WHICH WAY: “Allegany” or “Allegheny”? We had a couple columns on
this a few months ago, and the dilemma repeated itself while we
were working on The Era’s annual summer guide – what we call
“Summer in the Alleghenies.”

The Salamanca (N.Y.) Republican Press, one of our sister
newspapers, carried a story about this very subject and even delved
back into the roots of the discrepancy.

“Confusion has occurred constantly throughout the years about
the proper spelling of the name, usually resulting from the
difference between the New York and Pennsylvania interpretations,”
the story rightly said.

It went on to cite the contents of a June 27, 1921, letter
written by the Press editor to a Buffalo newspaper which had
printed an editorial at the time Allegany State Park was
created.

The letter said: “A peculiar fact in connection with this word
is that it is spelled three different ways in three different
states and each form is recognized by the best authorities as
authorized in that state.”

It went on to quote from a U.S. Geological Survey report on the
origins of certain names in the country, specifically Allegany as a
county in Maryland, county and town in Cattaraugus County, N.Y.,
and post office in Coos County, Ore.; Alleghany, counties in North
Carolina and Virginia; and Allegheny, for the county, city in same
county and river in Pennsylvania and mountains in the Eastern
United States.

It continued, “A corruption of the Delaware Indian name,
possibly Algonquin Indian name, for the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers,
the meaning of the name being lost.”

“‘The New York spelling of Allegany was used in the Ames Bill
establishing the state park and it therefore is officially the
Allegany State Park.”

“The Seneca Indians, one of whose reservations adjoins the state
park for the entire length of the latter’s northern and western
boundary, never used the word ‘Allegany.’ Their word for the
‘oh-yee-ho’ – which became ‘Ohio” when the French reduced the sound
of the Indian word to their language and the word was later taken
over into the English.

“‘Oh-yee-ho’ is Seneca for ‘The Beautiful River’ – and the name
is truly descriptive as the Indian names usually are. … The Senecas
say that they do not know the mean of the words ‘Allegany’ or
whence it came.”