Like a life that was passing out, quietly succumbed the Seneca to the fetters of Old Winter. All day Saturday the mists had risen from the surface, but on Sunday it lay a placid expanse without even this evidence of animation. Viewed from the heights near nightfall, a white waste met the vision, where but a few hours before the whitecaps had tumbled into view.
John Corbin, from The Watkins Express newspaper, 1912.
Let’s not understate it: Seneca Lake is deep. It is more than 600 feet deep, and it holds more than 4 trillion gallons of water. Seneca Lake, in itself, holds roughly half the water of the combined eleven Finger Lakes. Far, far below its often placid surface, underground springs feed the lake hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each minute. This relentless gush keeps the lake water cycling, and its constant churning rarely allows for a total end to end freeze. From Geneva down to Watkins Glen, from Dresden across to Willard, the lake has frozen only four times in recorded history. The most recent Seneca freeze occurred in February of 1912. It took more than a full week of subzero temperatures to make this happen. According to Seneca County historian, Walter Gable, the temperature reached 12 degrees below zero on February 11th, the day the last slice of open water was finally closed by ice. The lake remained frozen until St. Patrick’s Day.
Area residents of 1912 knew the freeze was an unusual event. It hadn’t happened since 1885, and, recognizing the significance, many donned skates for celebration and recreation. Some people skated across the lake to visit towns on the far side. Some skated vast distances up or down the lake, later hopping trains back home. Since the ice close to the edge of the lake was rough compared to that further from shore, some drove horses and wagons out on to the expanse of frozen water and hosted skating parties there. Stories are told of trotting races, and at least one person took his car out over the water, offering open air rides under a Buffalo skin blanket to anyone brave enough to venture with him. Though few surrounding details are known, one customer told us about her great-grandmother's corpse being driven across the lake in a sled during the freeze. Whatever the circumstances, there can be little doubt that many people valued the expediency of crossing over the ice to reach towns, people and resources on the far side. Traveling around the head or foot of the lake would have been a comparatively difficult and time consuming journey in the freezing cold, especially without good roads or modern transportation.
In honor of the hundred years since the last “All Froze Over,” Stomping Grounds is collaborating with the Geneva Historical Society to host an exhibit of historic local winter scenes. The exhibit opened on February 10 and will show daily at Stomping Grounds during regular business hours until March 3, 2012.
Opening night of the exhibition was well attended. Representatives from the Geneva Historical Society were available to answer questions about the local museums and the items in their archives. A few bonus winter relics were loaned by the Historical Society for special viewing, including an antique curling stone formerly owned by the Dove family, as well as old ice skates, very likely used on Seneca Lake in days gone by.
Photographs dating from the 1880s to the 1950s are currently on display, with special highlights showing the crippling blizzards of 1888 and 1925, plus images of the history-making freeze of 1912. Reproductions of these amazing winter photographs are available for sale, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Geneva Historical Society.
We hope you will stop by and join us for this once in a lifetime celebration!
