Guffey: The Mystery Unravels

Here you see the high street that passes through the ghost town of Guffey, a place that's about as photogenic as its name is poetic (which is not at all). Guffey is so weed-choked that it's hard to catch the scope of the place, and its vistas, on a little digital camera. But this picture is most interesting for the things that are barely seen. Notice the metal guardrail to the left of the old street. It protects a cliff that drops almost thirty feet to a lower street, which runs along the Kinzua Creek. The only evidence you see here of the low street is the old power line just above the guardrail. (If you look near the upper right hand corner of the photo, you can also make out the electric lines that run alongside the high road.) I tried to follow the low road along the creek, but it was too overgrown, which proves to me that the good folks of Guffey preferred to 'take the high road' whenever possible....

I asked a local history buff about Guffey, and he in turn referred me to the proprietor of the Westline Inn, a historic hotel about five miles downstream from the ghost town. Just a word in passing about the Westline: it is undeniably the Rivendell of the Allegheny. It's in a beautiful, remote valley. The rooms are rustic and charming. The bar is rustic and rowdy. There's nothing rustic about the restaurant, though; it's easily the best in McKean County. My wife and I aren't crazy about the ancient taxidermy that graces the dining rooms. (A dead squirrel only keeps for so many years.) But even that is consistent with the spirit of the place.

Anyhow, here's what the fine chef at the Westline knows about Guffey: "Guffey was a small oil boomtown. It was founded by a Cornel Guffey, who fought in the Civil War. The town was documented by the Forest Service before it was taken down. There was a large water injection plant there that used to discharge into the creek until the 80s. The Forest Service should have old pictures and info."

I wonder if by Cornel Guffey he means "Colonel Guffey," a Civil War officer? I mean, surely a person wouldn't have to go through life with a name as hideous as Cornel Guffey....