Hey everyone, welcome to Seneca Lake Mysteries,
the podcast where we explore the unusual, strange,
and unexplained on New York's largest finger
lake. So after two episodes in a row with a guest
who was Soraya Azkath of the Where Did the Road
Go podcast, it's just me again. And I've got
some old, timey, really cool stories as well
as some more recent stories. So thanks so much
for joining me. First off, I want to thank everyone
for all the support, for listening, for subscribing,
for all the comments, the messages, the emails.
And, you know, the thing is, I listen to a bunch
of podcasts and you always hear the hosts thanking
everyone for listening and thanking people for
their support or asking for support. But I really
wanted to slow it down a little bit. just speak
from the heart and let you guys know just how
much I really do appreciate it. When I started
this podcast, like I've said before, this was
just a hobby of mine, collecting these stories.
I would tell them to people once in a while,
and people would tell me their stories. But that
was about it. It was a hobby of mine, and I didn't
know if it was the kind of thing that there would
really be an audience for. I suspected there
would be. I had an intuition there would be,
but I wasn't really certain to my bones. But
now I'm learning very quickly that there are
a lot of you out there who enjoy these stories
just as much as I do. And you're willing to take
the time and listen to me tell these stories
and to take the time to tell other people, to
listen to the podcast, to send me these emails
and messages and comments and phone calls. I
really appreciate all of them. Every time I get
a message from someone with a question or a tip,
you know, are you going to talk about this in
a later show? Or I liked when you talked about
this, or here's a story I heard. I'm just over
the moon every time I get one of these messages.
And I know that as time goes on, the show is
going to evolve. I'm going to cover a lot of
different topics, everything from old timey stories
to some of the more arcane and esoteric takes
on. the area, and what all these stories mean.
And so far, so good. I'm really enjoying the
heck out of this. I'm so glad you're all here
to go along for the ride. But actually, maybe
I should rephrase that because you're not only
along for the ride, so many of you are helping
me to steer this as well, letting me know what
you want to hear more about, giving me ideas
for future episodes. So, yeah, this is everything
I dreamed it would be and more. The more feedback
I get from you guys, the more I really, really
want to give you a good show each time out. So
stay tuned in the future. I know I've said this
in the past that I've got some great guests coming
up. One of the things I'm learning early on here
doing this podcast is how it can be kind of tricky
to schedule people for the podcast, especially
people who. aren't used to doing podcasts maybe
they have a story or an experience that's unusual
and it might be the first time that they're talking
about it also these are people from all different
walks of life with all kinds of things going
on in their lives and all kinds of you know challenges
busy schedules just like a lot of us so a few
of the people I had expected to have on by now
aren't on by now But I'm hopeful for the future.
I'm still putting the call out and I'm still
reaching out to a lot of folks asking them to
come on here and share their experiences or their
knowledge or their wisdom or their reflections
on the mysteries of Seneca Lake. And hey, if
you're listening to this right now and you feel
like you have something to offer the podcast,
reach out to me. Let me know. Podcast at SenecaLakeMysteries
.com or you can call, leave a voicemail. or send
a text to 607 -307 -1167. I'd love to hear from
you. If you have any suggestions of someone you
know or know of that you feel would be a good
fit for the podcast, reach out and let me know
about them as well. And if you send me a message,
I will get back to you. So again, thank you so
much. Whether you're listening locally from...
Geneva or Watkins Glen or Burdette or Benton
or Lodi or Romulus or Dresden or Dundee or Valois
or Willard or Hemrod or Montour Falls or anywhere
close to the lake. Or if you're listening from
further away, Rochester, Syracuse, Sweden, Ireland,
around the world, I see you all and I appreciate
you all. Thank you. I know it's getting a little
redundant here, but thank you. Thank you so much
for being a part of this. Now, the other thing
you hear on every podcast is requests to continue
giving your support. So I'm going to ask you
all again to please subscribe, follow me on social
media, keep sharing the show. It would be really
helpful if you're listening to the podcast, but
you haven't subscribed. on your podcast platform
to subscribe there, leave reviews. That really
helps with the algorithm and helps more people
know about the show. And it helps put me in a
position, ideally in the future, where I can
start doing some advertising and generating a
bit of revenue and help me take care of hosting
fees and the other costs that go into the podcast
and to just make it easier for me to bring you.
