Visit Town of Portage Historic Sites with Tom Cook
Long-ago Oakland
Visit Town of Portage Historic Sites with annual meeting presenter Tom Cook as our guide to the past.
This walk, scheduled to encourage you to #OptOutside on Black Friday, is an REI Initiative. Dress according to the weather and bring water.
Col. Williams Estate, once on the GV Canal
Deep Cut Rail Road Station
Meet at 9:30 am at the Nunda Historical Society, 24 Portage St. (Rt. 436), Nunda. Parking is limited at some historic sites so we will be car-pooling.
• Our first stop will be Oakland (originally Messenger’s Hollow) to look for traces of the past.
• Next will be Willett’s Corners, a well-known tavern & stagecoach stop,
Middle Falls – pre Letchworth Park
and Deep Cut, site of an Irish labor camp.
• We then go to the nearby Col. Williams Estate and burial grounds.
• Next is the Parade Grounds in the east side of Letchworth Park, site of Civil War Training Camp and a major Civilian Conservation Corp project.
• We then visit the “Old Carrying Road” and hear stories from early days of Portage Falls (along LSP trail 7, the Genesee Valley Greenway).
• If Trail 7 is not readily accessible we will visit Portage Station at the east end of the new bridge.
• We plan to return to the Nunda Historical Society by 11:30 am.