Oneida Lake, created over 12,000 years ago when the Ice Age ended, was originally a vast inland sea called Lake Iroquois, which covered much of Central New York. As the ice retreated, most of the lake drained away except for what remains now. Measuring 22 miles long and 5 miles at the widest point it is the largest lake entirely within New York (79.8 square miles). The lake is located northeast of Syracuse and near the Great Lakes. It serves as one of the links in the Erie Canal. It empties into the Oneida River which flows into the Oswego River which in turn flows into Lake Ontario. It is named for the Oneida tribe of the Iroquois who live in the area. While not included as one of the Finger Lakes, it is sometimes referred to as their "thumb".
Prior to European exploration, Native Americans utilized Oneida Lake's fishery. Artifacts that document their occupation have been discovered at Brewerton, Shackelton Point, and other sites by the lake. Later, the Oneidas and Onondagas, members of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, settled in the region. The Oneidas, who called the lake Tsioqui (meaning "white water" -- a reference to impressive wave action), constructed fishing villages near Oneida Creek's mouth and along Fish Creek, near Sylvan Beach. Their annual Atlantic salmon harvest yielded tons of a once common Oneida Lake fish and was vital to their sustenance. The Onondagas also valued the lake's fishery and, from camps at the Oneida River outlet and near Chittenango Creek's mouth, they netted eels, salmon, catfish, pike and related bounty. Archaeologists have uncovered many Iroquois artifacts at various locations near Oneida Lake.
Lands surrounding Oneida Lake were opened for white settlement in the late 18th century. The Scriba Patent, a land company founded by George Scriba in the 1790's, marketed a significant acreage that stretched from Oneida's north shore to Lake Ontario. The Military Tract, an area of government land that bordered the lake's western end, was reserved for veterans of the American Revolution. Parcels not given to former patriots were eventually sold to the general public. The Oneida Lake region was sparsely settled until the early 1800's, when the "Yankee Invasion" of Upstate New York sparked the area's first major development. During this era, which lasted through the 1820's, thousands of New Englanders left their marginal farms, seeking better land. The Oneida Lake locale, in particular its fertile south shore, attracted many of these people.
The Erie Canal, built from 1817 to 1825, bypassed Oneida Lake. However, the lake was linked to the Erie by the Oneida River and through two "Oneida Lake Canals." The first of these, sometimes called the "Side Cut Canal," was built in the 1830's and connected the Erie Canal with Fish Creek, at a point about a mile east of the lake. Logging, centered in Oneida's north shore communities, and the sand business, based along the lake's east end, made this waterway a modestly successful enterprise. The second Oneida Lake canal, constructed in the 1870's during the heyday of New York State railroading, proved to be a dismal economic failure.
The Erie-Barge Canal, an enlargement of the old Erie that was completed around 1916, used Oneida Lake as a part of its course and the lake became a cog in the state's water transportation network. Hundreds of tugs and barges used the lake during the Erie-Barge's peak years, and Brewerton and Sylvan Beach became active canal ports.
Lakeside communities grew at different times. Constantia's and Brewerton's earliest settlers arrived in the 1790's. Bridgeport's genesis occurred around 1802 and Lakeport's by 1811. These communities served as commercial centers for the surrounding farm population and as summer resorts. North Bay was popular with sportsmen in the 1850's, while Sylvan Beach's initial growth occurred in the 1870's. The 1880's and 1890's witnessed Sylvan and Verona Beaches' transformation into the "Coney Island of Central New York." Scores of hotels, thousands of vacationers, two amusement parks, and even a boardwalk highlighted summers at "the Beach" during this era. The glass industry contributed to Cleveland's and Bernhard's Bay's 19th century economies, while Jewell and West Monroe benefitted by being station stops on the Oswego-Midland Railroad (later renamed the Ontario and Western). A trolley line brought Syracuse tourists to Lower South Bay, where grand steamboats like the Sagamore and the Manhattan awaited. Cottage and camp construction altered the lake's shoreline in the latter 1800's and early 1900's and accelerated as post-World War I prosperity and the "Golden 20's" embraced the United States.
Although slowed by the Great Depression, the development of Oneida Lake's periphery proceeded throughout the 20th century to the point where, by the 1990's, few parcels of wild lake shore remained. Productive, lake-nourishing wetlands still thrive in the vicinity of Toad Harbor, Cicero Swamp, and Verona Beach State Park. Widely scattered woodlands lend their greens to the north shore vista and the last remaining lake-bordering crop field, a lush hay meadow west of Lakeport, may soon experience a builder's makeover. The completion of Interstate 81, in the 1960's, transformed the distance from Oneida Lake to Syracuse into an easy commute. As a result, Cicero, Brewerton and the surrounding countryside suburbanized. An influx of Federal Government and New York State funding for Erie-Barge Canal recreation enhancement, coupled with major land acquisitions by the Oneida Indian Nation, may dramatically alter the Sylvan-Verona Beach area. The Oneida Lake scene of the impending millennium will likely exhibit vivid contrasts with memories of the 20th century.
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ONEIDA LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS--1896
by Jack Henke
If we could board a time machine and travel back to the Oneida Lake area, one century ago, what would we observe?
The shoreline's condition would shock us. There would be far fewer trees than we enjoy now. Nineteenth century lakeside settlers intensely logged their land, using the timber for construction, for fire wood, and for market profit. Huge rafts of logs were transported from Oneida Lake, through the downstream river system, to Syracuse and beyond. The cleared, actively cultivated farm land extended down to the shoreline proper. Farming was a prominent occupation, especially on the south shore, and the communities of Bridgeport and Lakeport served as commercial centers for their surrounding agrarian population
We'd be very interested in the environmental differences between the 1896 Oneida and our lake today. Emergent vegetation was common along the water's edge. Wild rice, various grasses, water lillies and the like created a lush habitat for aquatic insects, fish, waterfowl, freshwater mammals, and amphibians. The "grass beds" served as a spawning mecca for predator fish such as northern pike, pickerel, and largemouth bass. At Lower South Bay, the vegetation punctuated the water along miles of shore and extended over a hundred yards into the lake in places. This pattern was repeated throughout the lake’s periphery.
Oneida Lake's fishermen could then pursue a far different catch than we currently do. Walleyes and panfish were popular, but northern pike and pickerel also attracted a large number of anglers. Tullibees, a whitefish stocked in the lake, thrived and were commercially harvested. Eels were trapped downstream from the lake's Brewerton outlet and, in addition, were speared at several locations throughout Oneida (the eel shoals, off the Chittenango Creek mouth were especially popular). Smoked eel was a coveted delicacy in Central New York then. Sportfishermen found themselves in competition with the Oneida Lake "fish pirate". Many lakeside village residents and their neighboring farmers illegally netted Oneida, selling their catches for important supplemental income. Numerous lake area homes' and even churches' mortgages were financed through pirates' earnings. Sport anglers howled in protest and the Anglers' Association of Onondaga even carried the fight to Albany. Law enforcement problems, however, made catching the pirates a difficult task
Oneida Lake's water quality a century ago would be far different. In the 19th century, boatmen refused to drink from the lake, citing a peculiar "fever " that resulted from ingesting Oneida's liquid. Travelers during this era described the water as being "vile" and often referred to Oneida as "the green lake". Significant algal blooms occurred each summer and, as the algae died and decomposed, the lake's surface turned into a multicolored collage of reds, blues, greens, and whites. These images contrast vividly with the clarity that today's zebra mussel-infested Oneida often exhibits.
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