more and better shows on the 7th, 17th, and 27th
of every month. Now, if you're a local business
who's interested in advertising on the show,
please reach out to me. I can share with you
some of the numbers, the listenership that the
podcast has. And of course, you'd be advertising
to people who really love Seneca Lake and either
spend time here or live near here or have spent
time around the lake. So yeah, give me a shout.
Let me know. And also, if you would like to donate
to the show, I would greatly appreciate that.
And right now, you could donate through Venmo.
My Venmo is at Seneca Lake. And I would be so
grateful for any kind of donation at all. But
it's not required. Obviously, you can still listen
to the show. And I'm still deeply grateful that
you're here. And also, as the show continues
to grow, I plan to set up a Patreon where you
can subscribe and pay a little bit each month
for extra content that you won't hear on the
podcast. So stay tuned for that. It's not set
up yet, but stay tuned for that. And let's see.
Before we get to our main stories this week,
I wanted to talk a little bit about a topic or
a place. that I plan to do some future episodes
on. Now, I wasn't planning to do any episodes
on this particular location when I started the
podcast because I wanted to focus on locations
that are within roughly four miles of the shores
of Seneca Lake. However, there's a place a little
bit further away, maybe seven or eight miles
to the south of Seneca Lake. not far from the
hamlet of alpine and that place is known as the
connecticut hill wildlife management area now
connecticut hill is pretty widely known as a
place where a lot of very strange things occur
there's an old cemetery there people call the
witch's cemetery there have been numerous paranormal
investigators, and even Bigfoot investigators
up there on Connecticut Hill because over the
years there have been a wide variety of high
strangeness reports from Bigfoot to UFOs to strange
lights in the woods to the Oz effect, lost time,
strange sounds, strange voices. The list goes
on and on. And unsurprisingly, I've gotten a
whole lot of messages from people and a whole
lot of suggestions to do an episode about Connecticut
Hill. And something else that I realize is that
Connecticut Hill is at the southernmost part
of the Seneca Lake watershed. So you know what?
I'm going to say that it's part of the Seneca
Lake Mysteries area. And I'm going to let you
know that I'm not sure when, but... In the coming
weeks, I will be doing an episode about Connecticut
Hill. I also plan to go up there and look around,
see what I can find. So for those of you who
asked for it, you're going to get it. I'll have
a show on Connecticut Hill coming at you very
soon. So that's about it for now. Let's get on
to the stories for this week. I'll be talking
about some crazy orb sightings. In the last few
years in Geneva, in a particular area along North
Street. Then I'm going to move into some old
time stories about cursed or hexed steamboats
from the steamboat era on Seneca Lake. And also
another story from just after the steamboat era.
Kind of a crazy story about a boat called the
Portadora, which began its life. as a luxury
vessel on seneca lake before it turned to a life
of crime so again thanks so much for being here
i really do genuinely appreciate it and yeah
let's get into it so back in the fall of 2022
i learned about an incident that had taken place
earlier that year from someone i knew personally
they were aware of my interest and my seneca
lake mysteries project so they didn't reach out
to me specifically to tell me the story rather
we had met up in person and they said hey this
is something you might be interested in and relayed
the story to me the incident took place on north
street in geneva in the vicinity of Geneva High
School. Now, I want to be careful about how much
detail I give about this event due to the witnesses
wanting confidentiality. So I'm not going to
be very detailed in describing where it took
place. But here's the story as it was told to
me. One morning in the spring of 2022, a resident
in this neighborhood had discovered the driver's
side window of their car had been shattered during
the night. So immediately they assumed that it
was a vandal who had broken the window. So they,
like many places these days, they have a security
camera outside aimed right at the car. So they
reviewed the security footage. Now the security
camera was positioned from the passenger side,
so you couldn't see. the driver's side window
specifically but you could see the entire vehicle
now in the video it was around 3 or 4 a .m and
suddenly a floating airborne bright light about
maybe the size of a softball or a volleyball
but it was difficult to tell due to the this
light this orb being so bright so this uh this
light came into the frame and moved around the
vehicle and then moved low almost to the ground
or maybe even to the ground on the opposite side
of the car on the driver's side out of the camera's
view the light paused there for several seconds
and then it rose up again to a height slightly
above the roof of the car and then suddenly The
light zigzagged back and forth approximately
four or five times and then shot off out of camera
range at what was an impossible speed. The witness
said it was similar to like taking a laser pointer
and pointing it at a wall and then shaking it
back and forth real quickly and moving it off,
moving it away. The video was clear and unambiguous.
