JULES HOEPTING, Managing Editor
Things to do on-campus.
Courtyard between Jewett Hall and University Commons. Photograph by Jules Hoepting.
It’s your first semester at Fredonia, and you don’t know what people do for fun in vineyard country.
If you’re on campus without personal transportation, no need to let boredom creep in. As the semester is rolling, events get going and you’ll be able to find too many things to do: all you have to do is check the posters on the designated boards in residence halls and academic buildings. Everything from drag shows to movie nights to video game clubs to writing clubs to student-run musicals and plays will be posted.
You can check out fredoniabluedevils.com for the sports schedule if you like the thrill of watching games/matches live.
The residence assistants in the residence halls put on several events each semester, everything from pancake making to game night, so there’s a good chance there’s something for you to do without even leaving your residence hall.
If you like walking, then walk all the way around Ring Road: you’ll wind up at the Campus Woodlot, which is a small forest with trails in it.
Between the Campus Woodlot and the Rockefeller Arts Center is the Three Man Hill, which has a sculpture of three human-like figures on it. That’s a great spot to catch sunsets.
If nothing else, the School of Music puts on over 300 performances every year, so there’s probably a student recital you can catch in Mason Hall. Visit events.fredonia.edu/music/calendar for the schedule.
You might be thinking, “Okay, that’s great and all, but I want to know where to go when I leave campus.”
Things to do off-campus.
Canadaway Creek. Photograph by Jules Hoepting. 
Fredonia Opera House on Church Street. Photograph by Jules Hoepting.
Wander off campus and under a bridge and you’ll be in Canadaway Creek. People do everything from biology labs to fishing down there.
It takes 20 minutes to walk down town. There you’ll find a variety of shops: a thrift store, a chocolate shop, a record store, a tea shop, a flower shop, a surprising amount of salons and bars, and a whole bunch of restaurants with a variety of good food.
You might notice a historic marker saying Fredonia had the first natural gas well in the country. Yup. That’s what established the town.
If you’re fascinated by architecture, Fredonia’s a fabulous place for you to be. The buildings in the town span a variety of architecture styles: gothic revival, greek revival, neocolonial, italianate, bungalow style, English cottage and many more styles. Most of Fredonia’s campus was designed by the well-known architect I.M. Pei.
If you like fresh fruit, vegetables, baked goods, maple syrup and a sense of traditional community, then you’d love the Fredonia Farmers’ Market, which takes place every Saturday on Church Street from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. from mid-May to October. From November to mid-May the market is held in the Masonic Lounge on Main Street.
On Church Street is also the Fredonia Opera House, which has a variety of live performances and cinema series: the first 20 Fredonia students who come to cinema screenings are admitted for free. Check out fredopera.org for more information.
Things to do within driving distance.
Wright Park Beach, Dunkirk, NY. Photograph by Jules Hoepting. 
Point Gratiot Beach, Dunkirk, NY. Photograph by Jules Hoepting.
An eight minute drive or an hour long walk to Dunkirk can get you to Point Gratiot, the local’s favorite beach. Because the beach’s sandy shore lines the east side of Lake Erie, it is the perfect place to watch the sun slip into the horizon. In the winter, the beach transforms into an ice wonderland perfect for your social media aesthetics. Regardless of the time of year, the beach is often windy, so come prepared.
Point Gratiot is also the destination of Crooked Creek: the black shale near the creek’s lake entrance smells like natural gas if you snap it in half.
Drive along the coast of Dunkirk and you’ll find yourself on the Dunkirk Pier, which is another neat spot to watch the sunset and contains a strip of restaurants.
A 15 minute drive can bring you to Greystone Nature Preserve, a mom and pop non-profit run by two wholesome souls on a mission to get people connected with nature. There’s always good conversation and good views there. Call ahead of time for a visit and check out greystonenaturepreserve.com for more information.
A 20 minute drive to Brocton can get you to the College Lodge, which is quite literally a lodge operated by the Faulty Student Association of SUNY Fredonia. There’s over 200 acres of land and several trails and lots of locals.
A 20 minute drive can bring you to Lily Dale, a hamlet connected with the Spiritualism movement that attracts thousands of visitors every year for medium readings. If you go in the off-season, you can walk around the hamlet for free and admire the fairy garden-like architecture and landscaping or walk along the Cassadaga Lakes. You can walk the Leolyn Woods Nature trail and find Inspirational Stump, which is a preserved stump in front of rows of benches in the middle of the woods. The trail also has a pet cemetery.
Fredonia in the big picture.
18-Mile Creek, Hamburg, NY. Photograph by Jules Hoepting. 
Rock City Forest, Salamanca, NY. Photograph by Jules Hoepting. 
Handsome Lake Campground, Allegheny National Forest, PA. Photograph by Jules Hoepting. 
Tracey Ridge Trail, Allegheny National Forest, PA. Photograph by Jules Hoepting.
You might be thinking to yourself, “Those are nice suggestions and all, but I’m getting the sense Fredonia is a small town in the middle of nowhere.”
Well, you’re very wrong. Fredonia is not that small of a town — drive around the Southerntier, you’ll see what I mean pretty quickly — and it’s a short distance from a variety of locations.
Buffalo — the second most populated city in New York — is an hour away. Erie, Pennsylvania is an hour away. Cleveland, Ohio is two and a half hours away. Canada is an hour and a half away.
Fredonia’s also a few minutes from Interstate 90, which will take you from Boston, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington, if you ever feel like going on a road trip.
In terms of geography, there’s a cornucopia of that as well.
Lake Erie is an eight minute drive away, which brings beaches and the flat lands of the former Great Lake basin.
You can drive to the mountains in Allegany State Park — New York’s largest state park — in an hour. Allegany also has massive boulders to explore.
World-famous waterfalls known as Niagara Falls are an hour and a half away.
There’s an abundance of gorgeous gorges less than an hour away: Zoar Valley in Gowanda, 18-Mile Creek in Hamburg. The greatest gorge in New York, the “Grand Canyon of the east” Letchworth State Park, is two hours away in Mount Morris.
If you’re not a nature person, there’s plenty of cityscape within an hour’s radius; between Buffalo, Jamestown and Erie, all of your entertainment, shopping and medical needs are covered.
Not only is Fredonia a convenient distance from everything, but it’s also a relatively cheap place to live. That’s great for broke college students.
If you’d ask me, Fredonia’s a pretty good place to be.
So, what will you do? Well, that is up to you.