Bill Burk's collective writing...and some other stuff.

YOU GOT THE STONES?

STONES AT SOUTHERN TIER BREWERY

“In the world of Stones, every landscape is a canvas for adventure. From the soft, shell-strewn sands of beaches to forests blanketed in pine needles and twigs, to the manicured charm of mowed meadows and diverse soil terrains – diversity is our playground. We embrace the unconventional, where slopes, hills, and rugged cliffs become the backdrop for an exhilarating Stones experience.”

Stones Throwing Association Website

The game of Stones is easy to describe and hard to picture. The nearest recognizable relative is probably bocce; a small ball is set on a fixed piece of earth, and alternating competitors toss heavy baked-clay balls at the target, trying to get closest. But it’s like bocce in the same way shuffleboard is like golf.

So, Stones is more like golf? Not exactly. It has elements of golf, in that there is a fixed course, with fairways and hazards, out of bounds, and management strategies. But it’s more like putt-putt blended with bowling than the golf you know.

Kade Sivak is the COO of the Stones Throwing Association and manages the course located at the Southern Tier Brewery in Lakewood. It’s a unique recreation operation in Chautauqua County. He says about the game, “What I love most about the game is that it’s accessible, it can be played by people of all ages and still have a great time. We’ve had a tournament where we have an eight-year-old partner with an eighty-year-old and they ended up winning a few games and had a great time.”

A Stones course is five stretches (holes) that take you through mowed fairways, sand traps, and rough patches, around and through trees and stone fixtures, up and down hills. There are clear boundaries on each stretch (sometimes it’s a pool of water!). You play the five stretches, tossing four stones per round -some stretches remind you of golf par threes, some are longer and remind you of a par five. All stretches score the same, you throw your stones, score the stretch and move onto the next, unique challenge. There are sixteen basic rules of play and etiquette, but like golf (which has only a few rules), it’s the interpretations that are abundant…especially when you take balls of any sort into the wild and toss or hit them around.

There. Simple.

And, in Lakewood, it’s played in a beer garden. What could be better than that?

Kade manages the Southern Tier course called Brewers Hollow. “I manage all events like leagues and tournaments there,” Sivak says. Brewer’s Hollow is the first public stones course ever built, constructed by Sivak Stonemasonry. “They work as a course designer and builder for any new courses at other breweries or businesses that want to enjoy the game of Stones. We encourage people if they ever see a place that could fit a Stones course to check out our website and reach out to us so we can attempt to make that dream come true!”

Brewer’s Hollow is the premier Stones venue in, well, the world. “We’ve hosted hundreds of tournaments as well as leagues every summer and fall that fill up quick, but we are always looking to expand and host more players each night,” Kade says. “We have a world championship every year, with last year’s having a cash prize of $1,000. This year we are attempting to take it to the next level and really give people the best experience at each tournament that is planned out this year.

“STA tournaments and leagues are on the website that vary in competitiveness. As well as a team league called the National Stones League, that includes teams like the Buffalo Mafia, the Jamestown Ironmongers, Chautauqua Armada, and the Pittsburgh Chaos. This team league is peak competition as it is a different approach to the game but takes all the best players and faces them off in 8v8 competition.”

Play at Brewer’s Hollow, like most outdoor sports in the area, follows the weather. Kade continiues, “For casual play we will be opening up May 18th on Southern Tier Public Day where we will be offering each new players first game free as well as have the option to have a skilled player help them learn the game. Then we’re open Wednesday through Sunday until the end of September.

“We’re promoting this year as ‘The Year of Stones’, so if you’ve never played, this would be a good time to come try out the game. It’s easy, fun, and doesn’t take long to play a match. The Stones community is filled with great people that are always willing to help teach new players and it’ll be the best outdoor activity in the area.

You can check out everything Stones at stonesthrowing.com.

NOT THAT KIND OF CASINO; BEMUS POINT, NY

Crank up your search engines.

Now Google Count Basie, Lena Horne, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Buddy Rich, Old Blue Eyes (Frank Sinatra), Sammy Kaye, Ozzy Nelson (of Ozzie and Harriet fame), Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman.

You’ve just surveyed the most famous entertainers from the 1930’ and 40’s, world renown performers of music and theater, classical big bands, jazz musicians, stand-up comedians, multi-talented entertainers. People who could book and fill any arena in the country from coast to coast, Carnegie and Radio City Music Halls, The Cotton Club, The Biltmore.

