The Twenty - Five Things That Made Genesee County Famous
Number 21
Elba Mucklands
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Muck? What is muck? That is a question often asked by visitors to our county. What is this land with such an unusual name? Muck is a black soil that is left behind after swamplands are drained. The soil is made up mostly of humus. The mucklands in northern Genesee County and southern Orleans are thought to be the largest continuous section of this type of soil in the world. To create muck, wetlands must be drained, and because of environmental concerns, it is unlikely that any more mucklands will be created in the United States.
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Onion fields on the muck. The hedge rows helps fight
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The mucklands are part of the Oak Orchard Swamp created by the glaciers. (See #22: The Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.) Early settlers of the region saw the area as a dangerous place full of snakes and disease-carrying mosquitoes. They thought about draining it, but it was cost-prohibitive and there were thousands of acres already suitable for farming.
In 1903, a New York State commission published its recommendation that because the swamp was a health risk, it should be drained. Meetings were held throughout the seven towns that would be affected, and it was finally decided that the project would take place.
The objective was to dig a main canal and subcanals that would feed into Oak Orchard Creek and then eventually to Lake Ontario. The first shovel of dirt was dug on June 6, 1913, at a point on Transit Road where the road crossed Oak Orchard Creek.
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Main Canal where it crosses Route 98 |
The plan was to dig an eight-mile-long main trench that would drain half the swamp. The goal was to dig 400 feet per day and the trench would be 6 to 7 feet deep. By August 1913, they were digging at a rate of 600 feet per day.
Within a year, a swamp infested with mosquitoes, trees, and underbrush became some of the best and most sought-after farmland in New York State.
How did it Make Genesee County Famous?
Although many others make the claim, Elba truly is the “Onion Capital of the World.” Elba onions became famous because of the muck. But Elba farmers grow more than onions on the muck. They also grow potatoes, corn, soybeans and even cucumbers and pumpkins. Vegetables grown on the muck are shipped throughout the northeast. Growing in the muck allows farmers higher yields for their crops.
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The Rich Black Soil |
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Barns on the Mucklands |
Further reading:
The Story of the Muck: As Told by Those Who Worked There. Research by Anne Marie Starowitz. Written by William F. Brown, Jr.
The Town of Elba: the 175th Anniversary by Scott Benz
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