Road Trip To Ithaca - Wells Falls & The Van Nattas Pumping Station

Wells Falls & The Abandoned Van Nattas Pumping Station

Located along six mile creek at Giles Street, Ithaca Pa

Roughly: 42.433724, -76.485033

I've had a brochure for Ithaca for about a year now.   It's full of gorgeous waterfall photos, and all sorts of interesting sights.  I keep lists of trips I'd like to take at some point, listing various sites I'd like to see, places to eat, places to stay, etc... the Ithaca list has been the most accessed this year, a year when our schedules have simply not allowed for the frequent road trips we've taken in years past.  This week, at the last minute, we realized we had two free days mid week - so we made a reservation, made the dozen or so miscellaneous arrangements necessary to leave  the farm for 48 hours, and off we went.  

We did not follow my Ithaca Road trip plan.  Sometimes, even those of us who prefer a very detailed plan, do much better to "wing it" a little.  In this case, what I hadn't accounted for  was the lack of rain in  the Ithaca area.  Here on our farm outside of Watsontown, it has rained almost every day this summer.  I've dealt with mildew on the furniture cushions, goat hoof problems from the constantly wet ground, and grass we can't keep mowed because it grows much faster than it dries.

Wells Falls

In Ithaca, that was not the case.  The first waterfall we hiked to - a steep, arduous hike - had no water at all. Although there was enough water in one part of the creek for two men to be frolicking completely naked in the "swimming hole".  Unfortunately, the swimming hole was not anywhere near waist deep...  more like ankle deep.

Anyway... Wells Waterfall, or "Business Man's Lunch Falls" was the surprise gem waterfall of our trip.  One, everyone we ran into was fully dressed.   Bonus points for that, before we even got near the falls.    Two, there was nearby parking - not the case for many of the waterfalls in this area. 

There's a path immediately after the bridge, but the actual trail is a bit further..  not much further - just a few feet.  There's a sign and gate at the beginning of the actual trail.

 The hike is steep, but short, really not difficult at all.  And not only was there water, but a beautiful wall of stone in the deep gorge, and the abandoned Van Nattas Pumping station.

Many of the waterfalls we saw while in the area have a lot of man made extras.  It's not that the waterfalls aren't natural, it's that there are so many bridges [with suicide nets, in the gorge that runs through the college] and dams added to the falls.  When you are coming from the gorgeous and  mostly unspoiled Ricketts Glen, this can be..  well, different, and a little disappointing.  Wells Falls also has a man made dam, and a bridge with traffic across the top.  

And it has an abandoned pumping station, which somehow just enhances the view, rather than spoiling it.  Maybe because it's abandoned, with flowers growing out of it?  I really can't explain why all of the man made extras at the other falls bothered me so much, yet really old abandoned man made structure somehow enhanced this site.  It does help that, from the bottom, the dam is mostly out of sight.

What  I can tell you is that THIS was far and away my favorite waterfall of this trip. Taughannock falls was nice, and located in a state park, so very easy to view.  But it was nearly dry.  Ithaca falls had lots of water, but it also had crowds of people, and garbage everywhere.  [The entire area in and around Cornell was so disappointingly dirty and strewn with trash, with broken sidewalks, broken roads, limited parking & scaffolding and construction everywhere.  We don't appreciate the beauty and cleanliness of Bucknell and Lycoming colleges nearly enough.)

From the bridge on Giles street, looking down over the dam

For Wells Falls, we parked across the street in a wildflower preserve parking lot, then walked across the bridge, and down a short, somewhat steep, trail.  

We chatted with two photographers on their way out out as we walked in, and passed two women coming in as we were walking out, and a 3rd on the bridge as we walked back to our car.  So - no crowds here.  We actually had the falls completely to ourselves the entire time we were there - we only passed people on our way in and out.

It's such a gorgeous background, I would imagine there are a lot of senior photos taken here, and a lot of much busier times.  We may have just been lucky to avoid the crowds this day?

The large flat stone lodged in the tree roots makes this a great seat to sit and watch the falls.

It's sometimes called "Business Mans Lunch Falls", because the downtown businessmen would come here on their lunch break in the summer time.  At least, that's what various articles say.  I didn't see mention of what decade that was the norm.  :-)

The falls are  65 feet tall with a series of  four drops.  The largest drop is from the 30 foot man made dam.  When standing at the bottom of the falls, from some angles the dam is not seen, the view being mainly of the natural section of the waterfall. of the abandoned pumping station.

 I attempted to do a bit of research on the pumping station, and what I found was a VERY long and complex history of the water systems in Ithaca.  For a town built on gorges full of water, they sure had a miserable time getting a decent water supply.

In 1892 the [Ithaca Light and Water Co.] purchased a mill dam on Six Mile Creek, at Van Nattas, and used it for additional  water supply. In 1893 a pumping station was built.   From some articles, it sounds as if this had been a gristmill before it was purchased - but whether the building was part of the original gristmill, or merely the dam was - I don't really know.

In 1914, "City Superintendent Martin Conlon has transferred a barn which was formerly located at the Van Natta Pumping Station in Six Mile Creek to a point near the railroad tracks close to the sewer station...  this barn is to be used as a storehouse for the city's grain, hay, tools, implements etc.  The barn was not used at the Van Ness station, so Superintendent Conlon thought he would put the building to some practical use."

And in 1903, the new reservoir they built after other water sources didn't work out, was contaminated and the town, and college, suffered a typhoid epidemic.  

In 1905 “and 1906, new higher powered pumping machinery was bought and installed in Van Nattas to make it possible to pump even higher and in greater quantities to the hills, until in 1907 water was piped across Fall Creek, at Triphammer bridge, to the Cornell Heights section of the City. This resulted in a large residential development in this direction.” Dorothy Harris, History of Ithaca's Water Systems, City of Ithaca D.P.W., 1952, p. 3–5.

1948

I really can't tell exactly when the pumping station was abandoned, but from the various articles I read, it appears it was used into the 1980s?

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