Finger Lakes

Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States and are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are linear in shape, each lake oriented on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in America. Both are close to 40 miles (64 km) from end to end, and never more than 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide. Cayuga is the longest (38.1 miles, 61 km) and Seneca the largest in total area. Seneca is the deepest (618 feet, 188 m), followed by Cayuga (435 feet, 133 m), with their 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. Oneida Lake is generally not considered one of the Finger Lakes, but it is sometimes called the "thumb".

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, from ca. 1720. The Onondaga and Oneida tribes lived at the eastern edge of the region, closer to their namesake lakes, Lake Oneida and Onondaga Lake. The easternmost Iroquois tribe were the Mohawk. 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, until 1779 when their village was destroyed. 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 Confederacy. 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 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 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 are 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 (LDS 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 and the Corning Museum of Glass. Hornell, just southwest of the Finger Lakes was a major railroad center. Locomotives were repaired there until recently. Conesus, New York remains the home of the oldest producer of pure grape sacramental wine in the Western hemisphere.

The eleven Finger Lakes from east to west are: Otisco Lake • Skaneateles Lake • Owasco Lake • Cayuga Lake • Seneca Lake • Keuka Lake • Canandaigua Lake • Honeoye Lake • Canadice Lake • Hemlock Lake • Conesus Lake

Cazenovia Lake to the east, although smaller, is sometimes called "the twelfth Finger Lake," because it is similar in shape, located in Appalachian hill terrain, with a historic village linked to other Finger Lakes by US 20. It may have been formed in the same manner as the Finger Lakes, as satellite photos show three valleys similar in character and spacing to the Finger Lakes east of Otisco Lake. The first is the Tully Valley, which includes a chain of small lakes at the south end that could be a "Finger Lake" that never formed because of a terminal moraine. The moraine caused the Tioughnioga River to flow south instead of north, the opposite of the other waters of the Finger Lakes. The next two valleys to the east contain Butternut Creek, which flows north, and the East Branch of the Tioughnioga River, which flows south. The next valley contains Limestone Creek, which flows north. The next valley after that contains Cazenovia Lake.

Oneida Lake, to the northeast of Syracuse, New York, is sometimes included as the "thumb," although it is shallow and somewhat different in character from the rest. Onondaga Lake, though located just north of the Finger Lakes region, is not considered one of the Finger Lakes. As with Oneida and Cazenovia Lakes, it drains into Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

Conesus, Hemlock, Canadice, Honeoye, and Otisco are considered the minor Finger Lakes. Other, smaller lakes, including Silver, Waneta, and Lamoka lakes, dot this region. However, Waneta and Lamoka lakes are part of the Susquehanna River watershed as they drain into a tributary of the Chemung River. East of Oneida and Cazenovia Lakes are the headwaters of the Susquehanna River and Hudson River watersheds (the former in the foothills of the Catskills, the latter through the Mohawk Valley and southern Adirondacks).

The 2,000-acre (8 km2) muckland of a valley located in Potter, New York, which is part of Torrey Farms, is considered to be almost a twelfth Finger Lake, as the waterline is just below the surface. It used to be a swamp.

The area is also known for education, with the largest institution being Cornell University in Ithaca, the state land grant institution. Its alma mater begins "Far Above Cayuga's Waters", because it is on the hills overlooking the city of Ithaca and the southern end of Cayuga Lake. Elmira College, founded in 1855 in Elmira, has the distinction of being the first exclusively women's college to grant degrees equal to men in the country and is the final home of Mark Twain's study where he created his most famous characters: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. There are several other private colleges in the area. They include Ithaca College in Ithaca, Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, Wells College in Aurora, also on Cayuga Lake, Keuka College in Penn Yan, and New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls. There are also four community colleges: Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua; Cayuga Community College in Auburn; Corning Community College in Corning; and Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden. There are also four statutory colleges at Cornell. These include: New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (which includes the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva), the New York State College of Human Ecology, the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine, and the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The Finger Lakes region is also home to a number of museums. These include the Corning Museum of Glass, the Strong National Museum of Play, Glenn H. Curtiss Museum, Wings of Eagles Discovery Center, Museum of the Earth, National Soaring Museum the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, the Genesee Country Museum in Mumford and the Samuel Warren Homestead of the York Historical Society, birthplace of NYS' first successful commercial winery. The Women's Rights National Historic Park is located in Seneca Falls. The park includes the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Wesleyan Chapel where she held the first convention on women's rights in 1848.