Archival work done on the Geneseo Valley Canal (turned railroad, then later turned hiking trail) was done through special archives sources and internet resources, mainly Flickr and Youtube. The narrative arc of this land spans nearly two hundred years, starting in the 1830’s when the idea of building a canal to Rochester from the communities of the Genesee Valley was funded by the state. Nearly forty years later, though, the canal was essentially unused and abandoned. Different legislators in the area proposed the idea of turning the old canal into a railroad, and the idea was supported by many of the newspapers in the area.
I couldn’t find any sources about what happened between the railroad being built and now, but something obviously changed. That path of the railroad/ canal has now been changed into a 90 mile hiking trail, which partially passes Letchworth State Park. What’s really interesting I think, and I’d like to explore this more in the future, is how this place of a human-made mass transport was slowly transformed into a “natural” (or maybe just natural? minus the quotations) area. That transition begs the question of what will happen to our highways or our airports two hundred years from now? Will those places become natural as well? Or is there no real use between defining man-made and natural, if it all will eventually be seen as natural one day?