Finger Lakes
By Kirk W. House and Charles R. Mitchell
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About this ebook
For more than a century, the natural scenic beauty of the Finger Lakes has drawn generations of tourists. The vineyards, glens, and steamers that made the region famous are displayed through the vintage images in this volume. These postcards capture the lively and dynamic atmosphere that has kept visitors flocking to the area for years, eager to mail a piece of their memories back home.
Kirk W. House
Kirk W. House is the former director of the Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. Charles R. Mitchell, a former photographer, is curator of the Yates County Genealogical and Historical Society in Penn Yan. Together they have authored a dozen books with Arcadia Publishing.
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Book preview
Finger Lakes - Kirk W. House
Yan.
INTRODUCTION
The Finger Lakes were Iroquois country before the brand-new white settlers arrived, and other cultures made their home here before the Iroquois. The Erie Canal skirted the northern fringe of the lakes, turning that stretch into America’s first boom region. The New York Central Railroad and the New York State Thruway rode through that same corridor, tracking the route that Native Americans had paced out centuries before.
The people who lived here were vivid thinkers, if a bit cranky at times. They developed women’s rights campaigns, Underground Railroad routes, Mormonism, revivalism, Spiritualism, fiber optics, aeronautic innovations, Pyrex, photographic film, and the Northern Spy.
Nathaniel Hawthorne toured the region, along with Lafayette, Daniel Webster, and the future King Louis Philippe of France. Millard Fillmore lived here, and Stephen A. Douglas, and Glenn Curtiss—not to mention Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. Mark Twain wrote here, along with Rod Serling and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Tens of thousands of seamen did their boot camp at Sampson Naval Training Station in World War II. Hundreds of thousands of people fondly remember college days in the region. Millions have hiked the glens, boated the lakes, shopped the marketplaces, and fished the streams.
One
ON THE LAKES
A line of 11 lakes runs across western New York, covering an area the size of Connecticut. Ever-running inflow from tiny streams now keeps them full. In 1816, an excursion boat launched onto the waves of Skaneateles, originating a flood of tourism that still continues. On the shores of Crooked Lake, Rev. William Bostwick cultivated the region’s first vineyard; by the time production went commercial, the lake was called Keuka.
Summer cottages, camps, and year-round homes ring most of the Finger Lakes. The cottages are becoming scarce as they are being replaced by larger homes with people coming back to the lakes where they grew up to retire and live.
Conesus may be one of the smaller lakes, but there are those who love it—and rightly so. Like the larger Finger Lakes, it has a year-round population and plenty of seasonal visitation. To the Native Americans, Conesus means always beautiful.
In the postcard showing all the Finger Lakes on page 2, the name for the westernmost lake, Conesus, was omitted. Many of the old cottages remain, but as on the other lakes, they are being replaced by larger year-round homes.
Many businesses throughout the lakes country sell to road traffic out one side and waterfront traffic out the other.
One small lake bears a special honor. When New York Department of Environmental Conservation scientists wanted to reintroduce bald eagles to the area, they decided that Hemlock was the perfect choice and the eagles agreed. Hemlock is the only Finger Lake that does not carry a Native American name, although its Iroquois name means hemlock.
Fish stories from the Finger Lakes are legend, but this one may be a bit tall. See page 20 for a true fishing tale. This generic postcard was used on all of the Finger Lakes and