One of the prize bookings of these famous artists was The Village Casino, right here in Bemus Point, New York. Every person from the above list, among others, performed in that building.

It’s a behemoth, “The Casino”, sitting lakeside like a fortress, guarding the middle of Chautauqua Lake on the Bemus side, the natural half-way point for vehicle and boat travel between Mayville and Jamestown, New York, on a prime spit of land. As you enter the narrows from the water, its unmistakable profile welcomes you to the recreation focal point of the lake. It was built in 1930, purportedly on old local Indian tribal meeting grounds, next to the Bemus Village Park. Pittsburgh industrialist James Selden had the recreation center constructed for the Village of Bemus Point, riding the momentum and popularity of the Celoron Park movement, huge hotels rimming the lake and steamboats transporting people up and down Chautauqua. Like the Celoron pavilion, he equipped it with a dining presence, a dance hall, and bowling alleys on the second floor. During the 1930’s and 40’s that building was one of the most “if these walls could talk” venues in all of New York State.

Through the years, The Village Casino has gone through several iterations, but always comes back to defining itself as a place for food, drinks and entertainment. In the fifties and sixties, it had a carnival park atmosphere as a beach house and bowling alley. In the 80’s, back to a bar and restaurant, accessible by lake traffic. Entertainment picked up again and the facility hosted popular bands like Rusted Root and The 10,000 Maniacs.

And then came the chicken wings.

In 1982, as the wing became popular in Western New York as a meal, rather than waste, the Casino jumped on that phenomenon. At least 14,819 chickens sacrificed the gift of flight so that 29,638 of their wings could be eaten in a twenty-four-hour period. It was a Guinness World record at the time and restored Bemus Point on the map of popular culture, if only that particular slice that enjoys a spicy chicken wing and eccentric world records.

In 1999 the Carlson family took charge of the restaurant, bar and entertainment. They did a comprehensive remodel, added a game room, ice cream parlor, a deck for lake-side dining of about 120 guests, inside and bar seating for another 200. There are forty dock slips and wait-staff restaurant service right out to your boat. The banquet hall where the legends from the past performed is available for events and seats another 300.

Bemus Point has been the summer entertainment mecca on Chautauqua Lake for decades. It’s the product of its central location, especially with the Veterans Memorial Bridge as an east-west access conduit. The Village Casino has served as the anchor for Bemus, sitting hard on the shores with a rich history of service to patrons that stretches back as far as can be remembered.

It’s owned and operated by local entrepreneur Andrew Carlson, and still hosts live entertainment by local and regional acts every Friday and Saturday evening through Labor Day. As their web site states: We continue our commitment to be the area’s best and most affordable in casual waterfront dining, with an environment that allows you to relax, enjoy, make new friends, and reacquaint with old friends!

The Village Casino is located at 1 Lakeside Drive in Bemus Point. For more information call 386-2333 or visit www.bemuspointcasino.com.

Postscript: In 2018, when the sober esteem of 1982 Guinness record had worn off, the Carlson family served up another 42,210 chicken wings breaking their own record. It was not a good day for poultry in Chautauqua County.

IT’S THE TEETH!!

It’s the teeth. And that jutting jaw, the epitome of arrogance and brutish malice. Long muscular torso, thick in the middle, piercing, uncaring eyes. Bigger, stronger, faster than everyone else.

But the teeth. You notice immediately, five hundred at least, more in some of the larger beasts. The fangs are tightly positioned, small and needle-like, angled inward to keep prey from escape, razor sharp to shred live food that struggles.

Then there’s the behavior, predatory, vicious, lurking, springing from the weeds, leaping to attack and eat the first thing that moves, carnivorous, cannibalistic, devouring its own kind if opportunity presents, even the metal of something man-made, it simply doesn’t care in its frenzy to feed. There’s no discretion, no apologies. It’s hungry, it eats, a notoriously fierce fish (anglers say it will attack the propeller of a trolling motor, while every other life form in the lake will swim from it.

