On the Trail of the War of 1812
Nearly 200 years ago, the tiny but promising villages of Buffalo and Black Rock, located at the head of upper Great Lakes navigation, but also on the American frontier across the Niagara River from the Canadian dominions of the British Empire, found themselves in the middle of a continental war. Buffalo was burnt to the ground, and Black Rock was the site of numerous skirmishes, fortifications, and naval activity. Today, few obvious vestiges of this period remain. Join us as we peel back the layers of time and espy the Niagara Frontier as it was seen by Lt. Jesse Elliott, the first naval hero of the war to receive a Congressional medal, for his daring nighttime raid to capture two British warships on the Fort Erie shore.   

We start at near the mouth of what was Little Buffalo Creek, where both American and British forces made landings, and proceed northward past burial grounds, settlers’ homesites, the forgotten beach of Sandy Town, and the string of make-do fortifications along the Black Rock waterfront and the naval yard at Scajacquada Creek. You’ll come away with not just an understanding of what happened where, but an appreciation of the optimistic, opportunistic, humble, and occasionally heroic citizens who cast their lot on the very frontier of European settlement only to find the added hardship of war thrust upon them.
Sept. 15

10:00am. 2-hr. bus tour.

Meet at foot of Erie St., Erie Basin
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