The Friends of Times Beach Nature Preserve
Times Beach Nature Preserve was once a public beach on the Buffalo outer harbor/Lake Erie shoreline. A newspaper, The Buffalo Times, advocated the beach as a beautiful recreational destination. Thus was born the name Times Beach.
"In the late 1950's the US Army Corps of Engineers created the shoreline dike and turned the area into a contained disposal facility for harbor and Buffalo River dredge. The dredging was a critical part of keeping the Buffalo Harbor open for shipping. Eventually, due to changing values, the increasingly contaminated site was was abandoned as a dumping site. Nature immediately began to reclaim the area. Birds and other species moved in. By the 1970's it became apparent to scientists and citizens that migrating and breeding birds and other wildlife were adapting and using the emerging oasis.
Today we recognize the Times Beach Nature Preserve as one of the most significant "natural" sites on the Great Lakes. It attracts and anchors critical wildlife species including millions of migrating birds, butterflies including the iconic Monarch butterfly, native bee's and breeding birds, reptiles, mammals, and over 100 species of native pollinators. Times Beach Nature Preserve is an evolving oasis at a perfect location at the confluence of Lake Erie, the Niagara, and the Buffalo River. Times Beach Nature Preserve is surrounded by urban and industrial communities. The preserve provides essential ecological services that help promote biodiversity, clean water, and clean air.
Today our Great Lakes waters and adjacent habitats are at great risk and continue to decline. The Buffalo Lake and River fronts are precious ecological jewels that we have spent hundreds of millions to clean and protect. Development, sewer discharge, agricultural runoff, and other forms of pollution continue to effect the health of biodiversity, wildlife populations, and human health. Conserving, restoring, and protecting Times Beach is a hedge against the threats of human caused ecological damage."
It is important to remember that the Great Lakes sweet water seas in the interior of North America contain nearly 1/5 of the world's fresh surface water. Much of that water and the biodiverse life that both sustains characterizes the Great Lakes, a place of planet level significance, flow right by and through Times Beach. Today TBNP is an officially recognized and protected place that provides essential habitat to a wide variety of wildlife. Not only are we a nature preserve on the shoreline, and located in a major downtown urban area, but we are also the gateway to the Niagara River Globally Significant Important Bird Area.
-The approximately 50 acre site has a series of trails, boardwalks, overlooks, and observation blinds.
-The preserve is open to the public and we cordially invite you to visit with your friends and family.
"In the late 1950's the US Army Corps of Engineers created the shoreline dike and turned the area into a contained disposal facility for harbor and Buffalo River dredge. The dredging was a critical part of keeping the Buffalo Harbor open for shipping. Eventually, due to changing values, the increasingly contaminated site was was abandoned as a dumping site. Nature immediately began to reclaim the area. Birds and other species moved in. By the 1970's it became apparent to scientists and citizens that migrating and breeding birds and other wildlife were adapting and using the emerging oasis.
Today we recognize the Times Beach Nature Preserve as one of the most significant "natural" sites on the Great Lakes. It attracts and anchors critical wildlife species including millions of migrating birds, butterflies including the iconic Monarch butterfly, native bee's and breeding birds, reptiles, mammals, and over 100 species of native pollinators. Times Beach Nature Preserve is an evolving oasis at a perfect location at the confluence of Lake Erie, the Niagara, and the Buffalo River. Times Beach Nature Preserve is surrounded by urban and industrial communities. The preserve provides essential ecological services that help promote biodiversity, clean water, and clean air.
Today our Great Lakes waters and adjacent habitats are at great risk and continue to decline. The Buffalo Lake and River fronts are precious ecological jewels that we have spent hundreds of millions to clean and protect. Development, sewer discharge, agricultural runoff, and other forms of pollution continue to effect the health of biodiversity, wildlife populations, and human health. Conserving, restoring, and protecting Times Beach is a hedge against the threats of human caused ecological damage."
It is important to remember that the Great Lakes sweet water seas in the interior of North America contain nearly 1/5 of the world's fresh surface water. Much of that water and the biodiverse life that both sustains characterizes the Great Lakes, a place of planet level significance, flow right by and through Times Beach. Today TBNP is an officially recognized and protected place that provides essential habitat to a wide variety of wildlife. Not only are we a nature preserve on the shoreline, and located in a major downtown urban area, but we are also the gateway to the Niagara River Globally Significant Important Bird Area.
