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Photo: Fortunate4now, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
Each Labor Day weekend sees Sahlen Field in downtown Buffalo host the National Buffalo Wing Festival, two days dedicated to Buffalo's best-known addition to the annals of American cuisine. Inspired by the 2001 movie Osmosis Jones as well as a column by iconic Buffalo News editorialist Donn Esmonde, the National Buffalo Wing Festival has, since its inception, drawn nearly 600,000 hungry guests from all 50 states and 33 foreign countries to Buffalo, who have collectively eaten over 3 million chicken wings and raised over $200,000 for various local charities. Showcased by a long list of national media such as The Today Show, The View, Live with Regis and Kelly, numerous Food Network series, and even a PBS documentary, the National Buffalo Wing Festival sees over 30 restaurants in Buffalo and around the country — including the Anchor Bar, where chicken wings were first served in 1964 — serve up their individual recipes and compete for prizes.
National Buffalo Wing Festival or Wing Fest is a weekend festival held on Labor Day weekend at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, New York, United States, celebrating the Buffalo style chicken wing. The festival culminates with the IFOCE sanctioned Buffalo Wing eating contest, which has taken place the Sunday of the festival since 2003, except 2020 when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Located adjacent to Canalside, the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park opened in 1977 and consists of three historic warships: the USS Little Rock, a cruiser which served in the Mediterranean Sea during the Cold War as a flagship for the Second and Sixth Fleets of the U.S. Navy and is now the only guided missile cruiser in the country on display; the USS The Sullivans, a destroyer that saw intense action in the Pacific theater of World War II; and the USS Croaker, a submarine that also saw action in the Pacific during WWII. These ships are open for self-guided tours during the warm months. There is also a museum on site that displays memorabilia such as Medals of Honor awarded to area residents.
Ralph C. Wilson Children's Museum
Explore & More was founded and spent the first quarter-century of its existence in the village of East Aurora (best known as home of the Fisher-Price toy company), but moved in 2019 to an all-new four-story space in Canalside with a revamped set of exhibits based on telling the story of Buffalo to the littlest youngsters through the medium of play. Kids can pilot boats down a miniature Erie Canal in the "Moving Water" exhibit, learn about "Being Good Neighbors" with folks of different backgrounds, or strap on a hard hat and play architect in the "Building Buffalo" exhibit, constructing their very own house or bridge using play tools and building materials. And on the first Friday of each month when they're open late, the rooftop terrace is a great place to catch the Buffalo Bisons' post-game fireworks display at nearby Sahlen Field.
An educational non-profit organization, the mission of the Western New York Book Arts Center (WNYBAC) is, in the words of its website, to "promote, encourage and develop the printing and book arts through education and access for individual artists and underserved communities". Presented at the WNYBAC are permanent exhibits detailing the history of printmaking, writing, bookbinding and related crafts, temporary shows featuring the work of local writers, artists and illustrators, and workshops that educate individuals and groups on techniques in bookbinding, papermaking, screen printing, and letterpress. The WNYBAC also holds Open Studios twice monthly for local artisans to work on their own projects.
The shipping industry was greatly important to Buffalo's economy in earlier times, and the Lower Lakes Marine Historical Society's mission is to pay tribute to and increase awareness and appreciation of, that facet of local history. To that end, a wide variety of historic artifacts, old photographs, models, and interpretive materials relevant to the Great Lakes shipping trade are displayed in a warm and airy museum in what was once the offices of Howard H. Baker and Company, a ship chandlery that served Buffalo Harbor in the 19th century.
Mark Twain lived in Buffalo for a short period at the beginning of his career, from 1869 to 1871; though not his most prolific period as a writer, it was during his time as editor and co-owner of the Buffalo Morning Express that he courted and married his wife Olivia and fathered his first child. Today, at the Central Library on Lafayette Square, there's a small exhibit space that displays a range of memorabilia related to the iconic author and humorist, including most famously the original manuscript of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn handwritten by Twain in 1885. In addition, you can see a collection of English and foreign-language editions of Huck Finn gradually amassed by the Library beginning in the 1930s, as well as the restored mantel from Twain's handsome mansion at 472 Delaware Avenue in present-day Allentown (destroyed by fire in 1963). The Mark Twain Room is open whenever the Central Library is open; it's on the first floor of the building, on the right side of the corridor as you walk past the escalators.
Erected in 1907 in commemoration of the assassination of President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition exactly six years prior, this gleaming 96-foot (29 m) obelisk of Vermont marble anchors Niagara Square at the focal point of Joseph Ellicott's 1807 radial street plan. The McKinley Monument was designed by Carrere and Hastings, the same architects in charge of the Exposition; the lions and turtles resting at its base (symbols, respectively, of strength and eternal life) were carved by well-known sculptor A. Phimister Proctor. The monument was also the subject of Carl Sandburg's poem "Slants at Buffalo, New York".