Even though it was night vision, you could still
very clearly see the vehicle and anything around
it. And this strange light, which had gone down
on the side of the vehicle where the driver's
side window was that broke, and then took off
and the window was broken. So numerous witnesses
actually viewed this footage. Multiple people
looked at it and nobody could figure out what
it was, obviously. So they, it was considered,
well, maybe they should contact the police because
of the vandal, because of the broken window.
But they understood that the police wouldn't
be able to do anything about it. And they discussed
further whether or not to go public with the
footage, either to put it on social media or
otherwise. And the decision was made to simply
replace the car window and forget that the event
happened. And the reason these folks didn't want
to go public with it was the attention it might
cause. They didn't want investigators to come.
They didn't want to be interviewed. They valued
their privacy. So yeah, that was basically going
to be the end of it. Now, I can't be 100 % sure,
but I believe that the original footage, was
recorded over like it wasn't saved it wasn't
kept nobody really wanted to needed to keep that
the footage around any longer so it was uh it
was recorded over however there was at least
one person that did copy the footage off of the
monitor screen i believe of the event but that
person i'm not sure who that is i'm not sure
if they want to release the video now i want
to make it clear that the witness who told me
the story i trust this person completely they
had no reason to fabricate this and their description
was honest and authentic their response to the
to the entire event so at the time i noted the
story i said wow that's a great one and kind
of put it aside hoping that maybe One day I could
follow up on it. Maybe the witnesses might want
to reveal what happened. Maybe the video would
surface. But then a few months later, in late
2022, I was looking at UFO sightings online and
I found a UFO sighting report that got my attention
and made me reconsider the car window incident,
which was apparently damaged by a low -flying...
glowing orb so i was looking through sightings
on a website called ufo stalker .com now there
are a bunch of other websites with ufo databases
that have far more sightings but ufo ufo stalker
is still one that i check on occasion so it's
a very short description that the sighting there's
not a lot of detail to it but here's the information
that comes from that sighting it occurred on
April 26, 2022, at 4 .06 p .m., and it took place
at Geneva Middle School and High School on North
Street. So it's basically one long sentence giving
you the whole sighting, and this is how it reads.
First, it mentions that it was a sighting of
a light, of some kind of light, and it describes
it as such. Quote, it was over by a parking lot,
just moving all over the place with a white light,
even turning red, then moved over to our field
and was hovering a little more higher, then just
got higher, then went back to the parking lot
and was gone. End quote. So when I read this,
I realized, wow, this is less than a quarter
mile from the orb sighting with. car damage.
So now I have one solid sighting with multiple
witnesses and apparently video, and now a second
sighting describing a very similar object, very
close to where the first sighting took place.
So I'm talking about it today because I want
to put it out there to all of you, especially
my listeners in Geneva. Have you seen any strange
low -flying lights or orbs moving and hovering
around the North Street, Carter Road neighborhood
near the school? Do you know anyone who has?
If so, let me know. I'd love to hear from you.
And also, I'm looking for anyone with info on
the incident with the car window and the footage,
especially the person out there who... Apparently
has a copy of this footage. Please reach out
to me. I will keep your anonymity, confidentiality.
