My initial image of Niagara Falls and nearby Buffalo was of generations of honeymooners celebrating their nuptials beside the famous Falls before travelling 21 miles south to indulge in savoury chicken snacks known as Buffalo Wings.
“But surely there’s more!,” exclaimed my travel companion Rose, as we motored through the spectacular autumnal landscape of western New York State.
And, indeed, there was – legendary Niagara Falls was as awesome as anticipated; the vibrant city of Buffalo is undergoing a renaissance; and the surrounding area is full of both urban and rural attractions.
Our Maid of the Mist cruise to the base of the towering Falls became quite theatrical as we were showered with spray, and passengers, mainly Asian, squealed with delight. The largest of the Falls in terms of both width (2,200 feet) and water volume is the Horseshoe on the Canadian side of the Niagara River; the tallest, at 190 feet, is the American, and the smallest, the Bridal, is best seen from the adjacent, perilously-perched Cave of the Winds.
The Falls, we discovered, were formed some 12,000 years ago when torrents from melting glaciers poured over huge cliffs; the surrounding area was converted into America’s first state park in 1885; and the site is now visited by 10 million people a year.
NIAGARA FALLS AND THE ERIE CANAL
Among those who have challenged the Falls and won were retired schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor, who celebrated her 63rd birthday in 1901 by going over the Falls in a sealed wooden barrel (“Nobody ought ever to do that again,” she remarked when she emerged); Frenchman Jean Francois Gravelot (aka The Great Blondin), who crossed via tightrope several times between 1859 and 60; and seven-year-old Roger Woodward who, after a 1960 boating accident, was swept over the Falls and saved by the Maid of the Mist crew.
Joining a virtual reality ‘ride’ at the Niagara Power Vista attraction north of Niagara Falls, we pretended to be rain drops falling from the sky, entering the nearby dam’s turbines and then zipping at high speeds through the electric lines to bring power to New York State.
Next came charming riverside Lewiston, where a statue of a slave family boarding a small rowboat and a nearby ‘safe house’ reminded us that we were on the northern border of the fabled 19th-century Underground Railroad, which carried fugitive slaves to freedom in Canada.
Old Fort Niagara, built by the French in 1726 and later occupied by the British, then the Americans
Soon we were at Youngtown’s atmospheric Old Fort Niagara, built in 1726 by the French and overlooking Lake Ontario. During the turbulent pioneer era and the wars of the American Revolution and 1812, it served as a trading post with the six Native American tribes dominating the region as well as a military base for the French, English and then Americans.
Another day, another water-based adventure – this time down the fabled Erie Canal. As our boat left Lockport, east of Niagara Falls, we listened to canal history and hearty canal songs while gliding through picturesque landscapes and negotiating various locks. Now limited to pleasure boats, the 363-mile engineering marvel was built between 1817 and 1825 to open up this part of the American frontier to passengers and cargo passing from the Great Lakes to the Hudson River (and thence to the Atlantic Ocean).
BUFFALO’S RENAISSANCE AND LUCY’S PLACE
Now it was time to shuffle off to Buffalo. Following a dark period due to its decline as a major port and industrial hub, it has now re-emerged with new sources of income, including solar-panel manufacturing and an expanding medical centre. Its once-booming industrial waterfront along the Buffalo River, Lake Erie and the Erie Canal has become the city’s playground, with scores of sports and performance venues, craft breweries, bars and restaurants. In fact, the readers of America’s Travel + Leisure magazine have just voted Buffalo their favourite American city (and, yes, you can still find delicious, succulent Buffalo Wings).
The city also has ample reason to be proud of its amazing array of pioneering skyscrapers as we discovered on an Explore Buffalo Masters of American Architecture Tour.
Built for a wealthy Buffalo couple and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Graycliff Estate crowns a cliff overlooking Lake Erie
Among the area’s architectural masterpieces are two by Frank Lloyd Wright. Martin House, built in 1905 as his largest residential complex, reopened late last year after a 20-year renovation, and the Graycliff Estate, built on a cliff overlooking Lake Erie, is undergoing a multi-million dollar restoration.
Another, more-unusual Wright building – an Art Deco-style petrol station – is tucked away with a wealth of other motoring memorabilia in the Buffalo Transportation Museum. Other great museums include the Albert-Knox Art Gallery (Picasso, Warhol, Pollock and more) and the Burchfield-Penney Art Center just across the street.
Our final evening was spent most memorably at a performance of Tchaikovsky by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the grand Kleinhans Music Hall, and the next day we headed south-east to delightful East Aurora, the birthplace of the American Arts and Crafts movement. It’s still manifest by the structure and furnishings of the grand 1895 Roycroft Inn and the work being displayed on the nearby Roycroft Campus. A stroll down Main Street took us to Vidler’s 5 & 10 store, which claims to be the largest such emporium in the USA (its prices may have risen dramatically but it’s still full of vintage treasurers). Seated on the roof is a statue of its founder, known locally as ‘The Vidler on the Roof’.
Before returning to London, we just had to visit the Lucy Desi Center for Comedy in the I Love Lucy TV star’s home town of Jamestown. There they all are in their various guises – Lucille Ball, her Cuban bandleader husband and co-star Desi Arnaz, other co-stars, costumes, TV sets and other memorabilia. Leaving with identical T-shirts bearing Lucy’s imagine, we drove past her birthplace, a flamboyant I Love Lucy mural and the cemetery where she was buried. It was supposed to encompass a new statue replacing the old one which fans complained did not do her justice. Neither was to be found; it was raining; we will have to go back another day.
