Hemlock and Canadice for $10 Million

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Lately, there has not been a lot of new information regarding the possible sale of the last two undeveloped Finger Lakes in Upstate, New York - Hemlock and Canadice. However, this past Friday one media outlet from Rochester, New York chimed in with an video/article that claims the lakes and surrounding lands have been appraised for $10 million dollars. Though, there is still no official report on what New York State, the City of Rochester, the Nature Conservancy, and others have all appraised the land for. It goes on to say that debate and discussion surrounding these matters are set to begin at the end of this summer between the interested parties (most likely behind closed doors).

[Hemlock Lake (eight miles), south end looking north]

Hemlock and Canadice for $10 Million

By Wild Turkey Desire
Sunday, June 29th, 2008

[Hemlock Lake, still waters of the south end]

The video/article mentioned above is interesting for a number of reasons.It's a great example of shoddy reporting, yet it reports figures that are supposedly "common knowledge". Perhaps, I'm being too picky, but for instance - the article is titled Hemlock Lake for Sale?. When in fact, it's not just Hemlock Lake they are talking about (or is it?), because what about Canadice Lake and the ghost town lands? Then the kicker, the picture they use is not even of Hemlock Lake, but of the unmentioned Canadice Lake. Okay, so perhaps it's really not that big of a deal, but still, do they pay people to do this stuff?

[Hemlock Lake, as the north end is about to freeze over]

The lands that are now formally known as Hemlock and Canadice have a lot interesting history. Canadice means "long lake" in the Iroquois language (even though it's only three miles long). Hemlock was named after the coniferous tree, where a popular logging community sprung up at the end of the lake, which used the waters for easy transportation. Way before that, the places had a different names, now (possibly) forgotten to time, but still these waters and the surrounding environment provided the necessary resources for the inhabitants known as "the keepers of the western door", or the Seneca. Before he was even the first Presidente of the United States of America, George Washington gave orders to extinguish by any means necessary the resistance of native rebel tribes and peoples in Sullivan's march through upstate. (Why do people still think this jerk was a good dude?)

The 1779 Sullivan Campaign emerged as one of the larger of the Continental Army's offensives during the American Revolution, yet remains relatively unknown. It was an act of reprisal to break the Iroquois Confederation, a Native American political and military alliance that included the Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk, Onondaga, 0neida, and Tuscarora tribes. The Iroquois, with the exception of the Oneida and Tuscarora, openly sided with Great Britain to protect their homelands. Together with Loyalists forces, they had ravaged the Pennsylvania and New York frontiers. The bloodiest of these attacks occurred in 1778 in the northeastern Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley and the Cherry Valley of New York. [1]

Sullivan marched right through what is present day Canadice and Hemlock, making it a little further on - before turning back. A scouting party that he sent out in the neighboring town of present day Conesus, never returned… and was later found with their guts wound around "the torture tree" (Groveland, New York). Interestingly enough, recently:

The Interior Department [USA] issued a Record of Decision May 20, [2008] announcing it would act on a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) recommendation to place 13,086 acres into trust for the Oneida Indian Nation. InteriorÂ´s final decision excludes an 81.76-acre parcel of the nationÂ´s land the BIA had recommended in its preferred option from among nine alternatives.*

[Hemlock Lake, north end frozen solid with snow]

Sometime later, Hemlock and Canadice became quite a spot for swanky city folk (mostly Rochester) to escape to during the summertime with a mixture of year round residents. A road of wooden planks ran pretty much all the way out of Hemlock towards Rochester, thus the name "Plank Road" which is still in use today. From this the area florished as a little small town - that was probably pretty fancy - with steamboats, houses, bars, hotels, and 100 cottages popping up all over the Hemlock. Perhaps indeed, a land of whiskey and pumpkin pie. Times changed, and the City of Rochester came to be caretakers of the area, and in an act of "eminent domain" demanded that every resident living on the lake move elsewhere, in turn demolishing or leaving for ruin all previous developments on the lake. A slow process of eventually restricting swimming, the size of boat and motor, with restricted areas has turned the area into what it is now.

It has been reported, but has also been questioned by some - that there is also a very large old growth forest in an area abutting Hemlock Lake, possibly one of the largest tracts in all of the north-east. Interestingly enough, a place named after a logging community may have some of the oldest trees around. How is this possible? One simple explanation, is that the area was too difficult to log, due to the steep slopes and ravines found throughout the area. Nowadays, there are some bald eagles that soar through the area, building huge fortresses in the sky.

The areas past is rich with lore of buried treasure, lake creatures, and so much more that multiple old dusty tomes could be filled to the brim with whimsical country words. For now, we can set that aside - and contemplate the present key moment in the unwritten future of the lakes. How much can capitalism offer up for these magical places? How much are these places worth to you? And can anyone in the media do a decent job of reporting on these matters?

*Special note: (I'm sorry that I don't have more pictures of Canadice Lake, but for now, just imagine a somewhat smaller Hemlock Lake that is just as cool, or you can check out the incorrectly labeled photo of Canadice from the first article mentioned).