Chosen by the City of Rochester in 1888 to design its park system, Frederick Law Olmsted selected a tract of rolling hills, quiet wooded areas, large meadows, and views on both sides of the Genesee River and created Genesee Valley Park as an ideal pastoral park. Beginning in 1890 and continuing for 22 years, Olmsted and his firm supervised the planting of more than 10,500 shrubs and 70,000 trees and designed picnic pavilions, foot bridges, benches, fishing docks, ball fields, a bandshell, tennis courts, one of the nation's first public golf courses, and many other recreational facilities. Nearly a century old, the park continued to serve Rochester as a park for all seasons and a rare aesthetic experience. The Genesee Valley Canal, one of the lateral canals promoted by the NYS Canal Commission to build a statewide network, extended from Rochester to Dansville and was intended to capitalize on Rochester's growth from 9,200 people in 1830 to 36,000 by 1850. Local leaders urged its construction because they feared competition from Pittsburgh's waterways and trails leading to the Ohio River. The chosen route through the valley skirted gorges and hills, making the canal, at a cost of $6,000,000, the second most expensive project in state history. Begun in 1839, suspended in 1842, restarted in 1846, and mostly completed by 1858, with a spur to Dansville finished in 1861, it closed in 1878 after never becoming profitable. Ely S. Parker, a Seneca known for brilliance, talent, and hard work, studied law and worked to recover Tonawanda lands taken by fraudulent treaties. At 26 he was made Sachem of the Iroquois Confederacy and was called Do-ho-ga-wa, or Open Door. Lewis Morgan made Parker his protégé, and in 1849 recommended him as an assistant engineer on the Genesee Valley Canal, where Parker learned the profession on the job. He later worked on the Erie Canal and Great Lakes lighthouse projects. During the Civil War he served as U.S. Grant's military secretary and drafted the terms of surrender for Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, attaining the rank of brigadier general. After the war he became Grant's Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the first Native American to hold that office, and later became a successful businessman before losing his fortune in the Panic of 1873.
