To celebrate 200th, Bergen planted a hitching post this year

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 12 August 2013 at 12:00 am

Photo by Tom Rivers

BERGEN – This Genesee County community is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. To help mark the occasion, the village installed an artifact from the horse-and-buggy era at Mount Rest Cemetery along Route 19.

I noticed the hitching post on Saturday, when I was in Bergen, where I lived for a couple years in the late 1990s.

Bergen is marking its bicentennial this year and has a year-long “200 and Still Growing” celebration planned for the community. The village also added a historic marker and flower bed at the front of the cemetery as part of a bicentennial party in April.

As some of our Orleans County towns and villages approach their 200th anniversaries, I would encourage them to bring back a historic artifact as part of the bicentennial. Bergen provides a good example.