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Wednesday, August 20, 2008 7:57 AM EDT
Wagon train in Olean Tuesday
By Rick Miller
Olean Times Herald
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| Joe Kelly/Olean Times Herald
The band Down Home Country plays in Portville's Pioneer Park on Monday for the crowd that gathered to greet the Bicentennial Wagon Train. |
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HINSDALE – On its 10th day, the Cattaraugus County Bicentennial Wagon Train and Stagecoach Run faced its biggest uphill challenge yet – Flanigan Hill Road - rising from this hamlet to the hilltop and down Jollytown Road toward an overnight stop Monday in Portville.
About 20 wagons were on Monday's leg of the two-week, 180-mile wagon train trek to celebrate the county's 200th birthday. There have been 20 or more guests at any one time – individuals and families – who ride along on one of the wagons for a day or a week.
The trek started Aug. 9 in Ellicottville, the original county seat, and has meandered the roads between more than 20 communities, with one stop for lunch and a combined dinner-breakfast stop each day.
After breakfast in Hinsdale Monday morning, the wagon train headed toward a lunch break in Haskell Hollow, then on to Portville where they stayed overnight in Pioneer Park.
After breakfast this morning in Portville, the wagon train headed west toward Olean, where they were scheduled to have lunch at Christ United Methodist Church; then on to dinner and an overnight stay at the Firemen's Park in Allegany.
The wagon train plans to take part of the dedication of the Salamanca Bicentennial Arch on North Main Street Wednesday night, and wind down in Little Valley on Thursday prior to lunch and closing ceremonies in Little Valley on Friday.
"It's been great," said Jim Little, who with his wife, Dolly, of The Crosspatch in Little Valley, was one of the moving forces behind the wagon train.
Mr. Little, a dark-haired, mustachioed man who always seems to be wearing his cowboy hat, is the now-familiar figure atop the bright-red stagecoach that has led the wagon train since it left Ellicottville. Creekside Riders, a Franklinville equestrian group, escorted the wagon train to the village limits in Franklinville on Sunday morning, he said.
"This is what's great," he said, pointing to people on both sides of Route 16 – people of all ages, kids to senior citizens, waving as the wagon train passed. There were more local residents waiting as the wagon train turned onto Flanigan Hill Road. Many had still cameras, movie cameras and cell phones with cameras.
"People come out and stand by the road and wave and say hi," Mr. Little said. "Some have brought out cupcakes and cookies."
Many residents along the route had positioned lawn chairs so they could sit and enjoy watching the wagon train pass.
At 3 mph, the wagon train allows riders to enjoy Cattaraugus County's back roads and lush green hills.
"You see things you'd never see from a car," Mr. Little said while coaxing his dark Percheron horses Maggie, 6, and Phoebe, 3, up the mile-long hill.
There have been few hills such as this and one on Lillibridge Road on the way to Portville, he pointed out. Going down into Zoar Valley north of Gowanda last week and climbing out in Cattaraugus County was also a chore for some of the horse-drawn wagons.
As the horses rested atop Flanigan Hill Road, people who had stopped by the road and others who lived nearby came out to ask question and take pictures.
John and Ruth Doyle of Cuba, brought their grandchildren Kyle Goodman, 8, and his sister, Maureen Goodman, 10, to see the wagon train. Kyle said he liked to listen to stories the drivers told at the campfire Sunday night outside the Hinsdale American Legion. Maureen said she liked the way the woman driving the Gypsy wagon spoke about how it was for the pioneers 200 years ago.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Mrs. Doyle said with a smile.
Bertha Skinner, who lives at the corner of Flanigan and Plank roads, had her grandchildren with her as well, including Shandell Spears.
"I just enjoy watching the wagons. It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime things," Shandell Spears said. "It's like the stuff I've learned in school. It's interesting how they lived."
Kyle Goodman added that he liked the rubber tires on many of the wagons, and pointed to a tire one wagon was dragging for added braking power down Jollytown Road.
Later, on the way down Jollytown Road toward Haskell Hollow, past the Waterway Hills golf course on Creek Road, Jorie Hall, 16, of Little Valley sat on the tire as it dragged behind one wagon to help it brake. At the rear of another wagon, several people pulled on ropes to slow it down.
Laurie George, a stay-at-home mom from Salamanca who brought her 6-year-old son Aaron on the two-week trip, is one of the outriders, or horse riders who keep an eye on things. She has been phoning in daily wagon train reports each morning to local radio station WPIG.
Mrs. George said she was moved by one sign in a yard that said "God bless your horses." Local residents along the way have shown much kindness, she added.
"When this started out, they (county officials) didn't know how big it would get," Mr. Little said. "I'm loving this. Mapping out the route was a lot of fun. But it took time. We tried to pick the best way to do the whole county."
Smaller communities along the way get involved with lunches. On average, they're feeding 400 a night, and it was more than that at the Hinsdale stop.
"The communities have really enjoyed this," Mr. Little said. "So have we."
"We wanted to involve the whole county. It's history repeating itself," he said, referring to the 1908 Centennial Wagon Train.
At lunch, in an open field just past the golf course, the Lyndon Volunteer Fire Department and Auxiliary set up its "road kill stew lunch" - thankfully, not real road kill. They also brought a tanker filled with water for the horses.
Mr. Little is also pleased at how well everyone is getting along despite 10 days on the road.
"Everything is going smooth," he said.
Justen Laird, 10, was one of the students whose name was drawn in a lottery to ride one of the wagons for a day. His mother, Beth Dydek of Hinsdale, accompanied him, as did a 10-year-old friend, Matthew Williams. Justen, too, thought the wagon train was a great opportunity to see some living history. He also liked the foot massage on the floor of the wagon as it braked sharply going downhill.
Diana Dutton of Hinsdale, was also riding along on the wagon – her second day.
"Having been a teacher, I'm very interested in history," she said, adding that she represented Hinsdale on the Cattaraugus County Bicentennial Committee.
A London, Ontario, Canada resident, Catal Hayuk, read about the wagon train in Draft Horse Journal and decided she wanted to participate. A self-professed "city girl," she said the experience so far has "countrified" her.
"I even drove a little last night," she added.
At each overnight stop, there is a history lesson provided by Mrs. Little - "Dolly" to most everyone on the wagon train - a chuck-wagon cooking demonstration, a black iron forge demonstration, and farrier and blacksmithing demonstrations. There's also music and singing by Buckskin and Calico at each stop.
Mrs. Little said Monday she was fascinated by the Amish who came out to watch – and some to join in – the wagon train as it went through Amish country between Randolph and South Dayton.
"They were fascinated about us doing something they do every day," she said. "People were hanging out windows and standing on roofs to watch us go by."
And the Amish aren't the only curious ones. Mrs. Little said she works with new people every day.
"I love people, talking to people," she said. "When I give the talk on the stagecoach (at night) they are fascinated about the role the covered wagons and stagecoaches played in the area's history."
The wagon train also has its own clown - Burton Pincoski of Little Valley, who often wheels around the wagon train on his unicycle to pass the time. On Monday, he donned a polka-dot clown costume to complete the clown persona, and actually rode the unicycle up Flanigan Hill Road.
® Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com
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