I honor those at all times. And I'd like to explore
this more. I'd like to look into this more. See
what's going on up there on North Street. And
see if it's something that other people have
experienced as well. So there you go. Okay, folks,
so I have a bunch of stories that are all under
the umbrella of one main story, and I call that
story Seneca's Steamboat Hex. So Seneca Lake's
steamboat era took place from 1828 through the
1920s. In its heyday, these steamers would run
on a regular schedule from Geneva to Watkins
Glen. about a four -hour trip with several stops
along the way. So these big wooden vessels, depending
on their size, could transport anywhere from
50 to 1 ,500 passengers in a single trip while
also towing multiple canal boats and delivering
various goods to and from locations up and down
the lake. Now, passengers would take the steamboat
for a variety of reasons. Many Geneva businessmen
who lived south of the city would take their
daily commute aboard a steamer, while other residents
and visitors could pay the 25 -cent fare to visit
friends or shop or conduct business or just take
excursions to recreational attractions or to
just enjoy the scenery. Now, the finer steamboats
offered private cabins. fine meals in the dining
room, and musical entertainment in the staterooms
or on the promenade decks. There were an estimated
75 different steamers that traveled the waves
of Seneca during this era, many of which were
built at boatyards along the lakeshore in places
including Geneva, Lodi Landing, Long Point, Dundee.
and Watkins Glen. Now because these boats were
made of wood and powered by large coal and wood
burning furnaces, steamboat fires were common.
Still, many locals at the time believed that
there was a hex on the steamboats of Seneca that
was responsible for the numerous accidents, fires,
sinkings, and even deaths that struck a good
number of these steamboats. But possible hexes
aside, many of the more prominent steamers of
the era had histories that were filled with bizarre
and striking stories. And here are just a few
of them. So the first one I call the Seneca Chief,
a .k .a. the Geneva. So the Seneca Chief went
from Geneva to Watkins Glen and back on July
3rd, 1828. which heralded the start of the steamboat
era on Seneca Lake. The 90 -foot -long boat left
Geneva around 8 a .m. and made it to Watkins
at around 1 p .m., where it was greeted by a
group of around 4 ,000 to 5 ,000 people who were
eager to see this new steamboat, this new technology
on its maiden voyage. So after the Seneca chief
stayed in Watkins for about two hours, It made
its way back to Geneva and docked at around 8
p .m. Now, within the next year, the steamboat's
owners had built a cabin on the deck, raised
the wheels, and completed some other improvements
to increase comfort, speed, and appearance. But
in January 1832, the Seneca Chief sank at a wharf
in Geneva after a storm. The boat was eventually
raised. They did more upgrades on it. And by
the next year, it was sold to new owners who
promptly lengthened the boat by 35 feet and renamed
it the Geneva. So around 1847 or 1848, the Geneva
had reached the end of its career. But disposing
of a 125 -foot -long steamboat wasn't going to
be easy. That little problem was solved when
it was decided that the steamer would be packed
with explosive powder and blown up off of the
shore in Geneva as part of the Fourth of July
celebration. So an estimated 10 ,000 onlookers
gather along the shore, eagerly awaiting the
spectacle, and the Geneva was loaded with powder,
was... placed far offshore, and a long wire was
connected to an electric battery that was run
to set off the explosion. After several attempts,
the powder failed to ignite. So, a few people
got into a boat. This little boating party was
dispatched with a fuse to approach the steamer
and trigger the explosion by introducing fire.
However, it turned out that the powder had somehow
become wet and the boating party could only manage
to light the steamboat on fire. So at first,
the crowd was disappointed that they didn't get
to see the Geneva blow up. Yet, once the fire
started raging, it was sending flames up high
into the night sky and brightly lighting up the
harbor and the shore. The spectators ended up
having a pretty good time anyway. Now the next
story I call Death Toll on the Watkins. The Watkins
was another early Seneca Lake steamer. It was
built in 1853 and ended up having a dark history
that unfolded within a very short span of time.