Todd Young has been chartering muskie expeditions on Chautauqua Lake for eighteen years, hosting bucket-list enthusiasts from all over the country looking to battle the largest member of the pike family; catching a muskellunge is that much of an adventure on Chautauqua Lake. It’s a daunting, wildly rewarding industry (the nickname of the muskie is “The Fish of 10,000 Casts”). Todd knows every square quad of Chautauqua Lake. He knows the water; he knows the fish.

“We go where the fish are, lower lake, upper basin. I’ve taken hundreds of people onto the lake to catch muskie.”

Dude knows his fish, especially the prize catch on Chautauqua Lake, the muskellunge.

Muskie are intentionally established on Chautauqua Lake (one subspecies is named The Chautauqua Muskellunge). Muskie management became a thing in the late 1800s, when the first hatcheries in the country were built along the shores near Bemus Point. The local hatchery effort, overseen by the state DEC, is now located at Prendergast Point. It’s a calculated process stocking the lake with an apex predator. In 2022, 13,000 fingerlings from six to nine inches long were released into the lake, understanding that about a third of those will survive a season; too many muskie eating the fish supply could seriously disrupt the lake ecosystem. That management, and the general stewardship from fishing charters like Todd’s Muddy Creek Fishing Guides has made the 13,000 acres of Chautauqua Lake a premier muskie fishing destination.

“We are completely catch and release,” Todd says. “There are fish we catch that I recognize that I’ve caught before. We’re very careful about bringing them onto the boat. We only fight them for a few minutes, it can be a great battle they’re so big and strong, but if you exhaust them you might kill them.”

And muskie get big, it’s not uncommon to pull in one thirty-five pounds or more. The largest on record was sixty-nine pounds, fifteen ounces, average usually less than forty inches long and might weigh from seven to fifteen pounds. Muskie can live up to thirty years.

“We use heavy equipment, put six lines in the water, and hope to average two catches a day. There’s a small window for catching them when they are in a feeding cycle. Once they’ve eaten, sometimes up to twenty percent of their body weight, they sit still for up to five days digesting. But when they eat, they are very aggressive.

During their feeding cycle, they’ll eat other fish up to a third of their own size. More than once I’ve seen one floating on the lake that tried to eat another fish that was just too big. They’re not particularly smart fish, when it’s time to eat they don’t much care what they go after.”

Todd thinks the lake has seen a bit of a resurgence, more fish are living longer, getting bigger. “We were seeing red spots on the fish the past few years, an unhealthy sign. We don’t see that on catches now. A four-footer can be twenty years old. That takes a lot of care from fishing to get one to be that old. But that’s the future of our lake, fishing for sport and letting them go.”

You could spend a worse day on Chautauqua Lake than in the care of Muddy Creek Fishing Guides. Check them out at https://mcfishnguides.com), or give Todd a call at 724 674-3839.

FROM PAIN COMES HOPE

“Initially it was only pain for me, and there’s still a hole that won’t go away. It took several years to accept that the hole wouldn’t go away. Eventually that loss also became a source of perspective and peace that I have drawn on as strengths in other challenging situations, both personally and professionally. She taught us to always stay positive….so…that’s what I try to do.”

Todd Weatherby

Measuring time in a white blood cell count is as excruciating as it sounds, a lethal diagnostic benchmark. Those are heavy days, heavy hours, barely bearable waiting for the stock ticker to report in the day’s highs or lows. Registering your mortality like the temperature of your body, of your life.

Todd Weatherby is a local product, graduating from Southwestern High School. Two months ago, he joined Siemens AG, an $80 billion global technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. He is CEO of their professional services division, Siemens Advanta. On his way to this position Todd held leadership roles in several technology companies you might recognize: Oracle, Microsoft, and Amazon. He was responsible for the launch of Amazon Web Services ProServe, that ubiquitous AWS brand you see everywhere on TV.

Sharon Kunkel (Weatherby) was his mother. She was an intensive care nurse at WCA Hospital in Jamestown and attended nursing school at Jamestown Community College. In 1984 Sharon died of acute leukemia.

“Acute seems like an understatement,” Todd says. “From the time she complained of symptoms that she described as feeling like mono, or the flu, she was gone in just twelve days. Most of that time was spent at the hospital in Erie where they were guessing at the cause and the treatment. Easily the most traumatic experience of my life. Impacted me in ways that I’ll never fully understand.”

