Olcott—Lockport—Depew; State 78.30 m.
Two-strip macadam.
International Electric Ry. parallels route between Olcott and Lockport.
Clinging to Eighteenmile Creek, State 78 crosses the low-lying Niagara fruit belt, famed for its apples, peaches, and melons. South of Lockport it cuts across a flat, monotonous region of unkempt meadowland.
OLCOTT, 0 m. (280 alt., 300 pop.), enjoying beautiful vistas of Lake Ontario, blue and white-capped on bright days, green or greyish in foul weather, is a summer resort, depending for a living on the June-to-August season. Bathing suits or bathrobes become the conventional garb of young women ambling along the sidewalks in company of young men clad in trunks. The air is heavy with charcoal smoke, the sounds of wailing concertinas and steam calliopes, and the shriek of merry crowds.
BURT, 1.5 m. (310 alt., 294 pop.), reaches the peak of its activity in the fall, when all roads leading to it are heavy with trucks loaded with apples, peaches, melons, cabbages, and potatoes, brought here to be freighted on the Rome, Watertown, & Ogdensburg Railroad.
Eighteenmile Creek has been harnessed at Burt, the water having been dammed up to form a lake two miles long. Beyond the dam are the ruins of old gristmills, burned by the British in the War of 1812.
NEWFANE, 3.2 m. (345 alt., 1,200 pop.), a fruit-farming community, specializes in tree nurseries, with a small felt and paper factory providing industrial employment. In 1939 a 140-year-old marker was discovered in a local backyard bearing the initials of William and John Willink, surveyors of the Holland Land Company. The stone had been placed by them to indicate the northern terminus of the Transit Road.
At 8.3 m. is the junction with US 104 (see Tour 26).
The FRIENDLESS CHILDREN’S HOME (R), 10.6 m., was founded by the wife of Washington Hunt, Governor of New York, 1851–3. The stone and frame building with tall chimneys, facing a winding entrance roadway, was Governor Hunt’s summer home.
In LOCKPORT, 11.9 m. (550 alt., 24,308 pop.) (see Tour 32), is the junction with State 31 (see Tour 32).
South of Lockport State 78 becomes the Transit Road, a run of 25 miles without a bend, laid out by Holland Company surveyors in line with the North Star. TONAWANDA CREEK, crossed at 17.5 m., is a favorite fishing stream for black bass, perch, and muskellunge; it is restocked every season by the New York Conservation Association of Erie and Niagara Counties.
At 26.4 m. is the junction with State 5 (see Tour 11).
At 28.2 m. is the junction with State 33 (see Tour 33).
DEPEW, 30 m. (680 alt., 6,043 pop.), is a railroad center. Incorporated in 1894, it was named in honor of the late Senator Chauncey M. Depew, then president of the New York Central Lines. In contrast to its roundhouses, track mazes, smokestacks, and constant coming and going of trains, in the center of town is an attractive park with recreational facilities.
The village came into existence at the height of a frenzied land speculation following the establishment of the New York Central car shops in 1893. That year, nine miles of plank sidewalks and 6,000 feet of sewers were laid; the next year Depew had a population of 1,184. In 1930, when the car shops were removed to an eastern city, many citizens were absorbed in local industries, which produce storage batteries, food products, steel castings for railroads, bags, wrappings, mattresses, and cut and crushed stone.
In Depew State 78 merges with US 20 (see Tour 8).