Cattaraugus

Cattaraugus is a small industrial town in the northwest part of Cattaraugus County, New York.

Understand

Get in

Main Street in Cattaraugus

By car

The main drag in Cattaraugus is State Route 353, called Main Street within downtown and Cattaraugus-Little Valley Road further south. To get to Cattaraugus from Buffalo and other points north, get off the New York State Thruway (I-90) at Exit 55 (US 219), and proceed south on the 219 for 30 miles (48.5 km). Turn right at East Otto Road and, from there, keep following the signs for County Route 12. You'll come to the center of Cattaraugus in 14½ miles (23.5 km). From points south, get off the Southern Tier Expressway (I-86) at Exit 20 in Salamanca and then turn right, following the signs for Route 353 north. Downtown Cattaraugus is a little more than 15 miles (about 24.5 km) ahead.

By plane

The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bradford Regional Airport (BFD ^IATA) in Bradford, Pennsylvania, which is served with daily commuter flights from Pittsburgh via Southern Airways Express: four on weekdays, two on Saturdays, and three on Sundays. In practice, however, arriving in Cattaraugus by plane usually means flying into Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Get around

See

• 🌍 American Museum of Cutlery, 9 N. Main St., ☎ [phone]. Th-Su 1PM-4PM. Hewing to the old-school definition of "cutlery" as essentially any sharp-edged tool, the American Museum of Cutlery displays antique knives, swords, axes, and other implements from pre-Columbian times through today that tell the story of how cutlery contributed to American history — as well as the story of the Cattaraugus Cutlery Company, which was once based in the nearby town of Little Valley and was the only cutlery company in the U.S. to exhibit at Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition of 1901. Free. (updated Oct 2017)
• 🌍 Cattaraugus Area Historical Society Museum, 23 N. Main St., ☎ [phone]. Open by appointment. Covering two floors in a handsome brick building in the village center, this large museum contains an assortment of historical artifacts relating to the Civil War, railroad and industrial history, genealogy, and everyday life in the 19th Century. The highlight is a hand-carved Statue of Liberty that toured the country during the American bicentennial celebration in 1976. Free. (updated Dec 2017)
• 🌍 Medora Ball Museum, 9068 Otto-East Otto Rd., Otto (about 3 miles east of Cattaraugus' village center, via County Route 12), ☎ [phone]. Su 2PM-4PM, Jul & Aug; by appointment at other times. First built in 1861, the former First Congregational Church serves as the Town of Otto's local history museum, named in honor of the town historian who supervised its founding. Historical photos, records, old clothing, Civil War artifacts, and biographical displays of prominent Ottonians populate the walls, shelves, and display cases. Free. (updated Dec 2017)

Do

Buy

• 🌍 Hog-Shed Studio Pottery, 8420 Otto Maples Rd, Otto (about 5½ miles east of Cattaraugus' village center, via County Route 12), ☎ [phone]. Season runs May 1-Dec 24; call ahead for studio hours. Situated since 1982 in an old hog farm surrounded by picturesque hills, Michael and Elliott Hutten's pottery studio is a place to pick up a wide range of beautiful and functional handmade stoneware pieces — everything from casserole dishes to coffee mugs to birdhouses to Christmas tree ornaments. And, if you time it out right, you might even find some of the dazzlingly colorful, Japanese-style raku pottery in Hog-Shed's studio showroom — made in a labor-intensive process only a few times per season. (updated Jan 2018)

Eat

• 🌍 Pascarella's, 12 Washington St., ☎ [phone]. M-Th 7AM-2PM, F 7AM-7:30PM, Sa 7AM-1:30PM. Open six days a week, Pascarella's serves up hearty all-American comfort food with a few Italian specialties mixed in too, and the fresh house-baked bread and range of soups are real winners. This cozy place in the heart of Cattaraugus' village center is "small enough that most customers are repeat customers and service is more personal" (to borrow the words of an online review), but if you're a visitor, husband-and-wife owners Ray and Pam will go out of their way to make you feel at home. Breakfast and lunch only, except Friday, when fish fry packs the house at dinnertime. (updated Jan 2018)

Groceries

• 🌍 Dollar General, 216 S. Main St., ☎ [phone]. Daily 8AM-10PM. The usual selection of dollar-store stuff. (updated Jan 2018)

Drink

Sleep

• 🌍 Beauty View Farm, 7356 Snyder Hill Rd., ☎ [phone]. A 400-acre (162 ha) farmstead that's been in the same family since 1828, Beauty View Farm is more than just a place to bed down for the night: you could almost call it a full-scale resort experience in itself, with a rich variety of onsite activities suitable for all four seasons. Accommodations are in the farmhouse — fully furnished with three guest bedrooms (bunk beds in the smallest of the three, two double beds apiece in the remaining ones), a full kitchen stocked with appliances, dishes, and cookware, and a deck with a firepit and a view over the mountains. Elsewhere on the expansive property there are two ponds offering fishing and paddleboating, a network of trails open to hikers in summer and cross-country skiers and snowshoers in the winter, and a handsome picnic pavilion amidst a picturesque rolling meadow. $150/nt. (updated Jan 2018)

Connect

• 🌍 Cattaraugus Free Library, 21 N. Main St., ☎ [phone]. M-Tu & Th-F 10AM-6PM, Sa 10AM-2PM. Part of the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System. Offers free WiFi as well as several wired computer terminals. (updated Jan 2018)
• 🌍 Cattaraugus Post Office, 8 Memorial Drive, ☎ [phone]. M-F 9AM-1PM & 2PM-5PM, Sa 10AM-noon. (updated Jan 2018)

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