It was tragedy on a titanic scale for the people who knew and adored Sharon, and it’s impossible to say for certain if her death informed Todd’s success (though you don’t have to be a psychologist to suggest such a thing). But from her death, as from so many others whose memories deserve cherishing, came a glimpse of hope.

The Chautauqua Region Community Foundation (CRCF) is a major depository of philanthropic giving and scholarships in the county. It administers over seven-hundred endowments in support of emerging community needs, charitable organizations, and local students pursuing higher education. The organization has a community-wide, big-net mission to do more than process donations; they are also “deeply committed to creating a vibrant region where every resident feels connected and has the opportunity to thrive” (per their website).

In 1978, a group of Chautauqua County citizen commissioned a national expert on community foundations to explore the possibility of setting up an endowed fund to support the area. That originating group included some important names in the cadre of Chautauqua benefactors; Carl Cappa, Barbara Carlson, Betty Erickson, Francis Grow, Miles Lasser, Elizabeth Lenna, Marion Panzarella, Richard Parker, Samuel Price, Sr., John Sellstrom, and Kenneth Strickler. The expert inferred that the area was too small to support a significant endowment but was impressed enough with the level of charitable giving here that he endorsed the creation of a foundation in Chautauqua. The history of the CRCF reads, “The Chautauqua region was very fortunate to have a forward-thinking group of individuals who saw the need for a community foundation. These individuals gave their gifts of time, dedication and leadership, in seemingly endless amounts and are the very reason CRCF exists today.”

Nearly 40 years after her passing, the memory of Sharon Kunkel lives on in the spirit of her two sons Todd and Tim, their families, and in the Sharon Kunkel Nursing Scholarship. In those four decades, there have been 48 students awarded, twelve of which were awarded multiple times (62 total awards) totaling $32,379.

Lisa Lynde, the Donor Services Officer at CRCF gives a recent history of the scholarship: “In 2022 we had eleven qualifiers, in 2023 we had nineteen. Last year our Healthcare Scholarship Selection committee, made up of a group of volunteers with healthcare backgrounds really liked the applicants, one stood out, and two others were great candidates, so they decided to give the biggest portion to the first choice, and then divide the balance between the remaining two.

Todd and his wife Lynda have two kids Kyle and Dana. Tim Weatherby and his wife Mary have two kids Lynn and Maxwell. They continue to support nursing students in WNY via this CRCF scholarship in their mother’s memory.

Donations to grow the Sharon Kunkel Nursing Scholarship Fund can be made online at crcfonline.org/give or by mailing a check to Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, 418 Spring St., Jamestown, NY 14701.

For more information visit www.crcfonline.org or contact Lisa Lynde, Donor Services Officer at 716-661-3390 or llynde@crcfonline.org .

CIVIC THEATER

I’d like to suggest that, if you have some time and you’re bored, weather-weary, or interested in beng entertained for free, you go to a local civil business meeting; a session of court, or a meeting of government legislatures (town, city, village, school board, etc.). It’s a fascinating live-action choreographed play of official customs put on periodically to run the business of a court, school district, town, or village. It’s ceremony and improvisation. It’s ritual and interpretative.

And it’s all free and open to the public. You already bought a ticket with your tax dollars; you are one of the producers. These meetings and proceedings are all, on some level, vastly entertaining with the side attraction of being informative.

You just have to leave your firearms at the door.

If it helps, don’t look at it as an act of civic duty, though that’s not a bad excuse and after-the-fact benefit, but rather as a venue of entertainment, like a movie theater or improv stage, watching a documentary before it’s made, or a live sporting event. There’s a composition that reminds you of a ballgame -pick the sport- a schematic to focus the action. There are rules and decorum and process, players you root for, villains you hope strike out, officials and umpires who move the game along, call fouls, mediate the action, time-outs, coaching (mostly by attorneys), rosters of players to follow. Rookies navigate the proceedings with caution and reverence, or false bravado and arrogance. The seasoned veterans perform with nonchalance and forbearance. These events, which you can find scheduled in your local newspaper, really can be compelling spectator sport.

Your local government, performing in real time, is the heart of Americana at work, law, and decorum and ritual and Robert’s Rules in action. It’s so much more relevant and immediate than national politics, the decisions made have a much more direct effect on your life (your tax bill, for instance). You can follow along a posted itinerary, like a theatrical production, or a religious service, but you won’t know what’s going to happen until it does. There will be some drama, maybe passion, maybe anger, maybe rebellion. Feelings will be hurt, egos salved, there will be compromise and judgement, agreement, and most importantly, discourse.

