Buffalo Canoe Club

Since the founding of Buffalo, the broad expanses of the Niagara, the upper reaches of its tributaries, and the sandy beaches of Ontario's shores, have beckoned the lovers of the great outdoors. A small group of canoeists who cruised these waters organized in 1882 the Buffalo Canoe Club. The transformation from an unimpressive shack at the foot of Hamilton Street, Buffalo, New York, to the present modern yacht club at its unsurpassed location on the beautiful shores of Abino Bay, represents more than one hundred years of outstanding planning and loyal labor by those within our Club. It has always been our good fortune to have on our rolls more than a fair share of Buffalo's leaders. Our present site on Abino Bay was acquired in 1891, and on February 15, 1892, Williams Lansing, Henry L. Campbell, George Kelley, Emory Dunstan and Frank D. Wood incorporated the Buffalo Canoe Club as a New York Corporation. These men were the guiding spirits in the formative period of the Club, and to them the Club owes it undying gratitude. The growth of the Club was rapid, and during the next ten years it was necessary to enlarge and improve the property of the Club several times to accommodate the large number of enthusiastic canoers and sailors who for the most part arrived for the weekend via Webb Haun's horse drawn bus. In 1907 a violent storm swept away the old boathouse and flagpole. Sir Henry Pellatt of Toronto presented the Club with the present beautiful flagpole in appreciation of the hospitality that had been shown him.