Despite Chautauqua’s long-time association with Temperance and reform, the region boasts a colorful history of winemaking that has been making a comeback in recent decades.  John Slater provides us with the last of our three-part look at the Chautauqua Grape Belt.

In the late 1800s, piles of lumber stretched for miles as the Twin Cities of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda developed around the harbor and the surging lumber industry. 

In a follow-up to his Fall 2010 feature, John Thomas Slater reveals how a Chautauqua County-based company developed Welch’s Grape Juice and brought it to the masses.

As the Erie Canal opened up the nation's interior to the industrialized East, businessmen were eager to exploit the now-accessible natural resources of Western New York.  Stephen White and the East Boston Timber Company found just what they were looking for on Grand Island.