Allegany Hellbender Tales

This is a deeply personal book of my encounters with, the best park in the world, Allegany State Park. My family and I have used the Park for a long time. Mom and Dad came down here as newlyweds. They brought my sister, Marj and me for week-long summer vacations on Gypsy, Ryan and Dowd Trails and sent us to Camp Bee Tee Vee. I was here as a Boy Scout. My wife, Lyn, and I were camp counselors one summer at Arrowhead. It was our honeymoon. We have had good times here with our kids and our grand kids. Two of them Alex and Angie, are on the back cover. I was away from camping and hiking and Allegany for some years. I got back to it through the Adirondack Mountain Club and Sierra Club. They drew me back into enjoyment of the outdoors and concern for the preservation of such places as Allegany and its great aging forest. The Allegany State Park Historical Society put me in close touch with Park’s land, its people and its origins. Over the last ten years, 1993-2003, I have written my observations and opinions about the Park into the essays, articles and stories which are gathered here. They are in a chronological order approximating that of their writing. They are accounts of Park experiences heard from many voices, some are history. A few are fiction. And there are issues. I hope that these Allegany Hellbender Tales will entertain and inform you readers and that you all get as much fun out of the Park as I have.