The Finger Lakes Region

 How Many Finger Lakes  in the fingerlakes ?

 The actual number of  Finger Lakes is 11 - they are Conesus, Hemlock, Candice, Honeoye, Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga, Owasco, Skaneateles, and Otisco.
All of the Finger Lakes were carved out by glaciers after the Ice Age, which makes them look long, narrow, and similar to fingers.

 History of the Finger Lakes - fingerlakes

 The Finger Lakes Region, is a major tourist destination in the west-central section of Upstate New York, are actually eleven lakes, but only seven of the largest are commonly identified as the "Finger Lakes". The lakes mainly are linear in shape, each lake oriented on a north-south axis. The longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in America . Both are close to 40 miles (64 km) from end to end, but never more than 3.5 miles (5,600 m) wide. Cayuga is actually the longest (38.1 miles), but Seneca the largest in total area. Seneca is the deepest (618 feet, 188.4 m), followed by Cayuga (435 feet, 132.6 m), with the bottoms well below sea level. These largest lakes resemble the others in shape, which collectively reminded early map-makers of the fingers of a hand.

Native American Legend - Finger Lakes

 "It is said that the Finger Lakes were made by the impression of the hand of the Great Spirit on central New York State . However there are six major Finger Lakes . West to east they are; Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, Cayuga, Owasco and Skaneateles.

As told in Iroquois legend, the Great God Manitou wanted to reward the Iroquois Confederacy for their courage in battle and their devotion to the Great Spirit. He decided to bring part of their happy hunting ground down from the heavens.

According to the legend, there are six Finger Lakes because the hand of Manitou slipped when he was pushing the portion of Indian Paradise down from the heavens, causing six indentations that later became the lakes."

Excerpt from Legends and Stories of the Finger Lakes Region by Emerson Klees

Finger Lakes - fingerlakes

The Finger Lakes from east to west (the first seven being commonly identified as the Finger Lakes

Otisco Lake, Skaneateles Lake, Owasco Lake, Cayuga Lake, Seneca Lake, Keuka Lake, Canandaigua Lake, Honeoye Lake, Canadice Lake, Hemlock Lake, Conesus Lake.

The geography of New York is diverse. The highest, most rugged mountains, the Adirondacks, are located in the northern part of the state between Lake Champlain in the east and Lake Ontario in the west. The St. Lawrence-Champlain lowlands can be found on the shores of Lake Ontario and running northeast along the St. Lawrence River and the Canadian border. South of the Adirondack uplands, the Hudson-Mowhawk lowland follows the rivers north and west. This area is from 10 to 30 miles wide. In the southeast is the Atlantic coastal plain, and to the west of the Hudson River are the Appalachian Highlands that extend west toward Lake Erie . This area includes the Catskill Mountains and the Finger Lakes . Further west is the Erie-Ontario lowlands as New York slopes toward these two Great Lakes .

New York is 330 miles long and 283 miles wide. New York covers 54,475 square miles. In size, New York ranks 27th compared with the other 50 states. Major rivers include the Hudson, the Mohawk and the Genessee. Major lakes include Ontario, Erie , Champlain and George.

 The Finger Lakes were modified by glaciers, but were not simply gouged out by glacial action, as often asserted. The present lakes were preglacial stream valleys or earlier lakes. Glaciers modified the terrain somewhat, but more critically: when the ice retreated, deposits left behind dammed the valleys, impounding water. The Finger Lakes are situated on the northern edge of the Appalachian Upland. They now drain northward to Lake Ontario. The southern ends of the lakes are characterized by steeper hills and glacial hanging valleys which are tributaries that drop steeply to the lake, often with waterfalls. Taughannock Falls, with a drop of 214 feet, is one of the highest waterfalls east of the Rocky Mountains . Taughannock Falls State Park, Fillmore Glen, and Watkins Glen are especially scenic examples of waterfalls that have been incorporated into public parks.

Most of the area was originally forested with oak, hickory, maple, chestnut, ash, hemlock, and beech trees, but the Iroquois maintained, by annual burning, the land between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes as prairie, with herds of bison, normally thought of as a western animal. Today the Finger Lakes area is still known for fishing and hunting. Winter sports are also popular, with skiing, snowmobiling and ice fishing available.

