Developing story2 sources
An old engine in a new Canandaigua steamboat
A 1911 history describes the Ogarita taking over more than an older boat’s place: it received the Canandaigua’s engine.
Open recordMovement and connection
Follow waterways, railroads, roads, vessels, and the people whose movement connected lake communities.
Current exhibit
This collection may grow or change order as more material is reviewed and published. Each item keeps its links to the sources.
A 1911 history describes the Ogarita taking over more than an older boat’s place: it received the Canandaigua’s engine.
Open recordA written recollection links summer commuters, dockside signals and autumn fruit moving from the lake to the railway.
Open recordA contract copied into Skaneateles’s local history tied a mail-coach schedule to the season when Hudson River steamboats stopped running.
Open recordThe 1841 report calls navigation uninterrupted, then describes an unusable lock. Its explanation is an alternate route through the junction lock.
Open recordAt the close of the 1840 season, the commissioners described a lock that had to be rebuilt before Crooked Lake Canal navigation could resume.
Open recordIn its guide for the summer of 1890, the New York Central turned grape picking, steamer cargo, cottages and named hotels into an invitation to visit Keuka.
Open recordThe county’s park timeline separates a railway company’s lakeside attraction, Emerson’s gift and the later addition of Deauville Island.
Open recordMartisco’s brick station survived a demolition threat through a railway-history group’s lease, purchase and repairs, according to the town’s history.
Open recordThe Marcellus railway began with electric ambitions. The historical society’s account follows the line that actually carried passengers, farm goods and mail toward Otisco Lake.
Open recordAn 1896 county history follows a two-and-a-half-mile millrace along Ninemile Creek from a private association into the state canal system.
Open recordWhitford’s canal history describes a celebratory boat trip in May 1833. Flood damage then delayed the Chemung Canal’s navigation season until October.
Open recordThe Genesee Valley Canal served the wider western Finger Lakes corridor. Whitford’s chronology shows why its opening cannot be reduced to one year.
Open recordWhitford’s canal history records a dispute over the Keuka outlet: the canal needed water, but so did the mills downstream.
Open recordLocal histories describe Lakeville as a place where a railway trip could continue on the water.
Open recordHarold Saxton's 1973 account describes a floating research platform anchored over more than 500 feet of water.
Open recordA 1992 Navy abstract records a 150-ton test assembly's arrival at Seneca Lake in May 1990.
Open recordPassengers, mail, and freight shared a steamboat's working life, as Historic Geneva recounts it.
Open recordFlooded land, mill power, and canal navigation pulled water-level policy in different directions. A 1906 state history records the arguments without making them disappear.
Open recordCourt records, a factory inventory, and old timetables trace parts of a working landscape on Cayuga Lake. A railroad historian's memory adds the people aboard the morning train.
Open recordA loaded boat passed the Seneca Falls locks in 1818. The completed state route from Geneva to the Erie Canal came a decade later.
Open recordCaroline Cowles Richards lived in Canandaigua before she ever set foot on a boat. Her 1854 picnic diary and an earlier visitor's account offer two ways of seeing the lake.
Open recordAn 1881 excursion guide offered a round trip from New York to Watkins Glen by rail and steamer. An earlier guide shows what visitors were promised when they arrived.
Open recordGlenn Curtiss described a tugboat journey, wet fabric, a coin toss, and a flight that ended on the ice. His letter and Bell's later testimony disagree about the accident's date.
Open recordGlenn Curtiss flew 5,090 feet over Pleasant Valley on July 4, 1908. The trophy flight was announced in advance, publicly observed, and the work of a named experimental team.
Open record