometimes called the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars, commonly refers to a series of conflicts fought in the mid-17th century in eastern North America...
. An Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
village was established on Buffalo Creek by the British in the spring of 1780. These were Senecas and others who had fled to Fort Niagara
Fort Niagara
Fort Niagara is a fortification originally built to protect the interests of New France in North America. It is located near Youngstown, New York, on the eastern bank of the Niagara River at its mouth, on Lake Ontario.-Origin:...
after the Sullivan Expedition
Sullivan Expedition
The Sullivan Expedition, also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, was an American campaign led by Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton against Loyalists and the four nations of the Iroquois who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War.The...
of 1779. On July 8, 1788, Oliver Phelps
Oliver Phelps
Oliver Phelps was born in Poquonock, Connecticut and moved to Suffield, Connecticut, where he apprenticed to a local merchant. He shortly thereafter became a tavern keeper in Granville, Massachusetts. During the Revolution he was Deputy Commissary of the Continental Army and served until the end...
and Nathaniel Gorham
Nathaniel Gorham
Nathaniel Gorham was the fourteenth President of the United States in Congress assembled, under the Articles of Confederation...
met with Indians of the Five Indian Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (including Mohawks, Oneidas, Onandagas, Cayugas, and Senecas) at Buffalo Creek to execute a deed or treaty for rights to their lands in New York State east of the Genesee River
Genesee River
The Genesee River is a North American river flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides hydroelectric power for downtown Rochester....
(see Phelps and Gorham Purchase
Phelps and Gorham Purchase
The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the purchase in 1788 of the pre-emptive right to some 6,000,000 acres of land in western New York State for $1,000,000 . This was all land in western New York west of Seneca Lake between Lake Ontario and the Pennsylvania border...
). In 1838, the Treaty of Buffalo Creek
Treaty of Buffalo Creek
-1788:The Treaty of Buffalo Creek should not be confused with the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of lands east of the Genesee River in New York, which occurred at Buffalo Creek on July 8, 1788...
dealt with the disposition of the remaining land held by the Iroquois Confederation.
Pollution
The Buffalo River is listed as a Great Lakes Areas of ConcernGreat Lakes Areas of Concern
Great Lakes Areas of Concern are designated geographic areas within the Great Lakes Basin that show severe environmental degradation. There are a total of 43 areas of concern within the Great Lakes, 26 being in the U.S., 17 in Canada, with five shared by the two countries.The Great Lakes, the...
in The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada.