Visit to Finger Lakes, New York (2018)
The Finger Lakes feed into the Great Lakes watershed. They are the results leftover as the glaciers retreated northward. Today there are wonderful historic ubilding sand towns of varying sizes spread across this region. While Ithaca is one of the largest, there are many villages, farms, and environmental sites worthy of visiting.
The mid-century modern Ovid Municipal Building is located at 7160 Main Street in Ovid, New York. Designed by Geneva-based architect John C. Ehrlich, groundbreaking began in August 1958. The facade and sides are clad in distinctive pink limestone imported from Minnesota, balanced by a towering 30-foot clock tower gracing the entrance. The building was entirely funded and donated to the town by prominent mathematician and local resident Walter Burton Ford. For decades, it served as Ovid’s primary civic hub, housing the mayor’s office, village records, and a multi-bay garage for the local fire department. After the town approved the sale of the building, the property underwent an adaptive reuse transformation. The garage bays were converted into the tasting room for Lost Kingdom Brewery. The building simultaneously accommodates the Firehouse Distillery, maintaining the classic “firehouse look” with functional roll-up garage doors that pull open in warmer months.
View of the brewery bar and taps within the first floor of the building. An antique fire truck is parked in the background. The fireman’s pole connects the upper floor with the ground floor level.
Lively Run Goat Dairy, located nearby at 8978 County Road 142 in Interlaken, New York. Operating since 1982, it stands as one of the longest-running commercial goat dairies in the entire country. The property features an interconnected complex of traditional red-and-white agricultural barns where the goats are raised and milked. Visitors are encouraged to walk the grounds, go inside the barns to pet and bottle-feed the baby goats, and watch the cheese-making process through viewing windows. Their onsite shop offers popular tasting flights of award-winning artisan cheeses, ranging from fresh chèvre and goat-milk feta to their famous aged blue cheese and Mediterranean-style Cayuga Blue.
The historic Covert Baptist Church is located a brief drive down the road at 9268 State Route 96 in Interlaken, New York. Constituted on February 16, 1803, under its original name, the Baptist Church of Ovid and Hector, it stands as the “mother church” of the Seneca Baptist Association. Built in a striking Federal style with a massive tiered white clock/bell tower, it serves as the architectural anchor of the Covert Historic District, which was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The main building features an attached, lower-profile single-story parish wing with a modern ramp entrance, all unified under a classic emerald green metal roof.
Ovid Grange No. 155 building, is located at the crossroads of Main Street (Route 96) and Clark Street right in Ovid, New York. Built in the late 19th century, this classic white Greek Revival structure features a pedimented gable front and small brick chimney. Its upper window bays are completely shuttered or sealed with matching white wood panels to protect the structure. Formed as a local chapter of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, this building served as a vital community hall and advocacy hub for local Finger Lakes farmers and agricultural families during the 19th and 20th centuries. It stands quietly as a historic roadside landmark right across from the main commercial stretch of the village.
Falls Overlook at Taughannock Falls State Park, is located at 1740 Taughannock Blvd in Trumansburg, New York. Dropping a dramatic 215 feet, Taughannock Falls is one of the highest single-drop waterfalls in the eastern United States—plunging 33 feet further than Niagara Falls. The waterfall carves through a massive, amphitheater-like hanging valley with shale and limestone cliffs towering nearly 400 feet above the gorge floor. This stone overlook area is easily accessible from the upper parking lot, providing a sweeping, birds-eye perspective of the plunge pool and the winding Taughannock Creek below.
If you are planning to hike while at the park, here are the main routes available from this area:
- Gorge Trail (1.5 miles round-trip): An easy, flat, gravel path that leads directly along the creek bed to the very base of the falls.
- North Rim & South Rim Trails (2.5-mile loop): A more challenging hike that ascends the rims of the gorge, taking you across a high footbridge directly over the top of the rushing falls.
This educational wall display titled “How Nature Center Animals Are Related” is located inside the main lodge at the Cayuga Nature Center, situated at 1420 Taughannock Blvd in Ithaca, New York. This custom cladogram / phylogenetic tree maps out the exact evolutionary relationships between the diverse live animal residents you can see at the center: The chart traces all animal groups down to a single foundation at the bottom, illustrating that all life on Earth shares a common single-celled ancestor. It cleanly divides organisms into their major biological domains, kingdoms, and classes, including Reptiles, Mammals, Amphibians, Fish, and Invertebrates. You can trace the lineage of the center’s specific resident ambassadors, ranging from familiar local wildlife like the Red Fox, Turkey Vulture, and Wood Turtle to exotic educational species like the Blue-Tongued Skink, Axolotl, and Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.
Ithaca is Gorges
Ithaca is known for its beautiful gorges – the results of erosion (washing away of rock and soil). Our little gorge may not be as dramatic as Taughannock Gorge, but the processes that carved it are the same ones at work right here. Glaciers deeply carved out our north-south valleys but not the east-west ones. Once the glaciers melted, about 11,000 years ago, deep north-south valleys filled with water, but east-west valleys were left “hanging” Streams in the east-west valleys entered the lake as a waterfall then began eroding upstream forming the gorges we now see. It’s hard to believe that water can make such major changes to the landscape, but given lots of water, freezing and thawing, and plenty of time, water can accomplish amazing feats – just look at the Grand Canyon! Whers did all of the material that eroded out of the valleys go? All of that soil and rock -now called a delta is silting at the edge of the lake, at the mouth of each of the valley streams
Cayuga Nature Center
The famous TreeTops Treehouse at the Cayuga Nature Center is a massive, six-story climbing structure is built right into the forest canopy. It allows visitors to experience life at different levels of the woodland ecosystem. It features an intricate, rustic exterior clad in natural branches and bark panels, blending into the surrounding forest. A small wooden sign by the walkway notes it was built by the Ithaca Youth Bureau Class of 2000.
Ithaca Beer Company
This outdoor beer garden at Ithaca Beer Co., is located at 122 Ithaca Beer Drive in Ithaca, New York. The outdoor dining tables sit under a black shade structure supported by rustic wooden posts. Live Cascade and Chinook hops climb directly up the timbers. The large building in the background houses their main brewing facility and taproom restaurant, which highlights ingredients sourced directly from local Finger Lakes farms. The venue features a massive, sprawling grassy lawn area complete with outdoor fire pits, lawn games, and a completely dog-friendly policy.
If you are ordering a flight or a pint, keep an eye out for their most popular staple brews:
- Flower Power: Their flagship India Pale Ale (IPA) helped pioneer the West Coast-style IPA movement in the Northeast.
- Green Trail: A crisp, bright, easily drinkable New England-style pale ale.
- Apricot Wheat: A smooth, refreshing wheat beer brewed with a distinct hint of natural apricot fruit.
Fall Creek Gorge
Fall Creek Gorge is protected under the New York State Recreational River Act for its outstanding scenic, ecological, recreational, historic, and scientific value. Fall Creek spills over six waterfalls including Horseshoe Falls, (shown here) which can be viewed at an overlook on the Horseshoe Falls Trail.
Gorge trails were built nearly 100 years ago follow this gorge’s forested rims and lead down the steep gorge to creek level. The Rim Trail passes through the wooded gorge rims on the south side of Fall Creek Gorge leading to the Stewart Avenue bridge. Fall Creek has been carving this gorge since the most recent glacial retreat over 10,000 years ago.
Treman Falls
Lower Treman Falls (often referred to simply as the Lower Falls), is located at the lower eastern entrance of Robert H. Treman State Park in Ithaca, New York. This beautiful 30-foot multi-tiered waterfall is formed as Enfield Creek cascades over stepping layers of Devonian shale and limestone flagstone. The wide plunge pool visible in the foreground serves as a designated natural swimming area during the summer months, complete with a diving board installed just downstream. The Gorge Trail begins its steady climb into the deep Enfield Glen right from the edge of this pool, winding upwards toward Lucifer Falls and the upper mill.
Lucifer Falls is a massive 115-foot multi-tiered cascading waterfall. It serves as the crowning jewel of Robert H. Treman State Park, located in Ithaca, New York. A plaque nearby recognizes the donors of this land: “This Glen’s singular charm was recognized and rescued for the people of New York by Robert and Loura Treman, some of whose friends set this tablet here in loving appreciation of their gift of Enfield Gorge to us all.”
View from the base of Lucifer Falls, looking straight up into the towering rock walls of Enfield Glen. Looking upstream from the rocky bed of Enfield Creek, you can see the lower tiers of the 115-foot waterfall as it spills into a shallow, gravelly gorge pool. The flat, layered flagstones in the foreground are characteristic of the sedimentary Devonian shale and sandstone bedrock that defines the Finger Lakes region. This vantage point is accessible via the park’s Gorge Trail. It provides a completely different scale of the canyon compared to the elevated cliffside viewpoints.
The upper section of Lucifer Falls is alongside the park’s iconic hand-carved stone staircases. This viewpoint is located along the cliffside section of the Gorge Trail, near where hikers ascend or descend the steep canyon walls.The massive stone retaining walls and stairs visible in the upper right were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the 1930s. The vertical rock face next to the main spillway is covered in lush green moss and continuous water seepage, creating a micro-ecosystem typical of the Finger Lakes glens.
The top overlook of Lucifer Falls where Enfield Creek begins its dramatic 115-foot drop, looking over the edge (the crest) of the waterfall as the water rushes over the flat flagstone shelf into the deep glen below. The stone masonry wall on the left separates the Gorge Trail from the sheer drop, providing a secure area for hikers to peer down into the canyon. The smooth, worn rock bed directly under the water highlights centuries of continuous water erosion carving away the soft shale and sandstone layers.
The Old Mill (also known as the Enfield Falls Mill), a historic gristmill located right at the Upper Entrance of Robert H. Treman State Park. Built in 1847 by Jared Treman, it operated as a commercial gristmill for processing grain throughout the 19th century. The building now serves as a historic museum. Inside, you can view the preserved mill equipment, vintage machinery, and interpretive displays about the former hamlet of Enfield Falls.
The historic wooden gears inside the Enfield Falls Mill (often called the Old Treman Mill), are located in the upper section of Robert H. Treman State Park at 105 Enfield Falls Road in Ithaca, New York. The display illustrates 19th-century industrial technology:
- The Turbine: Instead of a traditional exterior vertical waterwheel, this advanced 1839 gristmill utilized an underground water turbine to harvest energy from Enfield Creek.
- The Great Spur Wheel: The massive, horizontal wooden gear assembly visible in the center is the great spur wheel, which transferred raw rotational power up from the turbine shaft.
- The Pinions: Smaller lantern pinion gears (visible to the left) meshed into the spur wheel to spin the heavy vertical iron shafts that turned the massive millstones on the floor above.
Built by Jared Treman in 1839, the mill served as the economic lifeblood for the surrounding agricultural hamlet of Enfield Falls, grinding wheat, buckwheat, and corn. The mill ceased commercial operations in 1917. Robert H. Treman later purchased the property to protect it from destruction, donating the land to New York State to establish the park. Today, the building serves as an interactive milling technology museum, complete with original 19th-century farming implements and a dedicated exhibit on the local Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp that built the park’s iconic stone trails during the Great Depression.
The large wooden gear is the great spur wheel. As water spun the turbine outside, the smaller gear
turned the great spur wheel. As it rotated, the great spur wheel turned the main shaft and the lantern pinion gears, visible at left. The lantern pinions turned the upper millstones on the
floor above. The bottom or bed stones did not meet. The main shaft carried power to the rest of the
mill’s machines. You will see the main shaft on each floor as you walk through the mill.
History of Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York, is situated on the southern end of Cayuga Lake and is the seat of Tompkins County. The community (population 29,300) was named after the island home of the Greek hero Odysseus. Known as “Sodom” and “The Flats” in its days as an unruly frontier town, Ithaca was a busy transportation center for the region by the mid-19th century, served by several rail lines and daily steamboat departures.
Ezra Cornell, who had made a fortune through his early involvement in the telegraph industry, founded the university bearing his name here in 1868. Ithaca also lays claim to being the birthplace of the ice cream sundae.
In 1970, Ithaca adopted one of New York State’s earliest preservation ordinances, establishing a Landmarks Preservation Commission. In 1986, the town became a Certified Local Government, which enabled it to receive grants to develop a city-wide Reconnaissance Survey and Treatment Plan, design guidelines, interpretive signage, and nine other projects to date.
In 1997, the city adopted a local tax abatement program to spur investment in local historic resources, following a successful effort to change State law to enable local communities to offer such an incentive. The program phases in the increase in assessed value resulting from rehabilitation of historic buildings that are locally designated landmarks.
Cornell University buildings on West Campus.