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Beginning in roughly the 1900s, electric interurban rail lines became popular across the US. Their lower profile--in terms of size, weight and emissions--made them ideal for commuters traveling to cities. The Erie Railroad joined this trend by adding…

Built on the site of a former Shaker community, the Craig Colony for Epileptics was envisioned as a self-supporting institution when it opened in 1896. Inmates worked in the Shakers' existing farms and blacksmith shops; these new buildings were…

At this location near Sonyea, NY a community of Shakers settled in 1837 and grew to a size of perhaps 150. Later in the century, as their numbers declined, the 1,800-acre plot was purchased by the State Board of Charities and eventually named the…

Constructed as the Genesee County Poor House in 1828, this site in Bethany, NY became the warehouse for a variety of afflictions: alcoholism, mental illness, disability, and pauperism. Inmates spent years there including one, Phebe White, who died…

Sharing a border with the Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area, this 1,300-acre tract similarly was created during the 1930s. Under the State Reforestation Act, nine different owners were bought out between 1930 and 1946, creating a mixed-use…

West of Dansville, NY is this 5,100-acre tract managed by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). It was obtained during the 1930s by the Federal Resettlement Administration--which bought out struggling landowners and transferred…

In the late 1990s Gary Russell, who had inherited a 771-acre plot of land along the Genesee River in Allegany County, reached out to the Nature Conservancy about putting it into a forever-wild trust. He and his brothers had floated along its waters,…

Near the location of the Groveland Shaker Colony (1837-1892), and then the Craig Colony for Epileptics (1894-1988) was a tract of land sometimes called the "Big Woods." By the early 1960s, the de-institutionalization movement presaged closure of the…