0. Stafford Limestone?

In the Spring of 2022, I started doing some geographical (maps), geologic, and soil geomorphology research in South Buffalo with my 7th and 8th Grade Students in the back of the school that I teach at. This led me to start studying the rich Native American History of the area (Anthropology and Archaeology). 

Where did you get this information: "West Seneca & South Buffalo (Buffalo Creek): Crops out along the bed of Buffalo Creek and underlies the glacial/sandy terrace at Seneca Indian Park."

That bullet point combined two separate literature sources—one historical/archaeological source for Seneca Indian Park in South Buffalo, and modern stratigraphic literature for the Buffalo Creek bed exposure in West Seneca:

1. "Underlies the glacial/sandy terrace at Seneca Indian Park" (South Buffalo)

Primary Source: Frederick Houghton (1920), The History of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, published in Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, Vol. 24 (pp. 6, 17) (building on his earlier geological survey, The Geology of Erie County, Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1914).   

GeoScienceWorld

Verbatim Quote: In describing the geology and topography of the Buffum Street terrace at Seneca Indian Park (129 Buffum Street in South Buffalo, overlooking the Buffalo Creek/River valley), Houghton wrote:

"The topography of the Reservation was partly decided by the rock formations underlying it... It occupies a sandy terrace which conceals from view an outcrop of Stafford limestone. The area of the ancient village embraced the present Seneca Indian Park and extends northward beyond it."   

Book of Mormon Geography Lands

Geological Context: On D. Dana Luther's (1906) Geologic Map of the Buffalo Quadrangle (New York State Museum Bulletin 99), the mapped belt of the Stafford Limestone trends southwestward out of West Seneca into South Buffalo right through the Seneca Street / Buffum Street corridor, where it sits beneath the Pleistocene glaciofluvial sand terrace just north of the Buffalo River floodplain. Because the terrace conceals the bedrock there, it is a historical/subcrop reference rather than an active surface exposure today.   

Book of Mormon Geography Lands

2. "Crops out along the bed of Buffalo Creek" (West Seneca)

Primary Sources:

Baird, G. C., Brett, C. E., & Ver Straeten, C. A. (1999), "The First Great Devonian Flooding Episodes in Western New York: Reexamination of Union Springs, Oatka Creek, and Skaneateles Formation Successions (Latest Eifelian–Lower Givetian) in the Buffalo–Seneca Lake Region", New York State Geological Association (NYSGA) 71st Annual Meeting Field Trip Guidebook, Trip Sat. A, p. A6.   

www.nysga-online.org

Meyer, William F. (1985), Paleodepositional Environments of the Stafford Limestone (Middle Devonian) Across New York State (Unpublished Master's Thesis, SUNY Fredonia, supervised by Gordon C. Baird).   

www.nysga-online.org

Buehler, E. J., & Tesmer, I. H. (1963), Geology of Erie County, New York (Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 3).

Verbatim Quote (Baird, Brett, & Ver Straeten, 1999, p. A6):

"In Erie County, the Stafford thickens to 4 m total thickness at Como Park (STOP 5) and acquires minor lentils of chert in its upper part (Meyer, 1985; Brett and Baird, 1990). Further west, at Buffalo Creek, the Stafford continues to thicken and it becomes distinctly cherty. In this region, the main limestone portion of the Stafford yields abundant small Phacops rana, scattered pelmatozoan columnals and molluscan debris (Meyer, 1985)."   

www.nysga-online.org

Field Context on Buffalo Creek: Along Buffalo Creek in West Seneca, the Levanna Shale Member is famously exposed at the Union Road (NY Route 277) bridge and adjacent Burchfield Nature & Art Center. Because the strata dip gently southward/southwestward, the underlying Stafford Limestone—and its basal contact with the uppermost gray shales of the Oatka Creek Formation—rises to creek-bed level downstream (northwest) of Union Road toward the Gardenville / Harlem Road reach of Buffalo Creek.