As an impartial spectator your presence won’t be entirely anonymous; you will be noticed. The looks on the faces of the presiding establishment (a board or a court) will be worth the trip. These “officials” don’t typically perform in front of a live studio audience, they tend to like their vacuums, and when they do have an audience, it’s usually filled with familiar faces. I’m not saying they have anything to hide (necessarily), the press usually covers their meetings thoroughly, and the minutes are FOIL-able public knowledge. I am saying that with you there, they’ll sit up a little straighter, keep their eyes open longer, pay more attention. I don’t blame them; nobody running a meeting where they are held accountable for the daily lives of its constituents likes to be surprised or blindsided by an issue, a train they didn’t see coming. They prefer things to go along their predicated schedule, to control the narrative.

Board member: Why are you here?

You: I’m here for the show.

Board member (pauses, scratches head): But why?

Something unexpected and off-script will happen, that is almost certain. Sometimes you have to wait, like a baseball game where batter after batter goes to the plate, and suddenly one smashes a ball into your lap. But somebody will say or do something that will surprise you. A decision will be made that you applaud or boo.

You will be entertained!

To review, going to a meeting of your local governing boards or court;

Upside: free, entertaining, and informative.

Downside: no concession stand.

A Really Good (not Great) Lake

In the northern part of Chautauqua County, between the lake there and the Great Lake Erie, there’s a place where the earth curves. Actually, there’s many such hills, but this one’s special.

The Chautauqua Ridge is a demarcation of confluence. It plays a small part in splitting the continent in half, between north and south. It’s a rare geological marvel, and it’s right here, where we live. The old saw goes that if there was a building built in the middle of the ridge, that rain falling on the north side would end up in the Atlantic Ocean (Lake Erie to the Saint Lawrence Seaway), and a rain falling on the south side would eventually be deposited in the Gulf of Mexico (Chadakoin to Conewango Creek, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, past New Orleans into the gulf).

Along that southern route is Lake Chautauqua.

Chautauqua is fed by a dozen or so arterial creeks (Ball, Bemus, Big Inlet, Dewittville, Dutch Hollow, Goose, Lighthouse, Little Inlet, Maple Springs, Mud and Prendergast). At its widest Chautauqua is about two miles. It has a northern and southern basin that squeeze together roughly in the middle. The narrows at Stow and Bemus Point is where the lake is most bridgeable, crossed now New York Interstate 86, and by the Bemus Point ferry on the water. The lake is 17-miles long, a straight-line run from Mayville to Celoron. About forty-one miles is lakefront property, all but about three miles of that privately owned.

Most people who live on the lake have an attitude of stewardship toward this valuable local resource. It is a prized geological, glacial-built wonder. It is a beacon, and a challenge. The beacon part is obvious, a recreation designation for boaters, fishermen and fisherwomen, and all the entertainment that goes with an easily navigable, accessible body of water.

The challenge? Well, that’s a little more complicated.

The reliance on a lake for the overall financial health of a population can be tenuous. Currently Chautauqua Lake provides the money, the resources, the sustenance of life for much of the south-county population (intermixed with agriculture and manufacturing to be sure). According to the Chautauqua County Office for Media Information, sixty-six percent of visitors to the county use the lake, raising just over $282 million a year. Lakeside municipalities reinvest about $3.2 million back into the lake. The rest of the revenue helps keep businesses open and food on tables via hospitality commerce, and taxes (about 47% of county sales tax is generated annually by lake-border municipalities).

The natural evolution of lakes, what becomes of them in geological timeframes, is that they become forests. Just as water seeks its level, so does the earth. It’s a function of gravity pulling everything down to the lowest points available. Lakes fill in, that’s their natural lifecycle. Runoff from watersheds brings silt and seeds and debris. It settles into the deeper parts of any body of water. Human beings have always been hard on lakes. They invariable get used by populations as depositories for waste. Developing land around lakes, usually the most attractive property, strips a lake of its watershed vegetation and replaces it with construction and chemical residuals. Man-made chemicals cultivate lake weeds that are usually harmful to lake-life.

