History, Natural History & the Arts
Over the last three-plus decades, Bill Kauffman has written about and interviewed upstate New York novelists, politicians, and civic activists who have given the region much of its interest to the author.
Upstaters: Poets, Pols, Prophets and Bush-League Heroes of Upstate New York (SUNY Press, 2026) collects these into a single volume. [Read more…] about Upstaters: Poets, Pols, Prophets & Bush-League Heroes
In a July 4, 1862 speech to an audience of about 2,000 people in Himrod’s Corner, in Yates County, NY, Frederick Douglass described what we now remember as the American Civil War as a “slaveholders’ mutiny.”
As a recent New York Times op-ed pointed out, naming that war is very much a political decision that shapes and is shaped by our view of the past and American history. During the war it was usually referred to as an “insurrection” or a “rebellion.” Civil War is a more neutral term that avoids placing blame for ripping the country apart or branding the Southern actions as treasonous and ignores the future of slavery in the United States as the fundamental cause of the war. [Read more…] about Slaveholders’ Mutiny: Frederick Douglass & The Southern Insurrection
New York State has always been a gateway for immigrants, but the Erie Canal carried more westbound immigrants than any other trans-Appalachian canal. These new Americans brought different languages, customs, practices, and religions. [Read more…] about Martin’s Journey, Erie Canal at the Seneca River, 1848
The hamlet of Bellona in Yates County, NY, with a population of just over 100 individuals, remains the home of a large stone mill dating to 1828. Standing on the banks of Kashong Creek, from which its stones were quarried, the building was originally a grain mill.
Now, the structure is unused, although a new roof was added within the past few years and has prevented the building from falling into complete disrepair. The site is a rare, intact example of the many stone mills originally found throughout the Finger Lakes region. [Read more…] about 1828 Bellona Mill in Yates County Faces Uncertain Future
Through the nineteenth century in the Empire State a system of “blue laws” at every civic level were enforced, prohibiting all types of activities on the Christian Sabbath. As the twentieth century began, these “blue laws” prevented Sunday baseball.
The sport of baseball had swept the nation, and was popular since the Civil War; played anywhere a bat and ball could be put in use. Americans were baseball mad, they had the fever, and had it bad. [Read more…] about Sunday Baseball and the Titanic Game
The Finger Lakes National Forest is New York’s only National Forest. “Whether to hike, ski, or admire the fall foliage, diverse recreation opportunities draw in visitors year-round,” says the U.S. Forest Service website.
The Trump regime is planning to cut down more of the Finger Lakes National Forest in order to reach a goal of increasing United States timber production by 25%. “All relevant agencies shall eliminate, to the maximum extent permissible by law, all undue delays within their respective permitting processes related to timber production,” Trump’s Executive Order says. [Read more…] about Trump Seeks Increased Logging of Finger Lakes National Forest
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
There are many former race tracks across the Empire State, and one of them is an old race track in Watkins Glen, the county seat of Schuyler County, NY. Not a flat for thoroughbreds or an oval for trotters, but the original “open-circuit” Grand Prix track.
As the victors of the Second World War settled down after a few seasons at home they looked for some new entertainment. An early autumn festival in the marvelous Finger Lakes Region seemed like a siren’s call that extended the waning summer; the final rose of the season. [Read more…] about Racing Through The Streets of Watkins Glen
Governor Kathy Hochul has announced $42 million to protect and enhance water quality in the eastern Finger Lakes region. This investment is expected to develop on-the-ground actions necessary to address the root causes of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and reduce their prevalence while supporting projects that help prevent runoff into lakes and improve climate resiliency. [Read more…] about $42 million to Protect Water Quality in the Eastern Finger Lakes Region
Freshwater cyanobacteria are found in all lakes and reservoirs, are naturally occurring, and are important to water ecosystems; however, excessive growth of some cyanobacteria can result in harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs, also called cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms or HABs).
These blooms can cause unsightly scums that smell like rotting eggs or septic. Toxins from HCBs can negatively impact people, animals, and the environment. [Read more…] about EPA Researchers Develop Forecasting for Harmful Cyanobacterial Blooms
Canals were the first transportation revolution in New York, but they were eclipsed in a few decades by extensive railroad development. Starting in the 1840s, railroads shipped goods faster than canal barges and provided additional inland routes to the Midwest as it emerged as the breadbasket of the expanding nation. [Read more…] about Railroads, Food, Economic & Cultural Diversification in the Finger Lakes
The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced that 18 maritime heritage projects across New York State will be supported by almost $400,000 in federal grants through the New York State National Maritime Heritage Grant Program. [Read more…] about New York State Maritime Heritage Projects Get $400k in Grant Funding
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
The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, pushed a reluctant United States into the Second World War. Factories across the country, including those in Central New York, answered President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s call for American manufacturers to shift production towards military preparedness.
Before the outbreak of the war, factories located in Syracuse and Onondaga County, NY, made shoes, typewriters, air conditioners, washing machines, and many other civilian products. Between 1941 and 1945 however, Syracuse industries manufactured antiaircraft gun mounts, antitank landmines, rifles, machine guns, radar systems, and airplane and ship signaling lights. [Read more…] about The Finger Lakes During World War Two
Established in 1893, New York State’s Bath Fish Hatchery in Steuben County and is one of the state’s oldest hatcheries and the only hatchery raising wild Finger Lakes strain rainbow trout. [Read more…] about Bath Fish Hatchery: Home to Wild Finger Lakes Strain Trout
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
Initially, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) claimed neutrality during the conflict between Britain and the colonists, seeing the disagreement as a civil war and valuing loyalty to their families and to their lands above all else. When the political discontent erupted into the American Revolutionary War, the member nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy split their support between the British and newly formed American forces. [Read more…] about The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes
According to archeological records, groups of nomadic Paleo-Indians traveled through the Finger Lakes region approximately 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. Small bands of these hunters and gatherers followed large game during the last stages of the Ice Age when the glaciers that formed the area’s notable lakes were receding.
Somewhat more recent early archaic archeological sites scattered across Western New York reflect a culture that was highly mobile and left little in terms of an archeological record. [Read more…] about Early Inhabitants of the Finger Lakes Region
Approximately 600 million years ago, during the Neoproterozoic Era, the Earth’s supercontinent began to break apart, and an ocean formed between land masses that roughly correlate to Europe and North America today. For the next 100 million years, this ocean continued to widen until the continents changed course and began to move back towards each other.
The eventual collision of these land masses formed a tall mountain range now known as North America’s Appalachians. [Read more…] about Geologic Formation of the Finger Lakes
Use your bank’s “bill pay” option (or just send a check)
Thanks for your support! These are difficult times. Without your support we cannot publish the Almanack.
*Donations are not tax deductible.
(Click the X in the top right corner this box to not see this message again for 7 days).