-The approximately 50 acre site has a series of trails, boardwalks, overlooks, and observation blinds.
-The preserve is open to the public and we cordially invite you to visit with your friends and family.
A Brief History of the Times Beach Nature Preserve
The place that we call Times Beach has an interesting history. Once the area was part of a very productive ecosystem that characterized the southern shoreline of Lake Erie and the changing Niagara and Buffalo river systems. The specific nature preserve that we visit today was part of a large complex of cattail marsh, changing river delta, sand bars, spits, dunes, mudflats, and beaches that stretched along the coastline from near today’s Hamburg to Grand Island and beyond.
Origins of the Lake and River Several great ice ages populate the history of our region. The most recent episode, called the Wisconsin Episode lasted for one hundred thousand years, between 110,000 and 10,000 years ago. The last, late advance of the Wisconsin glaciations began about 25,000 years ago and lasted approximately 15,000 years. During those glaciations and retreats and subsequently, high water has periodically flooded large sections of our region. Major flooding episodes occurred between 11,200 and 10,300 years ago and between 5,500 and 4,000 years ago. This flooding caused numerous lakes that have occupied areas in the Erie and Ontario basins. These lakes changed in size and depth according ice retreats or advances, melt water, and the opening and closing of various outlets. Glacial Lake Warren developed in the Lake Erie Basin about 13,000 years ago. This lake expanded northeastward following the retreating ice margin. To the north and east, glacial Lake Iroquois was formed at about the same time. As the ice sheets retreated northward, the St Lawrence River system was created and the giant Lake Iroquois shrunk to what we now call Lake Ontario. Between the two lakes was Lake Tonawanda. This smaller and much shallower lake stretched eastward from the approximate northeastern end of today’s Grand Island, the Tonawanda’s, Niagara Falls, toward Lockport and Holley, NY.Eventually outlets in the east end of Lake Tonawanda opened up and allowed much of this lake to drain eastward into the Mohawk River Valley and Hudson River systems. The original Niagara River, which is actually a strait, flowed from what is now called Buffalo and glacial Lake Erie on its present course, and emptied into glacial Lake Tonawanda. The western most spillway of Lake Tonawanda into Lake Iroquois was located at today’s Lewiston. This evolved into the single drainage connection between Lakes Erie and Ontario. Thus was born the powerful and erosional Niagara River and Niagara Falls which was originally located at the escarpment. Maps from the 1850’s still show remnant Lake Tonawanda. Today, the Oak Orchard Swamp in Genesee County attests to the presence of the now extinct Lake Tonawanda and communities such as Amherst NY and the North Campus of UB are built on the lakebed. Humans in the Niagara Region For thousands of years, dating back to nearly the last ice ages, the area was characterized by a vast shoreline complex of wetlands and marshes. It is possible that humans have been present here since before 12,500 years ago. Humans have been in North America for at least 40,000 years, and the Niagara region and the area around the Niagara River represented a transitional zone at the edge of the glaciers for at least one hundred thousand years. The river and lake systems probably provided abundant food sources as a margin between habitats. Archeological artifacts associated with humans have been found near Fort Erie dating to about 10,000 years ago. These include stone tool quarry workings from the chert found along the shore of the Niagara and Lake Erie, near the Peace Bridge. It is thought that this chert quarry was one of the most important and valuable areas of the civilization of Eastern North America. In addition, numerous historic campsites, villages, and other human settlement and migratory pathways have been identified as being active from between 4,000-to almost 10,000 years ago in this area. In 1996 a remarkable artifact was uncovered near the Peace Bridge. A cooking pot was unearthed with the remains of an ancient stew. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the pot dates from about 1,300 years ago. Indigenous people of historic times are known to have referred to the area that we call Buffalo, as “Place of the Basswoods”. According to old histories of the area, it was characterized by marshes, forests, streams, ponds, and lakes. It has been described as abundant with fish and game and life giving berries, herbs, and nourishing and medicinal native plants. Crops of corn and squash were common in Iroquois settlements. Indigenous people used the lakeside area for trapping, hunting, and fishing, mostly during the summer months. There are stories that when the first white settlers came into the area in the late 1700’s, (or only about 400 years ago) a native settlement on Smokes Creek (now in Lackawanna) was under the guidance of “Old Smoke” while a trading post of sorts is said to have existed on Buffalo Creek, near the outlet to the Lake. This may have been very near where today’s Times Beach Nature Preserve is located. The Buffalo Creek