Junction with US 20A to Dunkirk; State 39. 85.9 m.
Two-strip concrete or macadam.
The Erie and Baltimore & Ohio R.R.s parallel route in stretches.
Milk is the most important product of the region traversed by State 39. Herds of cattle graze on the hills; through the nights long milk trains and huge milk trucks carry tomorrow’s milk supply to Buffalo and New York; local factories convert the surplus into butter, cheese, and powdered milk.
South from the junction with US 20A, 0 m., is PERRY, 4.6 m. (1,320 alt., 4,505 pop.), which has large knitting mills and a septic and gasoline tank factory. In 1833 the Reverend William Arthur became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Perry; his son, Chester Alan, then four years old, was destined to become the 21st President of the United States. The parsonage in which the family lived, now considerably altered, stands in the rear of the W.T. Oline home on Elm Street.
CASTILE, 11 m. (1,360 alt., 898 pop.), is at one of the entrances to Letch worth State Park (see below).
At 12.3 m. is the junction with State 19A.
Left on State 19A to PORTAGEVILLE, 3.5 m. (1,245 alt., 300 pop.), at the entrance to LETCHWORTH STATE PARK (adm. free; campers must secure permits. Picnic areas, tent sites). The park is continually being developed as a recreational center; boundaries change as land is added by purchase, condemnation, or gift; park roads are being extended and improved and miles of additional foot trails marked. The deep gorge of the Genesee River, show place of the park, was etched by the erosive action of the river upon strata of horizontally bedded Devonian rocks. The park is named for William Pryor Letchworth, Buffalo manufacturer, scholar, and philanthropist, who donated much of the land.
One of the finest collections of Indian regalia and relics in existence is housed in the LETCHWORTH MUSEUM (L), 4.6 m. (open May 15–Oct. 15, 9–5). The modern fireproof building also contains a library and heirlooms of pioneer days in Wyoming County.
A short distance (L) off the main road, at 4.9 m., is the SENECA COUNCIL HOUSE, moved here from Caneadea in 1871. A typical Iroquois ‘long house,’ it is 50 by 20 feet, the walls of pine logs smoothly hewn and dovetailed at the corners, rising 12 or 13 feet; the only openings in the original building were two doors at the ends and two smoke vents near the center of the shingled roof. Here on October 1, 1872, was held the ‘last Indian council,’ attended by Colonel Simcoe Kerr, grandson of Joseph Brant, as representative of the Mohawk, and, for the Seneca, descendants of Red Jacket, Complanter, Mary Jemison, and other notables. These children of the Ho-di-no-saw-nee (Ind., people of the long house) sat on low benches around the council fire that burned on the clay floor; in a more comfortable chair sat the gray-haired Millard Fillmore, ex-President of the United States. During the ceremony Mr. Letchworth was adopted into the Seneca tribe under the name of Hai-wa-ye-is-tah (Ind., the man who always does the right thing).
Just beyond the Council House are the MARY JEMISON STATUE (L) and the LOG CABIN (L) that she built for her daughter Nancy. Mary Jemison, the’ white woman of the Genesee,’ daughter of Irish immigrants, was taken prisoner by Indians at the age of 15 and lived the rest of her life among them. In the vicinity of present-day Pittsburgh she was adopted by two Seneca women, who named her Dehhewamis, ‘beautiful girl,’ and married her to a Delaware warrior; ‘strange as it may seem,’ she later said, ‘I learned to love him and he made an agreeable husband and comfortable companion.’ After her husband’s death she accompanied her Seneca friends to their home on the Genesee, traveling on foot with a child a distance of nearly 600 miles through the wilderness, and settled at Little Beard’s Town (Cuylerville); there she married another Indian, Hiokatoo, with whom she lived nearly 50 years and to whom she bore six children.
A short distance off the main road (L) at 5.1 m. are the PARK SUPERINTENDENT’S HOUSE and the GENESEE PARK COMMISSION ADMINISTRATION OFFICE.
Generally regarded as the best central vantage point in the park is INSPIRATION POINT OVERLOOK (R), 5.2 m., which offers an unexcelled view of the gorge of the Genesee, the Middle and Upper Falls, and a large part of the park itself.
From the crossroads at 17.1 m. the left fork road leads to Geneseo on US 20A (see Tour 8A).
At 17.2 m. is the junction with State 19 (see Tour 35), with which State 39 unites briefly.
ARCADE, 33.8 m. (1,479 alt., 1,675 pop.), has a milk plant and factories producing bowling pins, ladies’ shoe lasts, barrels, and automobile tools.
In YORKSHIRE, 36.4 m. (1,438 alt., 306 pop.), is the junction with State 16 (see Tour 38).
In SPRINGVILLE, 47.8 m. (1,341 alt., 2,832 pop.), is the junction with US 219 (see Tour 39).
At 61.5 m. is the junction with US 62 (see Tour 37), with which State 39 runs in common to GOWANDA, 64 m. (760 alt., 3,042 pop.) (see Tour 37).
The route swings through western Chautauqua County, where archeologists have uncovered mastodon remains, stone implements, copper ornaments, and stone fireplaces, and earthworks believed to have been erected by mound builders.
FORESTVILLE, 76.9 m. (875 alt., 677 pop.), in an amphitheater of hills, was the birthplace of George Abbott, playwright and producer, author of Boy Meets Girl and other plays. Born here in 1889, he was educated in the Hamburg High School, the University of Rochester, and Harvard. After graduating he became an actor and later turned to writing and producing plays.
From the edge of the high plateau at 79 m. the hazy blue waters of Lake Erie are visible, smudged in summer by large black lines of smoke from lake steamers.
At 81.9 m. is the junction with US 20 (see Tour 8), with which State 39 runs in common for 0.8 miles. As the road approaches its western terminus the countryside takes on life and color from produce-laden trucks headed for metropolitan markets, train whistles in the near distance, roadstands, filling stations, billboards, and, approaching from the west, the grim smokestacks of the large industrial plants of DUNKIRK, 85.9 m. (600 alt., 17,606 pop.) (see Tour 11), at the junction with State 5 (see Tour 11).