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Letchworth State Park is a New York state park located 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Rochester and 60 miles (95 km) southeast of Buffalo in Livingston (towns of Leicester, Mount Morris, and Portage) and Wyoming (towns of Castile and Genesee Falls) counties. The park is roughly 17 miles (24 km) long,〔(New York conservationist left behind mini-Grand Canyon ), an August 2006 AP article via CNN〕 covering of land along the Genesee River.〔 Within the park, there are three large waterfalls on the Genesee River and as many as fifty waterfalls found on tributaries that flow into it; the deep gorge formed by the river, with rock walls rising up to in places and which narrow to across above the middle of the three falls, prompted the area's reputation as the "Grand Canyon of the East". The territory of the park was long part of the homeland of the Seneca people, who were largely forced out after the American Revolutionary War, as they had been allies of the defeated British. In 1856 William Pryor Letchworth (1823-1910), an industrialist, bought of this territory, and constructed his Glen Iris Estate. In 1906 he bequeathed the estate to New York, which later organized the park of which it is part.〔 Park entrances near the towns of Mount Morris, Perry, Castile and Portageville. A modern, well-maintained two- or three-lane road follows the west side of the gorge, allowing many scenic viewpoints for the geologic features. The three major waterfalls — called the Upper, Middle, and Lower Falls — are located in Portage Canyon, the southern section of the park. The Seneca called the land around this canyon "Seh-ga-hun-da", the "Vale of the three falls";〔(A Valley Called Sehgahunda ), from the Letchworth Park History website〕 the Middle Falls ("Ska-ga-dee") was believed to be so wondrous it made the sun stop at midday.〔 The only trail bridging the Genesee River across Portage Canyon crosses a stone bridge just below the Lower Falls. The Middle Falls is the highest, and the Upper Falls has an active railroad trestle crossing immediately above it, providing an even higher vantage immediately above the falls. The highest waterfall in New York is located in the park. Known as Inspiration Falls, it is a spectacular ribbon waterfall that is located on a tributary creek a short distance east of the Inspiration Point Overlook, 0.4 mile (640 m) west of the park visitor center. It has a total drop of 350 feet (107 m). While impressive in its height, it is seasonal and often appears as only a water stain on the cliff. The falls faces to the south-southwest and has a crest that is one foot (300 mm) wide. (215-foot (66m) Taughannock Falls, 100 miles east of Letchworth in Trumansburg, is generally recognized as the highest waterfall in New York, as well as in the entire Northeastern United States). The bedrock exposed in the gorge is Devonian in age, mostly shales, with some layers of limestone and sandstone. The rock was laid down in an ancient inland sea, and it holds many marine fossils. The landform of the section of the Genesee River valley represented by the park is geologically very young, caused by a diversion of the river from the old valley by the last continental glacier, which forced the river to cut a new section of valley. In 2007, Letchworth was named one of the top 100 campgrounds in the nation. In 2015, Letchworth won USA Today's Reader's Choice competition as the best state park in the United States. == Features and activities == The historic, restored Glen Iris Inn, Letchworth's former residence adapted for use as a hotel, located on the top of a cliff overlooking Middle Falls, offers in-season meals and overnight accommodations.〔 It is open to the public for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Other features of the park include pavilions, picnic tables, a playground, hiking trails, two large swimming pools, cabins, campsites for tents, trailer sites with dumping stations, and horse-riding trails.〔 The park is the present-day site of the grave of Mary Jemison,〔 a Scots-Irish immigrant pioneer who was captured at the age of 12 from central Pennsylvania by a French and Shawnee raiding party during the French and Indian War. She was soon adopted by a family of Seneca people, and eventually lived in western New York on the Genesee River. She had become thoroughly assimilated and chose to live with the Seneca for the rest of her long life, having a total of seven children by two successive husbands. Her remains were exhumed from the Buffalo Creek Reservation and reinterred on the grounds of a Seneca Council House, relocated to the site by Letchworth and rededicated in 1872.〔(The Council Grounds ), from the Letchworth Park History website〕 Activities within the park include hiking, biking, fishing, geocaching, hunting (wild turkey and deer when in season); in winter, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, whitewater rafting and kayaking, snow tubing, and horse-drawn sleighs.〔 There is also hot air ballooning, weather permitting. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Letchworth State Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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