History

Village of Skaneateles (Skan-ee-AT-les). New York (pop 2,616) in SW Onondaga County.

In the heart of the Finger Lakes region, carved by ancient glaciers, Skaneateles Lake curves south for 16 miles with breathtaking views of calming pastures and jagged cliffs. The name Skaneateles comes from the iroquois for "Long lake", and it was the Iroquois as well who named the Finger Lakes, seeing them as the hand print of the Great Spirit on creation.

The first white settler, Abraham Cuddeback, came to survey the Military Tract under Moses Dewitt. At first a part of the township of Marcellus, the town of Skaneateles was separated and established independently on February 26, 1830, and the Village, at the head of the lake, was incorporated on April 19, 1833.

Many of the Village's architectural treasures date from the 1830's. (A downtown Historic District was established in 1985.) Early agriculture was centered on dairy and grain. By 1850, the village and it's surrounding hamlets had grown in industry as well, producing wool cloth, mill machinery, carriages, sleighs, paper, bricks, ironwork and farm implements. The cultivation of the teasel, a natural burr used to raise the nap on woven wool, spurred the economy until the middle of the twentieth century. Well-known canoes, motor launches and sailboats, including the Lightning and the Comet, were crafted from 1876 to 1945.

Today, a major employer is Welch Allyn, one of the world's largest manufacturers of medical diagnostic instruments and bar code scanning products. Tourism is also a mainstay of the Skaneateles economy, welcoming visitors who are drawn by the beauty of the lake and the charm of the shops, restaurants, a museum, galleries, B & B's, historic inns, the Skaneateles Music Festival and the Dickens Christmas celebration.

For additional information about the Village of Skaneateles you can visit Wikipedia and the Skaneateles Historical Society.