But as much as man can contribute to the decline of a lake, so can we delay that process, and Chautauqua has champions, people who care for it. Randy Holcomb has been professionally involved with the area around the lake for 47 years (38 in the town assessor’s office and the past nine on the Lakewood Village board). Safe to say he has a feel for the health of the lake, and he is confident in the future of the lower basin as an entertainment and recreation resource. “We welcome the challenge of maintaining lake as a great place to live and visit, Lakewood and Celoron in particular.” His enthusiasm for the future of the lower basin is infectious. “Last year was one of the best we’ve had on the lake in a few years. We’re looking forward to another great summer.”

Chautauqua Lake isn’t in jeopardy of filling in any time soon.

The Grape Discovery Center of Westfield, N.Y.

“Studying wine taught me that there was a very big difference between soil and dirt; dirt is to soul what zombies are to humans. Soil is full of life, while dirt is devoid of it.”

Oliver Magny – Wine expert, author and entrepeneur

Wine making depends on soil quality; you know where the good soil is by what you can grow. Different soils lend themselves to different vintages of wine. Places like NAPA Valley, with its diverse climate, 68 square miles tucked between the Mayacamas Range to the west and the Vaca Mountains on the east is an obvious choice. So too the Finger Lakes in central New York.

On the coast of Lake Erie generally, and in Chautauqua County between Dunkirk and Ripley specifically, the soil is prime for the concord grape, and the wine you can make from it.

The Lake Erie wine region is a hidden gem in American viticulture. Spanning parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, hugging the coast of the great lake, it’s distinguished by its unique climate, soil composition, and geographical location, creating an ideal environment for wine production. The concord grape, with its deep root system thrives here. Lake Erie keeps the local weather from extreme fluctuations (though you would be hard pressed to convince local snow-belt survivors of that), which allows for a longer growing season and relatively stable conditions for the concord grape.

In recognition of the importance, and economic impact of this region as a wine mecca, the Grape Heritage Foundation constructed The Grape Discovery Center In February 2010.

“We consider ourselves the educational and historical center of the Lake Erie grape corridor,” says Deb Howser. “There are thirty-thousand acres of vineyards in a hundred-fifty miles along the lake.” Deb is the manager of the Discovery Center. “Here we have representations of most of the products from those vineyards. We are able to sell quite a few of the wines from New York State, and we showcase those from Pennsylvania.”

The Center is an inauspicious building, located slightly off the beaten path on Route 20 off New York State 90 between Westfield and Ripley, N.Y. From the roadside it’s an unassuming building, but a revelation inside. It features a tasting bar with wines from the area, an exhibit room, interactive learning displays, and a souvenir shop with apparel, food, and art from local artisans.

The economic impact of the industry is undeniable. With a worldwide distribution of the products from the area, the grape district supports almost 2,000 jobs. The total economic impact is $340 million, which includes sales generated by juice processors, growers, wine production, and and other businesses from whom the vineyards purchase. About $54 million is paid out in wages from over 800 producers on those 30,000 acres of vineyards. Total sales approaches $210 million, with $17.5 from wine production. Some 35,000 tourists visit annually. The center is celebrating its ten-year anniversary.

A premier event for the center is the Westfield Grape and Wine Festival, held at Moore Park in Westfield, N.Y., coming September 7^th and 8^th. This is the second year of the festival, that has something for the whole family all centered around the grape. “There are grape pies and ice cream as well as the wines and juice.” Howser says. “We’ll have vineyard tours and feature antique equipment.”

Most recently the Center has housed brewing operations for Ghostfish Brewing Company. The Seattle based company has one of the premier gluten free craft beers on the market. The Center will be selling that unique product soon.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of wine.

The Town Names of Chautauqua County

Why They’re Called What They’re Called

Chautauqua county has twenty-seven towns (fifteen villages and eighteen school districts for what it’s worth). That’s a lot of governing done by a lot of people; tax assessments, elections, sewer districts, utilities, police, fire, and transportation department management, more taxes. Each entity carving out a distinction, an image for the world to see, maybe make a case for visitors to stop in and spend some money, or people to make their home.

And, they all had to be named (the study of names is onomastics for you lexicologists).

