Buffalo's Outer harbor

                                          Buffalo’s Outer Harbor

        It was another sunny, glorious Saturday in the Big B. We loaded up our bikes onto the bike rack and set off for the outer harbor of Buffalo’s waterfront. Traffic was surprisingly busy. The NHL draft was taking place at the Niagara Center at Canal side. And there were arts and craft booths stretched out along the canal side area.

         We followed Michigan Avenue across the lift bride and into the old industrial area where Riverworks and other trendy businesses are now sprouting up like flowers after a Spring rain. Ohio Street took us to Furhman Blvd. and the outer harbor. If you haven’t been here in a few years, you would not believe your eyes. The old, beat up industrial area now featured a fully equipped Gallagher beach area, a state park, a huge, small boat marina and the newly acquired Charley’s restaurant.

         The venerable old boulevard, once a Mecca for drag races by teens at night, was now a tree lined and flower-sprinkled Grand Avenue. A bike path runs the four-mile length of the street from Gallagher beach to the Coast Guar base at the mouth of the Buffalo River,

        Our bikes carried us into the newly constructed Wilkeson Park. It was named after a Buffalo Mayor who served in the 1830’s and had created the modern Buffalo harbor, with a grand seawall to protect the wooden ships from the crushing ice floes.

         The comfort station was modern and clean. Nearby, a few wooden cabins sold ice cream and rented kayaks. The huge stone-lined slip, some 300 yds by 50 yds, had once berthed freighters and ore carriers. Now, the berth launched pleasure craft and kayaks.

        At the tip of the park, on the lake, we rode up a raised promontory and looked out over the vast expanse of eastern lake Erie. Beyond the ruins of the old Bethlehem steel plant, festooned with ten of those futuristic, massive windmills along its shores, you could see far to the south and west to what must be Sturgeon point. To the north, I could just make out the small, white lighthouse at Point Abino, in Canada. I could see why my Grandfather and his brothers smuggled whiskey across that short expanse. It was an easy and profitable run.

       We watched the jet skis and kayakers paddle about. Then we saw a strange apparition. Two boaters were standing on what appeared to be paddle boards. Two streams of water jetted from beneath each and they rose some twelve feet above the water, maneuvering like kids on skate boards. It looked like something out of a James Bond Movie. Out across the Lake, I could see a few majestic sail craft with spinnakers ballooning out if front of them. This area is the sight of the weekly yachting races on Wednesday evenings.

         From Wilkeson Park, we rode our bikes past several other open and grassy fields, once the sight of monster concert venues featuring big bands like Guns and Roses. Next we came upon the well-treed and grassy area of Times Beach. Now, it is a nature preserve. Once it had been a thriving village of two thousand of Buffalo’s Clan Na Gael, three families of my own line then living here.

         Just past there, we saw the sign for the Bike Ferry across the Buffalo River. A great uncle had once made his living ferrying travelers across this expanse in the 1800’s.The Ferry is a small covered boat with room for bikes and passengers. For $ 1 each, we sat and road across the river to Canalaisde. The Ferry berthed just beneath the stern of the Light Cruiser USS Little Rock and the Destroyer escort, USS Sullivans, now retired and a feature of Buffalo’s Naval Park.

           Even this early at ten A.M there was a good-sized crowd gathering. We pedaled through the naval park, past the various monuments to all of the many twentieth century wars, and featuring old sabre jets, tanks and torpedoes from various U.S. arsenals. The venerable old USS Croaker, a World War Two relic was open and available for inspection.

        From the naval park, we rode up into the Erie Basin marina. William K’s now served meals in a covered waterfront venue. The old “hatch” still served burgers, ice cream and beer at the Buffalo’ river’s mouth. We followed the stone mounded break wall along its length to the open and airy tower at the North end of the marina. Across the short stretch of water here is an entire community of expensive housing. I remember the Rouse Company, of Cross Keys Maryland, when we first brought them into to develop the project in the late seventies. I had dibs on the first condo built, but couldn'y make the rent!

        The air was cool but the temperatures were rising. We pedaled back through the marina and Naval park to Canal side where we got some delicious brew from Tim Horton's and sat down to watch the hoopla all around us.The Miss Buffalo had already left for her canal and Lake cruise. The Buffalo Historic river cruise was just motoring up the river towards the ghostly forest of silos in cement city. A small musical combo was pumping out some from of rap music. The visitors to the arts and craft booths were populating the festive area. We looked out upon the many streaming banners, flapping in the breeze, and marveled at the change here in just twenty years or so. You would never have believed this change could occur back in the seventies.

        We saw the bike ferry crossing the harbor and hurried to her berth. We loaded our bikes aboard a full ship and motored across the harbor. We had heard a passenger mention the old China Light House along Buffalo’s harbor and decided to take a look. I had thought the light sat right in the middle of the Coast guard base and that we would have a hard time gaining admittance. Pleasantly, I was wrong. A narrow pedestrian entrance led us into a path that runs long the buffalo River and never entered the strongly fenced-in Coast Guard Base. After a quarter-mile hike, we came upon the venerable China Light that had been in operation here since the 1830’s. A small orchestra was assembling for a concert. We took in all of the nautical plaques detailing the area’s history and then boogied back to Furhman Blvd.

        A brief stop at the Wilkeson park and we were off riding toward our chariot, parked at Gallagher beach. The sun was shining and the temps were in the mid eighties. All manner of people were biking, hiking, and sunning themselves or launching Kayaks and watercraft into the Lake. And this despite the fact that there were another five thousand bikers riding in the Roswell cancer Institute Ride for Roswell in the Amherst area.

       We loaded up the bikes and drove past another nature Preserve, Tifft farm. Long ago, I remember driving by here and seeing pools of florescent chemicals lying along the road. Now, it is a well-regarded and much visited Nature preserve where all manner of animals and fowl settle in regularly. The area had come a long way in the last half century. We had spent several hours interacting with 190 years of Buffalo’s past, in the bright sunshine and were glad that we had come.

                                    -30-

                                (1234 words)

                           Joseph Xavier Martin