Tifft Nature Preserve has come full circle since the mid-1800s, changing from rich native wetlands used in the 1600s as hunting and gathering ground for neutral indians and claimed in the 1700s by the Iroquois Confederation, to deeded land in 1845, a 60-acre purchase by George Tifft in 1858, and land sold by the Tifft family in 1883. By 1900, 12 shipping lines docked 83 vessels at Tifft Farm, and the 1912 Panama Canal Act forced separation of rail and shiping interests. The City of Buffalo purchased the land in 1972, transferred two million cubic yards of refuse from Squaw Island, later renamed Unity Island, in 1973, organized and staffed the preserve as a not-for-ptofit corporation in 1976, completed the Makowski Visitor Center in 1978, merged the preserve with the Buffalo Museum of Science in 1982, closed it for hazardous waste removal in 1983, and saw it designated an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society in 1998. After farms, stockyards, and a major transshipment terminal overran the wetlands, the lumber docks, coal trestles, lake freighters, and rail cars disappeared, and the area again sheltered many plants, birds, and other animals at the edge of downtown Buffalo, including species such as the American Bittern, Pied-billied Grebe, Green Heron, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.