The name Chautauqua is native American, derived from a lost language of the Erie tribe. The lake, town, and institution of Chautauqua share the name. A Seneca Indian tribe inhabited the land back then as well and contributed names from their language to Cassadaga (the word meaning “water under the rocks”), and Kiantone, from the Seneca word kyenthone, meaning “a level place for growing corn”. Not wildly exciting or mysterious original descriptions, but more singular than pointing and describing what you see, like Lakewood (lake and woods), Westfield originated in a field west of Ripley, Silver Creek (water that looks silver), Forestville (a ville next to a forest), Lily Dale (a dale full of lilies), or Cherry Creek (see Silver Creek).

Many were named after the man who first set down roots in a spot. Busti after Paul Busti, Ellicott after Joseph Ellicott, Bemus after William Bemus. These three in particular procured their property from the Holland Land Company and successfully petitioned to have it named for them.

Jamestown is named after James Prendergast, an early Chautauqua County settler.

The county seat, Mayville, was named by the Holland Land Company, when Paul Busti successfully petitioned Joseph Ellicott for permission to name the village after Busti’s wife under her maiden name of May. Elizabeth May was from a prominent English family and married Paul Busti. The couple had no children and she never visited western New York.

Not a town, but the hamlet of Ripley was titled for Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, a general in the War of 1812. Sinclairville was founded in 1809 and named for the American Revolutionary War Major Samuel Sinclear. Celoron is named for Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville, a French officer and explorer of Ohio. Sheridan was named by John Loucks for the Civil War Union general Phil Sheridan. During the 1870s Patrick Falconer donated a bunch of land to the Dunkirk Allegheny Valley and Pittsburg Railroad using his name for the depot in a place called Worksburg, later named after the landowner.

At least four are looked-like places. Randolph was named in honor of Randolph, Vermont by its early settlers. Poland for…well, Poland. Dunkirk was called Chadwick Bay in 1805 and renamed because its harbor reminded people of Dunkirk (Dunkerque), France. Panama was named after its rocks, which were named after the Isthmus of Panama by a man called Panama Joe.

The county is big on memorializing signers of the Declaration of Independence, even if these namesakes, like Elizabeth May, never set foot here. William Ellery, George Clymer, Roger Sherman, and Richard Stockton all signed; all have towns in Chautauqua named after them.

Clymer was a Pennsylvanian, first president of Philadelphia Bank, first president of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, and vice-president of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society.

Roger Sherman is the only person to have signed all four of the most significant documents in our nation’s early history: the Continental Association from the first Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. He was a favorite son of Connecticut.

Richard Stockton was one of five New Jersey signees.

The Town of Gerry was named after Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States in 1812 and also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

William Ellery also signed. He was a supreme court judge in Rhode Island.

For some of the “F” towns; Findlay Lake was named in 1815 for the man who built the dam that powered his mills and created the lake, Alexander Findlay.

The first European family who settled in the area were purportedly the Frews in 1807. Tack on the burgh and you have Frewsburg.

French Creek is named for a fort the French used near Erie. Legend has it George Washington traveled the creek to ask the French to abandon their Pennsylvania stronghold.

And finally, Fredonia is derived from the English word “freedom” with a Latin ending. The creator of the name, Samuel Latham Mitchill, proposed it as an alternative to using The United States for our country.

Imagine the implications.

The Spirited Saga of The Firecracker 10K. Hound’s CHASE!

A Dash Through Lakewood’s Iconic Footrace

Forty-three shirts. All different colors and designs. Enough to fill a large dresser or a small closet.

Forty-three shirts for forty-three years.

That’s how long people of all ages have lined up on Terrace Avenue on an early morning on or near to July 4^th in shorts and running shoes, taken off on foot, and ended back where they started 6.2 miles and between thirty and ninety minutes later. Before they covered that distance, they all got t- shirts and a runner’s bib. With an average of 300 runners a year (as high as 500 one year) that’s over 13,000 tops.

Welcome to the Lakewood Firecracker 10K—a rollicking holiday tradition that’s equal parts community block party, morning exercise, and road race. The Lakewood Firecracker 10K and 2 Mile Run/Walk will be held in Lakewood, NY, on Friday, July 4, 2025, with the 10K race starting at 9:00 AM. If you were prescient enough to preregister for the race you will receive shirt number 44.

