History, Natural History & the Arts
The Treaty of Paris 1783 ended the American War for Independence, but it did not bring peace to North America. After 1783, warfare and violence continued between Americans and Native Americans.
So how did the early United States attempt to create peace for its new nation? [Read more…] about The Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794
Today’s State Route 5 crosses New York State from Buffalo to Albany and parallels state Route 20 and the New York State Thruway. The part of Route 5 between Utica and Canandaigua in Ontario County, some 105 miles, is still called the Seneca Turnpike.
Originally a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) path, the route has been referred to in various accounts as the Great Genesee Road, the Great Genesee Trail, the Genesee Turnpike, the Great Seneca Turnpike or Seneca Road. Previously it had been known as the part of the Great Indian Trail or Iroquois Trail. [Read more…] about The Great Seneca Turnpike
Donald Campbell (1921–1967), a flamboyant and superstitious Scot, already held three-world records piloting a speedboat. Nonetheless, in 1957, he visited the 32-mile-long Lake George to determine if the waterway, located in the Adirondack Mountains, would be a suitable for his next attempt at racing immortality.
In late February 1957, Campbell, on his way from the United Kingdom to the Miami national boat show, stopped at the “Queen of American Lakes.” [Read more…] about Scottish Daredevil Donald Campbell & The World Water Speed Record
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced the nominations of 24 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include bank buildings, factories, historic district updates, and more. [Read more…] about 24 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced $350,000 in grant awards to help partners in the Finger Lakes watershed restore and protect water quality.
The eight projects funded though DEC’s Finger Lakes Watershed Grants Program complement federal, private, and DEC grant programs, as well as achieve the goals outlined in the Great Lakes Action Agenda and aid the implementation of clean water plans in the Finger Lakes. [Read more…] about $350k in Grants Awarded to Finger Lakes Watershed Projects
The geology and climate of the Finger Lakes region presented a landscape of great natural beauty that has attracted tourism and recreation for more than 200 years.
Wealthy elites from the city of New York began building homes at Skaneateles Lake as early as 1809, and mineral springs in Livingston County in the western portion of the greater Finger Lakes region attracted visitors starting in the 1820s. [Read more…] about A Short History of Finger Lakes Tourism
Central New York communities that flourished with canal-related development and rail connections throughout the 19th century also became hotbeds for religious and social movements of the early 1800s as the area’s population rapidly grew.
Religious freedom granted by the United States Bill of Rights combined with rapid societal and technological changes experienced by Americans living through western expansion fueled an American spiritual movement that was exemplified in the newly opened frontier of New York. [Read more…] about Social and Religious Movements in Central New York
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Department of State (DOS) have announced the joint agency approval of the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Nine Element Plan for Enhanced Phosphorus Management, a plan to advance efforts to restore and protect the water quality of Canandaigua Lake and its watershed. [Read more…] about Canandaigua Lake Water Quality Plan Finalized
On October 29, 1857 Frederick Douglass spoke in Oneonta, in southern Otsego County, NY.
The visit appears in few historical sources, no doubt because it was long-held belief that it was not wise to identify Underground Railroad agents or their locations as a precaution against pro-slavery advocates attacking them. [Read more…] about Frederick Douglass & Oneonta’s Underground Railroad
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 officially ended hostilities between the British and Americans; however, the treaty did not include the allied Indian Nations, leaving their legacy treaties with the Europeans unresolved and their future to be resolved through separate treaties with the new American government. [Read more…] about Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region
The Red Jacket Peace Medal, an object of cultural patrimony under federal law, has been returned to the Seneca Nation by The Buffalo History Museum.
The medal, considered to be of central importance by many in the Nation, was gifted to Seneca Chief Red Jacket by President George Washington in 1792 to commemorate discussions that culminated in the Treaty of Canandaigua of 1794, in which the Seneca Nation played a crucial role. The medal was meant to be a symbol of peace, friendship, and enduring relationships among the United States and the Six Nations. [Read more…] about Red Jacket Peace Medal Returned to Seneca Nation by Buffalo Museum
New York’s Finger Lakes Region was well known to many Revolutionary War veterans as a place of both strife and potential. Strife because of conflict with Indigenous people, and great potential for lush productive farmland.
Soldiers witnessed both ends of the spectrum first-hand. [Read more…] about Colonial Canandaigua In War And Peace
A nineteenth century invading army’s journey into battle had two options, by land or by water. In the winter of 1838 the patriot army, which sought to invade Canada from New York State and overthrow the British Crown, saw a third alternative – by ice.
With Lake Erie covered with ice, “a band of the invaders determined to make it an avenue of passage across to Canada at a point where discovery would be improbable,” according to Our County and Its People, A History of Erie County published in 1898. [Read more…] about The Patriot War: Republic of Canada
The public is invited to join in celebrating the 222nd Anniversary of the historic Canandaigua Treaty, and learn about this seminal federal treaty still in effect, on November 11th.
In 1794, a historic federal treaty signed in Canandaigua brought about peace between the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Confederacy) and the United States, each recognizing the sovereignty of the other to govern and set laws as distinct nations. On Friday, November 11, 222 years later, the Canandaigua Treaty will be commemorated. [Read more…] about Commemoration of 1794 Canandaigua Treaty Planned
Lifelong train enthusiast Paul Shinal will present an illustrated lecture on the “Auburn Road” in Theater Mack on Tuesday, November 15 at 7 pm, at the Cayuga Museum.
Shinal will be presenting an historic overview of the railway that still exists today from Canandaigua to Geneva, through Auburn and into Solvay. [Read more…] about Railroad History: Lecture on the ‘Auburn Road’
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