Construction has begun on four new pedestrian bridges along the Genesee Valley Greenway State Park in Allegany County, NY that will restore connections where former railroad bridges had been removed, allowing trail users to remain on the Greenway rather than detouring onto local roadways, including busy Route 19. Together with targeted resurfacing, the $6.25 million improvements will provide 22 miles of continuously surfaced recreational corridor. [Read more…] about New Bridges Closing Some Genesee Valley Greenway Trail Gaps
Genesee River
Nathanial Hawthorne’s 1830s Visit to Rochester
Nathanial Hawthorne (1804-1864) traveled to Rochester, NY and recorded these scenes sometime between 1829 and 1835.
The gray but transparent evening rather shaded than obscured the scene, leaving its stronger features visible, and even improved by the medium through which I beheld them. [Read more…] about Nathanial Hawthorne’s 1830s Visit to Rochester
Mary Jemison: ‘The White Woman of the Genesee’
Consider the story of Mary Jemison. She was born in 1743 aboard a ship as her Scots-Irish family journeyed from Dublin, Ireland, to Pennsylvania. They settled on the frontier just north of Gettysburg. She and her five siblings enjoyed a happy childhood on the “little paradise” of the family farm.
One April morning, when Mary was fifteen, a party of six Shawnee and four French warriors attacked their isolated home. Her two older brothers escaped, but the raiders captured the rest of the family. They forced the prisoners to march westward. After two days, Mary was given a pair of moccasins to replace her shoes. [Read more…] about Mary Jemison: ‘The White Woman of the Genesee’
New York’s International Port at Rochester: Some History
As Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle effused, presciently, in 1874: Charlotte, the Rochester NY neighborhood situated “at the mouth of the Genesee River, surrounded by scenery of unequaled beauty,” is “daily growing more important as a shipping port.”
The paper could scarcely have anticipated the impact of an international deal signed decades later, in 1905. “Car ferries” would be built, with related infrastructure, plus dredging of port channels to accommodate heavy loads, to directly link Rochester, with Cobourg in Ontario, Canada, to its north. The ferries would carry both freight-laden train cars and paying passengers. [Read more…] about New York’s International Port at Rochester: Some History
The Erie Canal’s Impacts on Indigenous People
New York’s canal building boom and the urban explosion that it triggered dramatically accelerated the dispossession and disruption of traditional life ways of the region’s Native American inhabitants that had been initiated by the introduction of European trade, diseases, colonial wars, the American Revolution, and encroaching settlement by non-natives. [Read more…] about The Erie Canal’s Impacts on Indigenous People
State Protects 1,200 Acres to Protect Water Quality
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced more than 1,200 acres were permanently protected by five community-based partners through a State program to protect water quality. [Read more…] about State Protects 1,200 Acres to Protect Water Quality
The Discovery of Rock Salt in New York: Some History
Before the creation of shaft salt mines, the production of salt in New York State required the evaporation of salt brine extracted from salt springs and wells – first by applying heat and later with large solar evaporators.
In the mid-19th century it had been thought by New York geologists that the Onondaga salt springs, known since the mid-1600s, must be supplied from the leaching of beds of rock-salt, and for a time efforts were made to find it in the immediate vicinity of Onondaga Lake. The various borings made on the State’s Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation [see map] in the 1820s and 1830s however showed conclusively that no rock salt was there. [Read more…] about The Discovery of Rock Salt in New York: Some History
The Great Seneca Turnpike
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
Early Upstate New York Roads: Some History
What is now New York State saw multitudes of American settlers moving inland from the Atlantic seaboard, especially those “locusts of the east” from New England. Traveling long distances overland before the 20th century was however, difficult to say the least.
In the 1600s their movement was constrained by topography, and settlements were limited to areas in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys previously inhabited or improved by Indigenous People. Some Indigenous portage trails were described by the earliest settlers as wide paths that a capable ox team and wagon could manage. [Read more…] about Early Upstate New York Roads: Some History
Seth Green: A Father of American Fish Culture and a Pioneer in Conservation
Seth Green, born on March 19, 1817, to a poor farming family in what was then a remote area along Culver Road in Rochester, New York, is considered a father of American fish culture and aquaculture.
