Land of the long lakes
Four decades. It doesn't seem possible that I have been an expatriate of rural upstate New York's Finger Lakes region for such a long while - nearly a lifetime, really. Despite this lamentation, however, I was not sentenced into exile and have gleaned many pleasurable remembrances stemming from the occasional pilgrimage back to that earthy, wholesome bit of God's grace.
As clean and scenic as the area remains to this day, one can only wonder how the region's natural treasures shone prior to its settlement by nomadic clans relocating from the Asian land mass and, later, others escaping from a smorgasbord of European turmoil ...
Natural and human history
The Finger Lakes topography reflects several aspects peculiar to the region. Known for its steep, forested hills and ridges, rich bottom land, abundant wildlife, picturesque lakes, and inspirational glens and waterfalls, the area beckons natural historians and nature devotees alike. But the area's signature expression, that giant's handprint of elongated, deep lakes, has as its creative source repetitive centuries of grinding and scouring by glaciers spawned during the last two Ice Ages, the second of which ending a trifling 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.
Evidence suggests that the first inhabitants were nomadic from further south and originally from Asia. They followed herds of elk, bison, and mastodon while the area was primarily grassland. Eventually, as the post-glacial climate stabilized and the northern hardwood forests spread, these former wanderers came to settle in the region and inhabited it thousands of years before the coming of Europeans.
Jesuit missionaries were among the first Europeans to visit the Region, descending from the north via the St. Lawrence River, Lakes Ontario and Champlain, as well as connecting navigable river systems. They found a land peopled by the Confederation of the Iroquois Nation. These Iroquoian settlers, successful progeny of once-nomadic clans, flourished throughout the Northeast and Canada and developed a complex society, tribal laws, towns and villages, and an intricate system of trails and trade routes.
"... the Finger Lakes region, as well as many generations of her sons and daughters, have woven significant threads into the tapestry that is America's history ..."
The Nation consisted of six main tribes: Cayuga, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and (later) Tuscarora, as well as several allied tribes such as the Susquehannock (and now you know from whence the mighty river Susquehanna garnered its named). The Iroquois of that period were adept in the practices of agriculture, hunting, fishing, trapping, and inter-tribal trade, making full use of the fertile lands, forests, and abundant bodies of water.
European exploration and eventual settlement marked the zenith of the Iroquois as the region's dominant power. Although constantly at war with rival tribes, it was in part diseases alien to the Confederation and not tribal warfare which significantly reduced populations. However, the event that most facilitated the end of the Iroquois' sway over what are now Upstate New York and Northern Pennsylvania was the American Revolutionary War.
Close one chapter, open another
The Iroquois, in an effort to stem the ever-growing influx of colonists, allied themselves with the British in the conflict and routinely attacked isolated settlements and homesteads on behalf of the Crown. These frequent attacks were vicious and bloody, with no quarter given to men, women, or children except those taken as slaves.
As a result, the Continental Congress dispatched General John Sullivan into the interior of New York State on a mission to eliminate the Iroquois threat to settlers. Despite a high degree of ineptness and one setback after another, Sullivan's force ultimately subjugated the tribes by means no less violent and bloody than those used by the Iroquois. Today, memorials can be seen in parks and on roadways throughout the region that denote sites of Iroquois historical significance and the Continental Army's campaign trail.
Once the area was opened to settlement in the late 1700s many people throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, lured by an abundance of game, fertile land and clear waters, began to migrate. It is important to remember that at that time, the region was still mainly wilderness compared to the other more-populated former colonies. Once an adventurer headed northwest from New York City or west from the Hudson River Valley, he or she was leaving civilization behind.
Weaving historic threads
Additionally, many war veterans were given wilderness tracts of land as payment for service in the War of Independence; farming, timber production, and then later in 1825 the amazing Erie Canal served as the early engines for growth. In the late 1800s, newly-arrived immigrants provided the manpower and injected fresh civic energy for community and economic development. Soon after, light and heavy industry, agriculture, and later tourism were flourishing along the many natural waterways in the area.
Throughout the interim between then and now, the Finger Lakes region, as well as many generations of her sons and daughters, have woven significant threads into the tapestry that is America's history - but those stories are for other occasions.
And despite the impacts of war, agriculture, industry, wrong-headed development, and the befuddling, hedonistic frenzy that defines our modern existence, the area has gracefully maintained its natural charm, hominess, and essence of tranquility.
We Upstaters give thanks for that every day.