James Hufnagel wrote:

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Whenever I hear anyone put down Lockport, I really can't understand it. I've lived in and visited places all over the country and I've seen very few places that have what this town has going for it.
For one thing, we have an incredibly rich local history that took place here thanks mostly to the Erie Canal locks, which give us a sense of identity and history that few places in this country have. We have the Seven Sutherland Sisters, the Lockport Cave Raceway (the name "Hydraulic Race Co." is in concrete down by the locks and can still be read) and a whole lot more history that's there for the taking. Did you know the rough stone exterior at the back of the Bewley Bldg. is actually what's left of the Hodge Opera House after the fire that destroyed it? They simply incorporated the back wall of the opera house into the new building.
We have spawned famous people like Bill Miller, Birdsill Holly, Kim Alexis and Joyce Carol Oates.
We have our own radio station, cable station and the Taylor Theatre is another jewel in the crown. I think the Lockport Library is amazing in its scope and service to the community.
Lockport is just the right size town. It's small enough to give you a sense of community, yet you will meet people all the time that you never knew existed.
I think it's great that a far-sighted developer like Mr. Ulrich is doing something downtown instead of chewing up more open space and contributing to urban and suburban sprawl. That's where businesses belong, on Main Street, not some office park in Pendleton or Wheatfield.

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Joe,

You don't have to ask me twice to talk about Lockport. I'm something of a half-assed historian. There are so many reminders of Lockport's storied past if you just know where to look for them, or have someone show you. I was lucky to be friends with a former Lockport historian (who lost out his job due to a budget cut some years ago) named Dick Dickenson who passed on a lot to me. At various times I worked as a tour guide for both the Lockport Cruises and the Cave tour and we actually had to learn a lot of local history for that. I always try to go on the Historical Society walking tours of Willow St., Cold Springs, etc.

What other tidbits? Did you know LaFayette, the hero of the American Revolution, did a grand tour of the US some decades after independence and visited Lockport via the Erie Canal, coming up from Buffalo. They greeted him halfway, meeting him somewhere around Pendleton, and then escorted the Marquis' flotilla the rest of the way into Lockport. The men of Lockport set off blasting powder along the edge of the canal along the way (dynamite had not yet been invented) and it sent pieces of rock up into the sky. The Marquis de LaFayette is remembered as saying, "The very rocks rend to greet me!" They all got drunk and the party was legendary. They had their party at the corner of Main and Transit, diagonal from the convenience store, where McCorneys used to be. The stone wall you can still see there was part of the building that they feted LaFayette. Do you know that little street LaGrange that meets Vine St. at the railroad tracks at the top of the hill? LaGrange was the name of LaFayette's country estate.

All along the canal you can still see evidence of the holes they drilled down into the rock to pour the blasting powder in. As you go southwest on the canal past the triway bridge you can start to see where they had to also blast the towpath out of the rock. It appears like a shelf along the canal. There are still rings embedded in the wall where they used to tie the mules, which you can't see most of the time due to the foliage. I'm amazed nobody has chiselled them out for souvenirs.

Originally, which is to say prior to 1824, Lockport was deserted. The escarpment as it was in the area we now call Lockport consisted of rocky outcroppings absolutely infested with rattlesnakes. The Native Americans avoided the entire Lockport area because there were so many rattlesnakes here.

If you go down to the top of the "flight of five" you can see a big stone in the floor that has deep grooves in it from the friction of the mules rubbing the ropes against it pulling the barges up into the next lock. Bear in mind mules were discontinued well before WWI.

If you ever get a chance, go on one of those tours of Willow and Locust. There were many very interesting people who built those houses. There are two houses that have a tunnel underground that connects them and one house has this black wrought iron fence around it that the owner scavenged from some girls' school in Lockport that was torn down. My uncle told me a story that he visited someone on Willow street, it had to be back in the thirties, and they had a ticker in their living room that they could get stock quotes on, you know, like Gomez Adams. Another person had extensive ties to Hollywood and had Hollywood stars, directors and producers staying with them all the time.

Of course, early on in Lockport's history, most of the rich people here made their money directly off shipping on the canal. As the 19th century progresses, you start to see more and more industrialists like Holly and Hodge and the others. The entire creek that runs through Lowertown west once had a couple of hundred mills and factories. Can you imagine?

I could go on and on, but it's just amazing to realize what Lockport once was. Since locking up the flight of five took time, there used to be boats and barges lined up for miles on either side of the locks, and a lot of idle time for the men, therefore plenty of bars and brothels. It was really like the wild west here.

One last thing, which we should probably start a separate thread for. This is the Seven Sutherland Sisters. It amazes me how many people in Niagara County don't know about the Seven Sutherland Sisters, and it also amazes me that Hollywood has never made a movie about *them*.

The Seven Sutherland Sisters were born in Cambria to a minister, who was so hairy, when he worked in the fields people often mistook him for a bear (apparently not enough to shoot him). As his daughters grew it became apparent that they all had hair down to their waist, and even to the floor. To make a long story short, they went into show biz and got very rich with a singing act.

Let me simply put it to you this way: The Seven Sutherland Sisters made the Adams Family look like the Cleavers. Scott thinks I have "peculiarities". These people were so incredibly weird I'd have to spend an hour here recounting to you everything I know about them. Here's a little.

They built a mansion on Route 104 about a half mile from Warrens Corners. Whenever a relative died, they would not embalm them but would still lay them out in the living room, and since they were into spiritualism, they'd spend weeks talking to the dearly departed until the Health Dept knocked at the door and said, "Hey, what you've got there? It has to go in the ground by tomorrow"

Everytime a pet died it would get a coffin made out of precious metals and be buried in the back yard replete with jewels. When they were on the road touring, everyday they would send choice cuts of meat through the mail to their pets. Of course, it was rotten by the time it reached Cambria.

One of the husbands was a morphine addict who od'd and was buried in the Castlemaine Mausoleum down at Glenwood. Grave robbers tried to break in and steal the body for ransom, it was headlines in the Union Sun for weeks (not much changes). The widow, I think it was Doris, was living on High Street at the time. After her husband was interred at Glenwood, Doris, in her nightgown and carrying a lantern, would walk from High Street all the way to Glenwood Cemetary, and lean against the mausoleum for the rest of the night sobbing and wailing. Early morning farmers bringing their goods into Lockport would often mistake her for some kind of ghost.

There's much more about the Seven Sutherland Sisters. There have been books written but I'm still waiting for the movie.