Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Cemetery, People

Location

Wolf Run Rd, Salamanca, NY 14779, USA

Lat/Long

42.022654948888, -78.889069852051

Grant Recipient

Allegany State Park Historical Society

Amidst the towering pines and forested plateaus of scenic Allegany State Park sits a cemetery. Reduced to less than a dozen visible grave markers, the cemetery is one of the few extant connections to the once thriving hamlet of Wolf Run.

The hamlet of Wolf Run supposedly received its unique name when agents of the Holland Land Company were pursuing a wolf and discovered a litter of wolf pups in the base of a hollow tree stump. If true, the wolves might be credited as harbingers of things to come; those same trees they were burrowed into became the main economic driver of the forthcoming community that established itself in the region.

Beginning in the mid-1850s, folks began arriving in the area to create sawmills and a logging community quickly emerged. One of the original arrivals was Herman Delos Carnahan, who is buried in Wolf Run Cemetery. In fact, several members of the Carnahan family are buried in the Wolf Creek Cemetery along with Civil War veteran William Zibble.

In a later account of the community published in the Oct. 21^st, 1955, edition of the Randolph Register written by former community resident Frank Carnahan, Wolf Run at one time boasted, “14 sawmills, 2 shingle mills, 2 lath mills and one making shingles and basket covers and bottoms for grape baskets.”

The Wolf Run area was located near the Allegany Line, and the community had around forty families living there in its heyday with around thirty-eight children attending school, according to the account written by Frank Carnahan.

Eventually, the Wolf Run community would disband, with many of the families selling their property and moving elsewhere. This includes the Carnahans, who, in 1935, sold their property—then approximately 200-acres—to the state to expand the Allegany State Park.

Though the hamlet of Wolf Run is no longer, the cemetery provides a reminder of a once vibrant community. To get there when driving along 280, turn onto Wolf Run Road. Drive about 1.25 miles, at which point you should see the historical marker at the entrance of the trailhead. From there, follow the trail approximately .4 miles (north) at which point you will see a ridge where the cemetery is located.

We suggest planning your visit ahead of time and taking all necessary hiking precautions if you choose to visit the cemetery.