The Finger Lakes region is an important agricultural sector of New York . The rolling land between the lakes is occupied notably by vineyards (discussed below) but more commonly with other farms, mostly dairy operations, a number owned by Amish and Mennonite families in the twentieth centuries. Many Quakers settled in the nineteenth century. Farms raise corn, hay, wheat, oats, barley, and soybeans. Cabbages, sweet corn, and potatoes are major vegetable crops. Maple syrup and honey are also local products. Cornell University (below) maintains the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and horticultural gene bank at Geneva on the north end of Seneca Lake .

     Nearly all of New York State was covered by glaciers during the last two ice ages, except for a small section in the southwestern part of the state (Allegany State Park). So, New York can be considered to be a laboratory of glaciated landscapes, with the Finger Lakes leading the way. 
There are no other lakes in the world that have the exact same characteristics. They lie in a series of north-south trending troughs, deep valleys with steep sides and flat bottoms. North of the lakes the gentle landscape is dotted with drumlins, thousands of them.  As you travel southward, the terrain around the lakes gets higher and steeper. This is Finger Lakes wine country. It is there that you also find the famous gorges of New York: Watkins Glen, Taughnnock Falls , Ithaca Falls , Buttermilk Falls , Upper & Lower Treman, as well as many unique features and too many waterfalls to count. These tributary streams were left "hanging" after the Ice Age, and they carved a series of scenic waterfalls on their way down to the trough bottoms. The troughs themselves continue farther south beyond the lakes, but all the Finger Lakes drain to the north into Lake Ontario. They can't flow southward because a wall of rock and dirt, known as the Valley Heads Moraine, blocks the way. Beyond the moraine, the drainage pattern is south into Pennsylvania via the Susquehanna River . The valley bottoms here are very flat, filled with debris, or outwash, from the melting glaciers.

    The glacial pattern of the Finger Lakes is fairly consistent no matter how you travel from Lake Ontario south: Rte. 21 (Canandaigua Lake), Rte. 14 (Seneca Lake), Rte. 53 (Keuka Lake - photo at the top of the page), Rte. 89 (Cayuga Lake), or Rte. 41 ( Skaneateles Lake ). First you pass through the great drumlin field, and then you cross over the Erie Canal . Drumlins thin out before you enter the troughs. The topography gets steeper, and there are evidences of gorges and glens everywhere. South of the lakes, the troughs continue. You pass up and over the Valley Heads Moraine (see photo on the right, from just south of Naples, NY ), with its "hummocky" (roller-coaster) terrain. Finally, you travel through the outwash plain as you enter the Susquehanna Watershed. You drive through some very fertile farm land, wedged in between the walls of the forested troughs.
There is a common theme, but that is not to say that the individual lakes are carbon copies of each other. They are each worthy of your geographic attention  in their own right.nger Lakes cities and larger villages are situated at the head and foot of most major lakes: Skaneateles, Auburn, Ithaca, Geneva, Watkins Glen, Penn Yan, Hammondsport and Canandaigua. These historic communities with scenic situations all are tourist destinations, as is the village of Aurora, which is situated on the east shore of Cayuga Lake , and Naples, located about five miles south of Canandaigua Lake . Although not on one of the lakes, the nearby city of Corning is also a major destination for visitors, because of its famous glass museum and demonstrations. Similarly, the villages of Seneca Falls and Waterloo, although not on lakes, attract many to the several sites of the Women\'s Rights National Historical Park and the National Women\'s Hall of Fame. Likewise not on a lake but attracting many visitors is the Genesee Country Village and Museum at Mumford. Similarly, Letchworth State Park, with its famous gorge and waterfalls, draws visitors to the western end of the Finger Lakes region. The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge at the foot of Cayuga Lake is also a major feature of the region, as is the Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park at Canandaigua. 

