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The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located directly south of Lake Ontario in an area called the Finger Lakes region in New York State. This region straddles the northern and transitional edge of the Northern Allegheny Plateau, known as the Finger Lakes Uplands and Gorges ecoregion, and the Ontario Lowlands ecoregion of the Great Lakes Lowlands.
Yet despite the lakes’ seemingly ancient presence, the first record of the Finger Lakes being referred to as such only dates back to the 1800s. And yet, the 11 lakes that resemble fingers laying a handprint across Central New York have existed for more than two million years, giving life, beauty, and recreation to our region.
Forming a triangle between Syracuse, Rochester, and Elmira-Corning, the lakes— Canadice, Cayuga, Canandaigua, Conesus, Hemlock, Honeoye, Keuka, Otisco, Owasco, Seneca, and Skaneateles—were created during the last ice age when the glaciers receded, carving deep lakes from stream valleys. While there are many reasons and elements that make up the character of the region, the topography is at the heart of the Finger Lakes.
The Finger Lakes Region is bordered on the north by Lake Ontario and on the south by Pennsylvania. West of the Finger Lakes lies the Genesee Region and western New York. To the east are the Catskill Mountains, the Adirondacks and the Leatherstocking Region. Rochester and Syracuse are within easy driving distance of any Finger Lake.
The Lakes
The eleven Finger Lakes, from west to east, are:
• “Conesus Lake” Lakeville; Livingston Co.: Conesus, Geneseo, Groveland, Livonia)
• “Hemlock Lake Livingston Co.: Conesus, Livonia, Springwater
Ontario County: Canadice, Richmond)
• Canadice Lake (Canadice, Ontario, NY)
• “Honeoye Lake” (Ontario Co.: Honeoye, Canadice, Richmond)
• “Canandaigua Lake” (Ontario Co.: Canandaigua, Gorham, South Bristol, Woodville, Naples. Yates Co.: Italy, Middlesex)
• “Honeoye Lake” (formerly, “Crooked Lake”) (Steuben Co.: Hammondsport (formerly, “Cold Spring Valley”), Pulteney, Urbana, Wayne.
Yates Co.: Barrington, Branchport, Jerusalem, Penn Yan, Milo)
• “Seneca Lake” (Ontario Co.: Geneva. Schuyler County: Dix, Hector, Watkins Glen, Reading.
Seneca Co.: Fayette, Lodi, Ovid, Romulus, Varick, Waterloo
Yates Co.: Benton, Milo, Starkey, Torrey)
• “Cayuga Lake” (Cayuga Co.:: Aurelius, Genoa, Ledyard, Springport
Seneca Co.: Covert, Fayette, Ovid, Romulus, Seneca Falls, Varick
Tompkins Co.: Ithaca, Lansing, Ulysses)
• “Owasco Lake” (Cayuga Co.: Auburn, Fleming, Moravia, Niles, Owasco, Scipio, Venice)
• “Skaneateles Lake” (Cayuga Co.: Niles, Sempronius
Cortland Co.: Scott
Onondaga Co.: Skaneateles, Spafford)
• “Otisco Lake” (Onondaga Co.: Marcellus, Spafford).
History
The Finger Lakes region is a central part of the Iroquois homeland. The Iroquois tribes include the Seneca and Cayuga nations, for which the two largest Finger Lakes are named. The Tuscarora tribe lived in the Finger Lakes region as well, from ca. 1720. The Onondaga and Oneida tribes lived at the eastern edge of the region, closer to their namesake lakes, Oneida Lake and Onondaga Lake. The easternmost Iroquois tribe was the Mohawk.
The Finger Lakes region contains sites of unknown cultural affiliation and age. The Bluff Point Stoneworks is one such site as its age and who may have constructed these enigmatic stone structures has not been determined.
During colonial times, many other tribes moved to the Finger Lakes region, seeking the protection of the Iroquois. For example, in 1753, remnants of several Virginia Siouan tribes, collectively called the Tutelo-Saponi, moved to the town of Coreorgonel at the south end of Cayuga Lake near present-day Ithaca and lived there until 1779, when their village was destroyed by the Sullivan Expedition.
Iroquois towns in the Finger Lakes region included the Seneca town of Gen-nis-he-yo (present-day Geneseo), Kanadaseaga (Seneca Castle, near present-day Geneva), Goiogouen (Cayuga Castle, east of Cayuga Lake), Chonodote (Cayuga town, present-day Aurora), Catherine's Town (near present-day Watkins Glen) and Ganondagan State Historic Site in Victor, New York.
As one of the most powerful Indian nations during colonial times, the Iroquois were able to prevent European colonization of the Finger Lakes region for nearly two centuries after first contact, often playing the French off against the British interests in savvy demonstrations of political competence. The renowned ingenuity and adaptability of the Iroquois people were key tools of resistance against hostile European powers rapidly spreading throughout North America, eager to dominate and increasingly brutal toward native Americans in the Finger Lakes and beyond.
By the late 18th century, with the French governmental influence gone from Canada, Iroquois power had weakened relative to the steady growth in European-Americans' populations, and internal strife eroded the political unity of the Iroquois Confederacy as it faced pressures from colonists itching to move west and a desire to keep them out of Amerindian lands. During the American Revolutionary War, some Iroquois sided with the British and some with the Americans, resulting in civil war among the Iroquois. In the late 1770s, British-allied Iroquois attacked various American frontier settlements, prompting counter-attacks, culminating in the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, which destroyed most of the Iroquois towns and effectively broke Iroquois power. After the Revolutionary War, the Iroquois and other Indians of the region were assigned reservations. Most of their land, including the Finger Lakes region, was opened up to purchase and settlement.
Roughly the western half of the Finger Lakes region comprised the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1790. The region was rapidly settled at the turn of the 19th century, largely by a westward migration from New England, and to a lesser degree by northward influx from Pennsylvania. The regional architecture reflects these area traditions of the Federal and Greek Revival periods.
Counties:
Cayuga
Chemung
Cortland
Livingston
Monroe
Onondaga
Ontario
Schuyler
Seneca
Steuben
Tioga
Tompkins
Wayne
Yates
Outside Links:
[https://www.fingerlakes.org/what-are-finger-lakes#:~:text=Forming%2...]
Wikipedia
[https://www.lifeinthefingerlakes.com/regional-facts/]
[https://www.fingerlakes.org/what-are-finger-lakes]