post was said to be run by a native man named by the French as “Old Joe Buffalo”. That is where one of the origins of the City’s name may have begun. We are located at “Buffalo’s Creek.” A few indigenous settlements are known to have been along both creeks. -The Times Beach site is located between the watersheds of Smokes Creek, and Buffalo Creek, which at the lake Erie outlet is now called The Buffalo River. The dividing line between the two watersheds is roughly where Ridge Road is located today. -The British engineer John Montresor, one of the architects of Fort Niagara, mentions the name “Buffalo Creek” in his journal of 1764, suggesting that the name was commonly used by then.. -Today’s actual Times Beach site may or may not have been under Lake Erie as recently as the beginning of the 20th century. The shoreline in this area is highly disturbed, and has been worked considerably by human hands. Early maps are somewhat inconclusive as to the existence of land exactly where today’s 50 acres are found. Joseph Ellicott’s 1804 survey does show a straight shoreline, approximately where Times Beach is located today. More likely the shorline depices todays location of Furhmann Blvd. -There are stories that suggest that a trading post operated by Cornelius Winne was found in the vicinity of the Times Beach Buffalo Creek area, prior to 1800. It is not known where Old Joe Buffalo’s dwelling was found, if indeed such a place existed at all. -Human development began in earnest about 175 years ago when the Buffalo Harbor was hand carved out of the delta of the Buffalo Creek system. Today’s Times Beach is certainly near, if not part of the original citizen operated works project that occurred between 1820 and 1822. This was when Samuel Wilkeson and a group of intrepid Buffalo pioneers with names like William Coit, Joseph (Black Joe) Hodge, and Samuel Johnson are generally credited with creating a an outlet in the sand spit separating the lake from deeper parts of Buffalo Creek. This project moved the mouth of the Buffalo Creek approximately “60 rods” to the south. This was done in order to more easily navigate the creek, and to create a harbor. A breakwall was built, and it is suggested by some that portions of the original breakwall may exist near the eastern river edge of the present day Coast Guard Station. Times Beach is located just south of the present Buffalo River/Buffalo Creek outlet. -Despite damnable storms and political upheaval, dredging of the creek, channel, and harbor commenced, and in 1822 the NYS Canal Commissioners were persuaded to choose the Village of Buffalo as the location of the terminus of the Erie Canal instead of the Village of Black Rock which lies just up river. In 1867 breakwalls had been built to protect buffalo’s harbor. As the region developed after the civil War, the city of Buffalo sprawled into its "golden age." The outer harbor area evolved into a series of connecting ship canals, grain elevators, and mooring areas. Industry moved in and onto the ecosystems. During the next decades a bustling and incredibly impoverished Irish community that facilitated the grain elevators and waterborne commerce was built along the breakwall and the sandy beach that was found here. This shantytown, known as "Seawall Beach", was notorious for its crime and harsh living conditions. -By the turn of the century, Buffalo was one of the busiest and wealthiest ports on the world. -By 1910, Over 1,250 people were known to live here. It has been reported that thousands of individuals perished in this area often due to winter storm surges and other things like poverty and class warfare with the more landed gentry uptown. Many south Buffalo families have stories about their not so long ago ancestors that lived here. That helps to put a human face on the abominable circumstances of the breakwater shantytown. -By the 1920’s the shantytown was removed and a railroad line was installed. -In 1931 the almost half mile long beach was proposed as a fee municipal bathing beach by a local publication of the era, the Buffalo Times. This is how Times Beach got its name. It is possible that only during the summer of 1935 was swimming actually promoted here. Shortly thereafter Times Beach was closed for swimming because of the health hazards produced by industrial and sewer runoff and contamination. By the 1940’s the area was appropriated by the government (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)) and turned into a contained waste disposal facility for the dredging from both the Buffalo River and the Buffalo Harbor. Dike walls were built out into the Lake, and this is the basic design and structure of the site that we see today. The facility was used by the USACE until the mid 1970’s as the primary site for dredged materials from the Buffalo River, Buffalo Harbor, Black Rock Canal, and Tonawanda Harbor areas. Heavy contamination caused the closing of the site to dredge and the abandonment of the site by the mid 70’s. Nature took over and soon the site was teaming with wildlife. By 1987 the site was recognized as a relatively large, diverse, coastal wetland area, unusual on the Lake Erie Shoreline. Unusual indeed. 55 acres of undeveloped shoreline is all but extinct on Lake Erie and the Niagara River. |
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