A hidden gem

Last night we went out to dinner with our friends at the Corydon Hotel. Calling it a hotel may be stretching it a bit. this little restaurant is miles out of town from Bradford near the Willow Bay branch of the Allegany Reesevior. I do think they have a few rooms for rent.

Despite its remoteness it offered a nice selection of delicious food. Don and I both got the T-bone steak while Jamie and Gary ate surf and turf.

The decor was rustic with paintings of wildlife and a huge stone fireplace. Earlier in the day they had hosted the end of the Willow Bay triathlon.

Corydon has a unique history and sad history. When the Kinzua Dam was build to control the flow of water to the Pittsburgh area a long standing Indian treaty was broken and the Indians displaced in a cruel manner.

In 1796 Seneca War Chief Cornplanter was granted 15,000 acres along the Allegheny river by Pennsylvania for his assistance to the State as a loyal and a steadfast protector of American families settling in the wilderness of the upper Ohio River basin. In what would become the oldest standing Indian treaty, George Washington granted the land to Chief Cornplanter and his ancestors forever.

Forever ended in 1965 when the completed Kinzua Dam flooded the Allegheny river and covered the ancestral lands of the Seneca leader. Their homes, their only viable farmland, and the graves of the ancestors were now under hundreds of feet of water. Despite petitions from Tribal leaders to JFK to stop the proposed Dam in 1960, the President and United States broke the longest standing treaty between the Government and the Native Tribes of North America.

The residents of Kinzua and the adjoining town of Corydon were relocated, the Indian burial grounds were dug up, including that of Chief Cornplanter himself and the remains were entombed on the nearby hillside with a memorial.

Then they also moved Cornplanter's grave. Our nearby Seneca Indians have a museum and there is a moving video that shows the takeover where the white man came and burned down their homes after only giving them hours to move out. It makes me cry

 

 

 

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