The State Reservation at Niagara: A History. By Charles M Dow. 202 pages.

Provides a comprehensive, definitive account of the creation and development of what is known today as Niagara Falls State Park—the oldest state park in the United States.

Dow (1854–1920), was a prominent banker, conservationist, and civic leader from Jamestown, New York. Crucially, Dow served as the President of the Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara. The book documents the grueling, decades-long battle to rescue Niagara Falls from the grip of hyper-commercialism and industrial degradation.

• The "Free Niagara" Movement: Details the grassroots campaign of the 1870s and 1880s led by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, painter Frederic Edwin Church, and local politicians to buy back the land for public ownership.
• Outlines the socio-political obstacles, corporate pushbacks, and eventual passage of the 1885 bill creating the reservation.
• Logs the structural changes made to the parkways, bridges, and islands (like Goat Island and Prospect Point) to restore their primitive, natural wilderness aesthetics.

Incribed "To Charles M Reed with the Compliments of the Author." Charles M. Reed Jr. (1844–1917), one of the most prominent, wealthy financiers and political figures in the history of Erie, Pennsylvania. The grandson of Colonel Seth Reed, the very first permanent white settler of Erie. His father, General Charles Manning Reed, had accumulated a staggering empire in Great Lakes steamship lines, railroads, and banking, leaving an estate valued between $5 million and $15 million at his death—making them one of the wealthiest families in the state. Charles Jr. inherited this massive banking and shipping fortune alongside his brother

Published 1914 by J B Lyon, Albany. Has bookplate from the Chautauqua County NY Historical Society where it was Deaccessioned. Very good condition. Bright cover, firm binding, strong hinges and clean text.