 Finger Lakes Wine Country 

 The Finger Lakes area is New York's largest wine producing region. Numerous wineries and vineyards are centered around Seneca, Cayuga, Canandaigua, and Keuka Lakes . Because of the lakes\' great depth, they provide a lake effect to the lush vineyards that flank their shores. Retaining residual summer warmth in the winter, and winter\'s cold in the spring, the grapes are protected from disastrous spring frost during grape formation, and early frost before the harvest. With the passage of the Farm Winery Act in 1978, countless numbers of wineries have opened their doors to visitors from all over the world. Wineries are a major growth industry of the region, not merely contributing to the economy through production, but increasingly because they attract large numbers of visitors who support other components of tourism.

History

 The Finger Lakes region is a central part of the Iroquois homeland. The Iroquois tribes include the Seneca and Cayuga tribes, for which the two largest Finger Lakes are named. The Tuscarora tribe lived in the Finger Lakes region as well. The Onondaga and Oneida tribes lived at the eastern edge of the region, closer to their namesake lakes, Lake Oneida and Onondaga Lake. The sixth Iroquois tribe, the Mohawk, lived farther east. During colonial times, many other tribes moved to the Finger Lakes region, seeking the protection of the Iroquois. For example, remnants of several tribes of North Carolina, collectively called the Tutelo, moved to the town of Coreorgonel at the south end of Cayuga Lake near present-day Ithaca . Major 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), and Catherine\'s Town (near present-day Watkins Glen).

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. By the late 18th century Iroquois power had weakened, relative to the European-Americans, and internal strife eroded the political unity of the Iroquois League. During the American Revolutionary War some of the Iroquois sided with the British and some with the Americans, resulting in civil war among the Iroquois. In the late 1770s, British-allied Iroquois attacks 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 nineteenth century, largely by a westward migration from New England, but to a lesser degree by northward influx from Pennsylvania . The regional architecture reflects these area traditions of the Federal and Greek Revival periods.

The Finger Lakes region, together with the Genesee Country of Western New York, has been referred to as the Burned-Over District, where, in the 19th century, the Second Great Awakening was a revival of Christianity, and some new religions were also formed. The region was active in reform and utopian movements. Many Underground Railroad sites have been documented. The Harriet Tubman Home at Auburn recalls the life and work of the African-American "Moses of her people."

On the northern end of the Finger Lakes is also Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the Women\'s suffrage movement, Waterloo, the birthplace of Memorial Day, and Palmyra, the birthplace of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. An annual outdoor drama, The Hill Cumorah Pageant, produced by the Mormons draws thousands of visitors each year.

Hammondsport was the home of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, and the favorable air currents make the area a popular spot for glider pilots. Elmira, just to the south, was the home of Mark Twain in his later life, and the site of an infamous Civil War prison. Corning is most noted as the home of Corning Glass Works. Hornell, just southwest of the Finger Lakes was a major railroad center. Locomotives were repaired there until recently.

Notable among the historic buildings of the region (most linked below) is the Granger Homestead (1816), a large village house in Federal Style at Canandaigua, New York . Another example of the Federal Style is the Prouty-Chew House (1829) at Geneva , portions of which were altered at various times in new fashions. Three Greek Revival mansions are situated near three lakes: The Richard DeZeng House, Skaneateles (1839), Rose Hill, Geneva (1839), and Esperanza, Penn Yan (1838). The latter two are open to the public. The Seward House in Auburn , a National Historic Landmark, is a mansion more characteristic of the Civil War era, virtually unchanged from the nineteenth century. Belhurst Castle, Geneva , a stone mansion in the Romanesque Revival style, now serves as an inn. Sonnenberg mansion at Canandaigua is later nineteenth-century residence in the Queen Anne style, known for its restored period gardens. Geneva on the Lake is a villa (1910-14) that recalls those on Italian lakes. Now an inn, it has exceptional gardens in the European manner. Many buildings and historic districts of the Finger Lakes region are notable, other than these historic houses.

Fingerlakes History - Courtesy of:
"The Fingerlakes," in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia; (Wikimedia Foundation Inc.,) [encyclopedia on-line]; available from http://en.wikipedia.org Internet; retrieved 4 June 2007.