At the time of his birth, Rochester was not yet a city, and the surrounding Genesee Valley was by then sparsely populated, and inhabited by wildlife such as bears, wolves, and rattlesnakes. [Read more…] about Seth Green: A Father of American Fish Culture and a Pioneer in Conservation
Genesee Country, the Seneca & Letchworth State Park
The history of colonial settlement along the Genesee River in the western part of New York State begins with the Onöndowa’ga:’, the People of the Great Hill.
When Europeans arrived, the Dutch used a vague pronunciation of an Algonquian word sounding like “Seneca” to refer to the central and western three nations of the Haudenosaunee.
Usage eventually changed to refer specifically to the Onöndowa’ga:’. They are most widely known as the Seneca. [Read more…] about Genesee Country, the Seneca & Letchworth State Park
The Lives of Lake Ontario: An Environmental History
Lake Ontario has profoundly influenced the historical evolution of North America. For centuries it has enabled and enriched the societies that crowded its edges, from fertile agricultural landscapes to energy production systems to sprawling cities.
In The Lives of Lake Ontario (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024) Daniel Macfarlane details the lake’s relationship with the Indigenous nations, settler cultures, and modern countries that have occupied its shores. [Read more…] about The Lives of Lake Ontario: An Environmental History
New Virtual Access Project at Genesee Country Village & Museum
Genesee Country Village & Museum near Rochester has announced an innovative project that provides virtual access to historic 19th-century buildings and exhibits currently on view (as well as past exhibits) in the John L. Wehle Gallery.
Utilizing state-of-the-art Matterport technology, the Museum is making these structures and exhibits accessible to a global audience, offering virtual tours that provide an in-depth look at the past. [Read more…] about New Virtual Access Project at Genesee Country Village & Museum
Bicycling Adventures in New York State Parks
Go for a spin this fall and discover the scenic biking trails at New York State Parks. Bicycling is a great, low-impact exercise to enjoy with family and friends and a picturesque way to experience fall foliage in New York State. With so many trails to choose from, here are a few destinations from around the state worth exploring. [Read more…] about Bicycling Adventures in New York State Parks
The Great Genesee Road: A History Travel Guide
In 1794 the state legislature authorized the Great Genesee Road from Fort Schuyler (now Utica) to Canawaugus (once one of the most populous of the Seneca villages, now in Livingston County) to help settlers reach the New Military Tract in Central New York where nearly two million acres of land was set aside to compensate Revolutionary War veterans. Today we call most of it New York Route 5. [Read more…] about The Great Genesee Road: A History Travel Guide
Fourth Body Recovered from Genesee River Since October
New York State Police have announced that another body was recovered Thursday from waters of the Genesee River. This time at Letchworth State Park in Wyoming County, NY. Police and a medical examiner are working to identify the remains, the fourth body found in the river since October.
[Read more…] about Fourth Body Recovered from Genesee River Since October
State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid Named Open Space Institute CEO, President
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has announced that New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) Commissioner Erik Kulleseid will serve as its next President and CEO.
The selection of Commissioner Kulleseid marks his return to OSI. During his original eight-year stint at OSI, Kulleseid oversaw the creation of OSI’s parks initiative aimed at making protected land more accessible and welcoming to all people, according to the announcement. [Read more…] about State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid Named Open Space Institute CEO, President
$350k in Grants Awarded to Finger Lakes Watershed Projects
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
A Short History of Finger Lakes Tourism
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
The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes
As the population of interior New York increased, developers pushed for a faster method of transportation between the area and developed population centers like the city of New York.
The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, revolutionized inland travel and ushered in a broader era of canal construction across the state, connecting the state capital of Albany on the Hudson River to Western New York and the Great Lakes. [Read more…] about The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes