Seneca Lake, New York
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Seneca Lake, one of western New York's glacial Finger Lakes, is the second deepest lake in the United States, when gauged by its depth below sea level. It is promoted as being the lake trout capital of the world, and is host of the National Lake Trout Derby,
The lake takes its name from the Seneca nation of Native Americans. At the north end of Seneca Lake is Geneva, New York, home of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, a division of Cornell University. At the south end of the lake is Watkins Glen, New York, famed for auto racing and waterfalls.
Due to Seneca Lake's unique microclimate it is home to over 40 wineries, many of them farm wineries. (See Seneca Lake wine trail).
Physical conditions
At 38 miles (60 km) long, It is the second longest of the Finger Lakes and has the largest volume, estimated at 4.2 trillion US gallons (16 km³) which is half of all the water in all the Finger Lakes. At its deepest point it is 618 feet (188 m) deep. It has a surface area of 42,800 acres (67 sq mi).
The two main inlets are Catharine Creek at the southern end and the Keuka Lake Outlet. Seneca Lake outlets into the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, which joins Seneca and Cayuga Lakes at their northern ends.
History
Over 200 years ago, there were Iroquois villages on Seneca Lake’s surrounding hillsides. During the Revolutionary War, their villages were wiped out during the Sullivan Expedition by troops that invaded their homeland to punish them for assisting the British. Today roadside signs trace Sullivan and Clinton’s route along the east side of Seneca Lake where the burning of villages and crops occurred.
After the war, the land of the Iroquois was parceled out to veterans of the army in payment for their military service. A slow stream of white settlers began to arrive circa 1790. Initially the settlers were without a market nearby or a way to get their crops to market. The settlers’ isolation abruptly ended, though, in the 1820s with the opening of the Erie Canal.
The Canal linked the Finger Lakes Region to the outside world. Steamships, barges and ferries quickly became Seneca Lake’s ambassadors of commerce and trade.