Zoar, New York

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Zoar Valley Road Zoar Valley Road.jpg
Zoar Valley Road

Zoar is a hamlet in the town of Collins in Erie County, New York, United States. [1] Though it is in Collins, mail is postmarked to the Gowanda ZIP code of 14070. It is located on the northern side of Zoar Valley.

Collins, New York Town in New York, United States

Collins is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The town is on the south border of the county and is considered to be one of the "Southtowns" of Erie County. The population at the 2010 census was 6,601.

Erie County, New York county in New York, United States

Erie County is a highly populated county 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. It was named by European colonists for the regional Iroquoian language-speaking Erie tribe of Native Americans, who lived south and east of the lake before 1654.

New York (state) State of the United States of America

New York is a state in the Northeastern United States. New York was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. With an estimated 19.54 million residents in 2018, it is the fourth most populous state. To distinguish the state from the city in the state with the same name, it is sometimes called New York State.

Contents

History

The area was first inhabited during the Stone Age by Algonquians, a nomadic people. An Algonkian mound from the first or second Stone Age is located on a farm in the area of Rosenburg along Zoar in Gowanda. The mound is believed to be about 3,500 years old, with artifacts including spearheads, copper heads, and stone implements of a crude nature having been excavated from the site. [2]

A little-known fact about the area, not written in any history books and known only to some locals, is that it was a station in the Underground Railroad. A functional underground tunnel of the Underground Railroad, still in existence today, connects a former train drop-off area of the New York and Lake Erie Railroads near the foot of Gowanda-Zoar Road to an outlet on the property formerly owned by William and Evelyn (Merrill) Glazier, a local surgeon and nurse. Located on Gowanda-Zoar Road, the home was used as a safe house for former slaves escaping to free states and Canada from Southern states around the 1860s and the time of the American Civil War. A homemade railroad sign is posted on the property at the location of the tunnel's outlet.[ citation needed ]

Underground Railroad network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early-to-mid 19th century

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by African-American slaves to escape into free states, Canada and Nova Scotia with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who aided the fugitives. Various other routes led to Mexico or overseas. An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession, existed from the late 17th century until Florida became a United States territory in 1821. However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad was formed in the late 1700s, and it ran north to the free states and Canada, and reached its height between 1850 and 1860. One estimate suggests that by 1850, 100,000 slaves had escaped via the "Railroad".

New York and Lake Erie Railroad

The New York & Lake Erie is a class III railroad operating in Western New York. The NYLE was formed in 1978 to operate a portion of former Erie trackage that Conrail no longer wanted. Today, the railroad operates between Gowanda to Conewango Valley, New York. The main branch of the trackage once connected with the now-WNYP owned (NS-leased) Southern Tier Line in Waterboro. However, that portion of the line and the junction at Waterboro were decommission several years ago. The NYLE also operated a branch between Dayton and Salamanca, also connecting with the Southern Tier Line there, until 1990; the portion south of Cattaraugus was torn out and eventually replaced with the Pat McGee Trail in the early 2000s, while the portion north of Cattaraugus was damaged by floods and landslides in the 2010s and is also no longer operational.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

Notable within the Zoar area are maple trees that are approximately 200–300 years old. Many of these trees are located along South Quaker Street and Vail Road. Each spring for decades, the trees have been tapped by locals in order to make maple syrup and maple sugar candy. Several of the trees have become diseased and have died in recent years, with some having to be cut down. Others were cut by the Highway Department when South Quaker Street was repaved and realigned with the section crossing Gowanda-Zoar Road that connects it to Vail Road around 1990–1995.

Maple syrup syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees

Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple trees are tapped by drilling holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap, which is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup.

Community

The Zoar community includes many homes and families living throughout a hilly area with pastures, fields, woods, ponds, and open land. Some residents own farms with dairy cows, horses, and other animals; other residents own homes and property that does not include a farm or farmland.

Notable businesses

For many years, the area tree nursery company, Congdon and Weller Nurseries, owned fields in the area and grew trees, shrubs, and other plants and crops there. Presently and for several decades, the farming company, Capella Farms, has operated on South Quaker Street.

On the Vail Road section of Zoar, an excavation site operated by the Gernatt Family of Companies is present. In 2013, residents of the area expressed concerns about changes to the natural environment, the water table, wells, and springs due to a proposed mining expansion by the companies on the site. [3] [4] Most residents in the area get their water from wells or springs, so there is understandable concern about the companies' proposed mining expansion there that would affect the water supply.

Reid's Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Shop, a private, family-owned business, has operated on Gowanda-Zoar Road for decades. The shop is a popular stop for bikers from around the United States and Canada.

Harley-Davidson a publicly traded American company that has become primarily known internationally by the eponymous motorcycle brand

Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D), or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer, founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1903.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Zoar". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  2. ↑ Kirby, C.D. (1976). The Early History of Gowanda and the Beautiful Land of the Cattaraugus. Gowanda, NY: Niagara Frontier Publishing Company, Inc./Gowanda Area Bi-Centennial Committee, Inc.
  3. ↑ Collins residents air their concerns, The Observer, Dunkirk, NY: John D'Agostino, 29 September 2011, McDonnell, S. | Accessdate= 11 September 2013.
  4. ↑ Collins residents voice concerns about Gernatt gravel pit Archived November 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine ., The Sun, Hamburg, NY: The Metro Group, 19 August 2013, Westlund, R. | Accessdate= 30 October 2013.

Coordinates: 42°27′24″N78°50′21″W / 42.45667°N 78.83917°W / 42.45667; -78.83917

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