Session 2: Saturday 9am September 16, 2023 meet at Erie Basin Marina
Buffalo River & Grain Elevators: Waterfront Memories and More Museum
Lake and Rail Elevator
For this part of the session we will visit the Waterfront Memories and More Museum at Hamburg and South Street in Buffalo's historic Old 1st Ward. This stop will provide us with great information about Buffalo's past in the grain milling industry.
1842, Joseph Dart, a Buffalo grain merchant, built the world's first grain elevator in a slip off the Buffalo River. Dart came up with the idea of unloading grain ships by means of an endless belt of buckets, a system already used inside mills for moving about grain and flour. Dart's genius was in placing the belt inside a "marine leg" which would project out of a grain warehouse and be lowered into a ship's hold to scoop up the grain.
Dart's "elevator," which he described as substituting modern ingenuity for the "backs of Irishmen," was small but highly successful, and it paved the way for later elevator technology that could have unloaded an 1840s lake boat in less than seven minutes, a process that at the time, using bushel baskets, sacks, and block and tackle, could take seven days.
In 1864, another important mechanical advancement was made in the quest to unload grain more economically. That year a steam shovel was patented, a kind of drag line, to be used in directing grain to the hungry buckets.
The shovel was a large metal scoop operated off of the grain elevator's power supply through a complicated system of ropes, which were rigged in the hold of the ship and operated by men who became known as "grain scoopers."
The elevator and power shovel contributed greatly to reducing the cost of shipping wheat from the farms in the Midwest to the markets of the east.
The conditions under which the grain scoopers worked at the turn of the century were characterized by irregularity of employment, low wages, and the saloon-boss system. The employment was largely seasonal, during the mid-April to mid-November shipping season. Even during those seven months, the actual periods of work were irregular, dependent on the often unpredictable arrival of particular ships.
1842, Joseph Dart, a Buffalo grain merchant, built the world's first grain elevator in a slip off the Buffalo River. Dart came up with the idea of unloading grain ships by means of an endless belt of buckets, a system already used inside mills for moving about grain and flour. Dart's genius was in placing the belt inside a "marine leg" which would project out of a grain warehouse and be lowered into a ship's hold to scoop up the grain.
Dart's "elevator," which he described as substituting modern ingenuity for the "backs of Irishmen," was small but highly successful, and it paved the way for later elevator technology that could have unloaded an 1840s lake boat in less than seven minutes, a process that at the time, using bushel baskets, sacks, and block and tackle, could take seven days.
In 1864, another important mechanical advancement was made in the quest to unload grain more economically. That year a steam shovel was patented, a kind of drag line, to be used in directing grain to the hungry buckets.
The shovel was a large metal scoop operated off of the grain elevator's power supply through a complicated system of ropes, which were rigged in the hold of the ship and operated by men who became known as "grain scoopers."
The elevator and power shovel contributed greatly to reducing the cost of shipping wheat from the farms in the Midwest to the markets of the east.
The conditions under which the grain scoopers worked at the turn of the century were characterized by irregularity of employment, low wages, and the saloon-boss system. The employment was largely seasonal, during the mid-April to mid-November shipping season. Even during those seven months, the actual periods of work were irregular, dependent on the often unpredictable arrival of particular ships.
Waterfront Memories and More Museum
Buffalo River
Ohio St. and Michigan Ave. Lift Bridges
C-Span History of Buffalo's Grain Elevators
C-Span Book Discussion on Against the Grain
Buffalo News: DL & W Redevelopment
Buffalo News: DL & W Future Uses
WNY Heritage Magazine: Harbor Inn
Ohio Basin & Riverfest Waterfront Park:
Grain Elevators along the Buffalo River
By the end of the Civil War, Buffalo was the world's largest grain port. Today, Buffalo has one of the largest collections of grain elevators in the world. The grain elevators were built on the Buffalo River to temporarily store grain that was being transferred from the Midwest via Great Lakes ships onto barges that utilized the Erie Canal and later onto railroads that would take the grain to the hungry population on on the East coast.
Joseph Dart had revolutionized the industry with his steam powered elevator in 1842. Over the next half century the wooden elevators evolved into tile, steel, and then concrete structures a quarter of a mile long. Amazingly, the concrete elevators could be erected in only a couple of weeks once the foundation was laid! Many of the elevators are today abandoned and very expensive to demolish. What to do with them? While there are many possibilities, the simplest is to appreciate these structures as art and sculpture.
For this part of the tour we will look at Fr. Conway Park which was earlier the Ohio Basin. The demolished Larkin Administration building was used as fill for the basin, dirt was added and that's one way to create a park! As you're in the parking lot facing the river, you'll notice a small inlet to the right filled with driftwood (lots of it too). That's what left of the Ohio Basin. We will head down Ohio St. to visit Riverfest Park then head to Michigan Ave. then across the Michigan Bridge. Finally, we will walk up the seaway trail along the Buffalo River next to the DLW Terminal to the edge of Canalside.
Joseph Dart had revolutionized the industry with his steam powered elevator in 1842. Over the next half century the wooden elevators evolved into tile, steel, and then concrete structures a quarter of a mile long. Amazingly, the concrete elevators could be erected in only a couple of weeks once the foundation was laid! Many of the elevators are today abandoned and very expensive to demolish. What to do with them? While there are many possibilities, the simplest is to appreciate these structures as art and sculpture.
For this part of the tour we will look at Fr. Conway Park which was earlier the Ohio Basin. The demolished Larkin Administration building was used as fill for the basin, dirt was added and that's one way to create a park! As you're in the parking lot facing the river, you'll notice a small inlet to the right filled with driftwood (lots of it too). That's what left of the Ohio Basin. We will head down Ohio St. to visit Riverfest Park then head to Michigan Ave. then across the Michigan Bridge. Finally, we will walk up the seaway trail along the Buffalo River next to the DLW Terminal to the edge of Canalside.
Buffalo News Story: Tewksbury Incident January 1959
WIVB June 27 Story on Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper
Session Objectives
Inner Harbor:
- Explore resources related to the Buffalo River, Buffalo Ship Canal, Kelley Island & Industrial Heritage Corridor.
- Create “Text Based Projects” aligned with the NYS Social Studies Standards & the CCLS to use as assessments with students.
- Analyze the impact that the Inner Harbor and it’s distinct components had on WNY history, NYS history and US history.
- Use the http://btcwaterfronthistory.weebly.com/index.html website to facilitate classroom discussions