Lake Ontario and Minor Tributaries
Much of New York State’s terrain was shaped by the Pleistocene epoch, earth’s most recent ice which began 2.6 million years ago and didn’t end until perhaps 12,000 years ago. Ice sheets thousands of feet thick gouged out the Finger Lakes and left deposits of rock, called moraines, that created Long Island. As the ice retreated, it also sometimes obstructed the flow of melting water in ways that shaped the landscape.
Glacial Lake Iroquois is the name given to a body of water that existed during the period of ice retreat; at its largest it was about three times the size of Lake Ontario. A massive ice dam prevented water from flowing north, in the direction of the modern-day St. Lawrence River, so instead it was diverted to the Hudson River flowing south. The map here shows the footprint both of Lake Iroquois and Lake Ontario. By following this link you can view another map that shows the approximate expanse of the ice sheet blocking the St. Lawrence River.
Why is this important if you live along Lake Ontario? First, if you’ve driven along Ridge Road (also known as Route 104), you’re traveling the ancient shoreline of Lake Iroquois that’s anywhere between 75 and 200 feet above the present lake level. This level terrain was an important route for indigenous peoples and later became a highway (across the shore in Ontario is a comparable ridge). The second reason this history is important concerns contemporary debate over water levels in the Great Lakes. Since the Moses-Saunders Dam was built on the St. Lawrence River, a commission has attempted to regulate the water levels of that river and of Lake Ontario. But construction right up to the shore, in both instances, along with heavier rains attributed to climate change, have resulted in flooding along shorelines. In the photograph below, National Guard troops construct emergency barriers at Sodus Point, NY in 2017. Looking beyond any single year, however, it’s important to see that Lake Ontario and its watershed always have been dynamic.
From the Gazetteer: "The Lake Ontario Direct Drainage Basin (LODDB) is comprised of three major subwatersheds that drain directly to Lake Ontario, along 326 miles of shoreline [and] combined encompass 2,700 square miles....Under this head [of natural curiosities] may be expected some notice of the ledges of stone that mark the ancient southern boundary of Lake Ontario. There are 3 of those ledges; but the northern one, along which is contemplated the King’s Road, extends from Lewiston on Niagara river, into Herkimer county, so clearly defined and constituted of such similarity of materials throughout, as to leave no doubt of its continuity, and little of its origin. The stone is sandstone and slate, and the general elevation about 170 feet. From Lewiston to Oneida county, its common distance from tje present shore of the lake, is from 7 to 12 miles. Between this and the shore is a gravelly ridge, evidently thrown up by the action of the water at some former period; and on this, which may not inaptly be denominated Natures’ Turnpike, the Ridge road is now opening from Genesee to Lewiston, a distance of 87 miles....From the ledge of stone, and from the ridge, the whole expanse of Lake Ontario lies in full view" (Finger Lakes 4; Spafford 57). Major tributaries: Salmon River, Oak Orchard Creek, Irondequoit Creek. Major Lakes: Salmon River Reservoir, Sodus Bay. Highest Point: near North Branch of Mad River (1,926 ft). 2,460 square miles in New York state.
James Fenimore Cooper, from The Pathfinder; or, the Inland Sea (1840)
Influenced by Sir Walter Scott’s historical fictions of Scotland, Cooper’s focus was the North American colonial frontier and European contact with indigenous peoples. His five “Leatherstocking” tales featured a guide named Natty Bumppo, the pathfinder of this novel whose identity is European but who possesses the wilderness skills of American Indians. Our story is set in the early 1700s, during the time just prior to the French and Indian War, and its focal point is the British Fort Oswego located at the mouth of that river. But there are adventures along the Lake Ontario shoreline, as well. A sort of running gag concerns a former oceangoing captain calling this particular Great Lake “a bit of a pond”—in other words not worthy of epic history or literature: “It is all in vain to travel inland, in the hope of seeing anything either full-grown or useful.” But Cooper obviously aspires to just such a scope, and in this excerpt describes the American landscape in its primeval power.
All that day the wind hung to the southward, and the cutter continued her course about a league from the land, running six or eight knots the hour in perfectly smooth water. Although the scene had one feature of monotony, the outline of unbroken forest, it was not without its interest and pleasures. Various headlands presented themselves, and the cutter, in running from one to another, stretched across bays so deep as almost to deserve the name of gulfs. But nowhere did the eye meet with the evidences of civilization; rivers occasionally poured their tribute into the great reservoir of the lake, but their banks could be traced inland for miles by the same outlines of trees; and even large bays, that lay embosomed in woods, communicating with Ontario only by narrow outlets, appeared and disappeared, without bringing with them a single trace of a human habitation.
Of all on board, the Pathfinder viewed the scene with the most unmingled delight. His eyes feasted on the endless line of forest, and more than once that day, notwithstanding he found it so grateful to be near Mabel, listening to her pleasant voice, and echoing, in feelings at least, her joyous laugh, did his soul pine to be wandering beneath the high arches of the maples, oaks, and lindens, where his habits had induced him to fancy lasting and true joys were only to be found. Cap viewed the prospect differently; more than once he expressed his disgust at there being no lighthouses, church-towers, beacons, or roadsteads with their shipping. Such another coast, he protested, the world did not contain; and, taking the Sergeant aside, he gravely assured him that the region could never come to anything, as the havens were neglected, the rivers had a deserted and useless look, and that even the breeze had a smell of the forest about it, which spoke ill of its properties.
But the humors of the different individuals in her did not stay the speed of the Scud: when the sun was setting, she was already a hundred miles on her route towards Oswego...
Cornell University College of Agriculture, An Apple Orchard Survey from Wayne County, New York (1905). The production of oil paintings and views like those printed on postcards often depend upon a certain density of people. That is, New Yorkers traveling up the Hudson River are going to produce (or buy) more of these paintings; a famous destination like Niagara Falls is going to have a larger archive because there was a demand for documentation. The area in this watershed, even today, remains sparsely populated by often working class residents. Perhaps this is why there simply aren’t many grand paintings of the Lake Ontario shoreline.
So instead, let’s rethink some documentary photographs from the early 20th century. Areas near Lake Ontario proved to be excellent locations for orchards because a large body of water regulates air temperatures—the lake is up to 800 feet deep—and because the glacial soil is conducive. Therefore apples, grapes, and stone fruits grow well along an east-west band just onshore.
It’s doubtful whether the photographs created for the Apple Orchard Survey were intended to be picturesque; there are lots of close-ups of pruning techniques and soil formations. But we also behold, almost accidentally, the sort of documentary photography that will become popular during the Great Depression thirty years later. Some of the images are pretty interesting! What sorts of lives and work can we infer from this small sample? Have you ever visited a U-Pick orchard, and if so how does water shape that environment?
Works Consulted
—Cooper, James Fenimore. The Pathfinder; or, the Inland Sea. 1840. Web version at Project Gutenberg.
—Craig, John, with G. F. Warren and W. E. McCourt, An Apple Orchard Survey of Wayne County, New York. Cornell University, 1905. Web version at Internet Archive.
—Finger Lakes-Lake Ontario Watershed Protection Alliance, Lake Ontario: Maps, Facts and Figures (2010). Technical Reports. 123.
—Spafford, Horatio Gates. A Gazetteer of the State of New York. H.C. Southwick, 1813.