Tom Anderson retired as the director of the Lakewood YMCA in 2022 after 31 years. A big part of his job was coordinating the annual Lakewood Firecracker race; engaging sponsors, signing up runners, and covering race day logistics. Of the 43 races run, Tom and his YMCA staff and team of volunteers have handed out thirty-two of those shirts when the YMCA took over the race from the Village of Lakewood in 1992. Tom says, “The July 4^th Firecracker run is more of a reunion for Lakewood than anything else. People come home from all over the country to see friends and family.”

The race originated in the early 80’s when jogging was all the craze in the United States and the idea of running K’s took off as a popular community fund-raising activity. The village of Lakewood organized the first race in 1981 as an add-on to an ambitious Jaycees sponsored Lakewood Beach 4^th of July carnival that included fireworks, a water-ski show, a parade down Terrace Avenue, rides, paratroopers landing in the lake, and -I kid you not- a guy who set himself on fire and jumped into a pool. Anderson says, “The 10K came in 1981, organized by the village and it started at the Chautauqua Mall. We took it over in 1992.”

That first shirt is older than most of the 400-500 people who line up to run today.

From the beginning, the Firecracker 10K was more a celebration of all things Lakewood, a warm-up for the events of the day; street vendors, beachfront games for kids, and the very popular fireworks show, where the beach hill becomes a sitting-room-only carpet of blankets and lawn chairs. The start of the race is like a reunion, where families and friends meet up. Once the race starts, non-runners cheer on the hoofers. Folks living along the race-route hand out water and encouragement. The event has blossomed, drawing bigger crowds and more runners each year. As running became more popular, more women, youth, and older athletes joined the fun, making the start line a true cross-section of the Lakewood community.

Proceeds from the race fund scholarships at the YMCA, who prides themselves on never turning away a child for financial reasons.

Randy Holcomb, mayor of the Village of Lakewood is a proud and enthusiastic supporter of the event. “Lakewood is grateful to be sponsoring the spirited Firecracker 10K & 2 Mile Run/Walk thru our scenic village, not only for promoting health and fitness, also for the support of our local community. Good luck to all participants!”

This year the Lakewood 4^th of July celebration will kick-off of Rock the Lake, a season-long series of concerts held at the beach gazebo. Event coordinator Michelle Turner says, “We are excited to bring this event to the Village of Lakewood as the LCDC continues its mission of improving the quality of life within the Village for all members of our community.”
Look for the series on Sundays at Lakewood’s Hartley Park, July 6th, 27th and August 10th, 24^th, from 2-5 pm.

NFL Coaching Rolodex: Personality vs. Competence

NFL Head Coaching Personalities Can Overshadow Competence

Apparently making bold, noxious predictions on TV, and owning a middling resume doesn’t get you hired in the NFL.

Per New York reporting, the Jets will not be hiring snowy-toothed ESPN GameDay pundit Rex Ryan, despite his obvious pining for the job on the weekly national TV broadcast. More than once in the past few weeks Ryan has used his GameDay pulpit to lobby for the job, with comments like, “when I get that job” (re3ferring to the open head coaching job in New York). When Mike Vrabel became one of the most obvious hires in recent memory with the New England Patriots last week, Ryan commented, “Hopefully I get to kick this guy’s ass twice a year.” Quickly adding, “By my team, not me personally.”

The Jets organization might just have been listening. Through sources, the team has dispelled rumors that Ryan will be overseeing operation Gang Green any time soon.

Ryan coached the Jets from 2009 to 2014. In those six seasons the team went 46-50. He then went to the Buffalo Bills and took a top five defense and dropped it to 19^th in the league, going 15-16 during that tenure. With their quarterback situation up in the air (Aaron Rodgers is not expected back in a Jets uniform), and the traditional woes of the franchise, bringing back an unsuccessful coach, just because of his on-air personality, looks to be a decision not even the relatively incompetent owner Woody Johnson is willing to make.

Ryan is fond of quoting what he considers NFL genius from his father Buddy Ryan, who coached in the late 80’s and early 90’s (“like my father always said…”). The elder Ryan was a legendary character in the game…who went 55-55-1 in head coaching stints at the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals.

Having a media savvy personality as the face of your NFL franchise might be an alluring hire. Looks like the Jets will decide to go with a coach more attuned to the game of today with a record of winning.