Hawley Dam Falls
Location: South of the village of Westfield; town of Westfield; Chautauqua County; New York.
Maps: Google Map; Topographic; Interactive map.
GPS Coordinates:
- Fishing Access Parking: N 42.30572 / W 79.57805
- First waterfall in the creek: N 42.30559 / W 79.57650
- Waterfall at the midway point: N 42.30110 / W 79.57269
- Old small dam: N 42.29872 / W 79.56654
- Small falls/rapids: N 42.29813 / W 79.56608
Directions: Take I-90 to NY-394 toward Westfield/Mayville and take exit 60 for NY-394 toward Westfield/Mayville.
Turn left onto NY-394 E/N Portage St (signs for NY-20/Westfield/Mayville) then turn right onto W Main St then turn left onto Chestnut St/County Touring Rte 21. Follow it for 2 miles south.
Look for a gravel fishing access lot on the left (just south of Campbell St W)
Use Google Maps.
Parking: Access through the Westfield Waterworks is no longer allowed. The DEC fishing access lot is the only parking in the area. It has room for about 10 cars and can get quite busy in the fall fishing season.
Weather
Information / Accessibility / Accommodations
Note: While much of this stretch of the creek is accessible through public fishing rights, there are some gaps in that coverage. Most notably around the area of the old dam. If you decide to take this journey, obey any posted signs and turn back if you run into inaccessible private lands. I should also mention that Fishing Rights Access legally only applies to those fishing, not waterfalling.
Number of falls: 4(ish) – it really depends on your definition of waterfalls. All of them are fairly small.
Size/Types: The first 2 are small drops under 2-3 ft high. Nothing special, but a fun area to walk through.
There is a small concrete dam, that has an overflow creating a 1 ft drop into a shallow pool, which then tumbles down several ft. Prior to 2018, the dam created a 6-8 ft cascade, but in an effort to restore trout populations, the dam was reinforced, which seems to have greatly reduced the waterfall height below the dam to almost nothing. Above that dam is another cascade that could almost be considered rapids.
Best time to visit: Spring and Summer.
Flow: Moderate.
Waterway: This is a section of Chautauqua Creek known as “The Gulf.” Chautauqua Creek rises south of here in the town of Sherman, flowing 10 miles north through Westfield and then emptying into Lake Erie at Barcelona.
Time: 2 hours there and back.
Seasons/Hours: Year-round. People have been known to camp in The Gulf overnight.
Admission: Free.
Handicap Accessibility: None.
Pets: No rules are posted, but pets need to be on a leash in public in this county.
Accommodations: Fishing.
Description
This popular hike and fishing location is along the northernmost mile of “The Gulf,” a 3-mile long gorge carved out by Chautauqua Creek as it descends over the glacial Lake Erie ridge into present day Lake Erie. A hike south from a DEC fishing access site near Westfield takes you upstream and past a few small drops and wading pools.
Westfield Waterworks has been diverting water from this gorge since 1891. Along the way you will see the remnants of a few of those early structures. Hawley Dam, originally built in 1890, had wooden pipes, and held back a large retaining pond in the gorge. The dam was destroyed during a flood in 1913. Now it holds back a small pool that most visitors take a dip in. Some people have reported finding some old clay tiles from waterworks pipes strewn throughout the creek.
The waterfalls here aren’t spectacular, but the experience of walking up and splashing in the creek for a mile is favored by many on a hot day. The 120 ft tall gorge wall near the dam is striking and echoes the rumbling of the creek. Steelhead fishing (as well as Brown and Rainbow Trout) is supposed to be great, drawing in regular traffic.
History
Native Americans used the Westfield area as a navigational path between Chautauqua Lake and Lake Erie for centuries prior to the arrival of European explorers. The French were the first of the “new” discoverers here, first using the Native American trail as early as 1615, a French Military campaign to claim the Ohio Valley for France, carved out a larger path from Mayfield (at Chautauqua Lake), through Westfield, and to Barcelona Harbor in 1749.
The trail was largely abandoned by the French following the French and Indian War (1754), with the British picking it up for some time in 1782 for use in the American Revolutionary War.
Today, NY-394 follows most of the original pathway, with Old Portage Rd. marking the location of the original trail’s crossing over Little Chautauqua Creek. This very same route is now the Portage Trail or sometimes called Portage Road, Old French Road, or French Portage Trail.
Westfield was first settled by European pioneers in 1801, first by the James McMahan family from Pennsylvania. James purchased 22,014 acres around the present day village for $2,050. At the time, the settlement was known as “Crossroads” because it crossed the Portage Trail. His home was built in 1802. It was the first home in Chautauqua County.
Thomas Bramwell Welch, a former Methodist minister, invented a method of pasteurizing grape juice in 1869 and began selling Dr. Welch’s Unfermented Wine. In 1897, Welch opened the first grape juice plant in Westfield, the world’s largest at the time. Westfield became known as “The Grape Juice Capital of the World.” Today, the area continues that tradition with the operation of a Welch’s plant, the Grape Discovery Center, and several Lake Erie wineries.
Hiking / Walking Trails
Note: While much of this stretch of the creek is accessible through public fishing rights, there are some gaps in that coverage. The east and west banks have rights near the DEC parking lot. Downstream, only the east bank has those rights. The rights end before the dam, but then continue after it. I see no method of getting to the fishing access section below the dam without crossing over the area not covered.
Note: Some guides show access through the Westfield Waterworks plant to the east, off of Mount Baldy Rd. This route heads directly through their property, down “100 steps” and through a service road to the dam. This is apparently now Posted and inaccessible. Walk up the creek instead.
Difficulty: Moderate. It’s 95% creek-walking. Depending on flow conditions, you may have to get wet.
Markings: The fishermen’s trail from the DEC parking lot down to the creek bed is marked. Other than that, you are walking upstream.
Distance: About 1.5 miles one way.
Description: From the DEC parking lot on County Touring Rte 21, follow the fisherman’s trail east into the tree line and 200 ft to the creek.
The first waterfall, a 2 ft drop, will be just upstream. Just down from here, fishing rights are only on the other side of the creek. So, keep to that side.
At 1/3 mile, you reach a bend. Keep going upstream. Another bend follows immediately after, here you will find a small cascade. In high flow it may just look like rapids. Continue down a third bend.
You’ll go straight for a while and then hit a large bend at about the 1.1 mile mark. This one has towering cliff walls on the left. Near the apex of this bend you will find the old dam and pool. Just upstream from here is another small cascade (if flow is high, this may appear to be just rapids).
Map: Interactive.
Hawley Dam Falls Interactive Map
Hawley Dam Falls and Chautauqua Creek Media
Coming soon…
Contributor Photos & Art
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