Several years after the Watkins went into service,
the newly invented steamboat propeller was added
to the steamboat. But the excitement of the new
propeller didn't last long because a propeller
accident on Seneca Lake killed two people. The
Watkins was taken out of service for a short
time, but not long after it returned to work,
there was another horrific accident that happened
on the Watkins. Two bolt heads on the boiler
were blown off by an explosion. killing one boiler
operator and injuring another. And despite the
boat's death toll, it was returned to service
for a few more years, but eventually taken out
of service and the engines were removed and the
hull was left to rot. Moving on to the next story,
the Onondaga, contaminated war hero. So in 1860,
a steam -powered paddle wheel towboat, named
the Perez H. Fields was built. When the American
Civil War began in 1861, the boat was commissioned
by the U .S. government to transport troops.
So enlisted Union soldiers would be picked up
along the shore in Geneva and transported on
the Perez H. Fields to Watkins Glen before those
soldiers would head to the Union encampment in
Elmira. about 24 miles away, and then they would
travel on to the battlefields across the south.
It's likely that hundreds or maybe even thousands
of Union soldiers rode on the Perez H. Fields
down Seneca Lake in the early 1860s. And after
the Civil War ended, the steamer Onondaga ended
up spending the next five years serving as a
towboat. Now, the Seneca Lake Navigation Company,
looking to increase their fleet of excursionist
steamboats, commissioned a shipbuilder named
Bruce Springstead, a highly renowned shipbuilder,
Bruce Springstead, to rebuild and revamp the
Perez H fields. And the result was a 175 foot
long, 500 passenger. luxury ship. Now the Onondaga
was regarded as the largest steamer in service
between the Hudson River and Buffalo and the
newly renamed Onondaga offered the finest in
comfort and style on its trips between Geneva
and Watkins Glen and points in between. Over
the next couple of decades as bigger and faster
steamboats appeared on Seneca Lake The Onondaga
lost a bit of its shine, but it continued to
carry passengers on its daily route before, or
routes, before finally being retired and docked
in Geneva in 1895. Now, it seems that nobody
was really sure what to do with this old steamboat,
so the Onondaga remained at the dock in Geneva
for the next three years. Then in 1898, the Smith
Opera House in Geneva, a performing arts theater
in Geneva, hosted the Joshua Simpkins Opera Company,
who were performing one of the most popular shows
of the time, the stage comedy Joshua Simpkins.
Now, it was discovered that the road troop, after
arriving in Geneva, had brought smallpox with
them. So local officials did what they thought
was the best course of action. to quarantine
all of the actors at the edge of the city in
their private rail cars. And then once the actors
were in there, they hosed down the rails cars
with formaldehyde. Now the quarantine didn't
go as they had hoped because the infected actors
or the potentially infected actors weren't staying
inside the train. the public was curious and
they weren't staying away from the train. So
the public health and government officials decided
that this was no good. So they loaded the entire
troop onto the Onondaga and then anchored the
boat a ways away from shore in Geneva's Harbor
for a month long quarantine. So these, uh, these,
were going to stay on this steamboat floating
in the middle of the harbor for a full month.
Now, the performers made the best of their stay
aboard their new floating home, even giving performances
of Joshua Simpkins on the deck of the steamboat
for the entertainment of the audiences that were
gathered on shore. So when the traveling company
finally disembarked the Onondaga at the end of
the quarantine on June 24th, 1898, the legendary
steamboat was now considered a floating biological
hazard. So immediate disposal of this potentially
infected boat was deemed necessary. And the Seneca
Lake Steamboat Company came up with a plan. to
end the life of the Onondaga with a fiery extravaganza.
So they decided that the Onondaga would be blown
up on the lake off Kashong Point on September
14, 1898. And it was advertised both as a celebration
of the United States' recent victory in the Spanish
-American War. and also as an homage to the explosion
of the USS Maine, which had helped spur the start
of the war earlier that year. So flyers promoting
the event were distributed across New York and
Pennsylvania, inviting visitors to enjoy, quote,
a never -to -be -forgotten spectacle, end quote,
and an estimated crowd of 5 ,000 people traveled.
from near and far to gather on both shores of
the lake, both on the east and west, to watch
the show. So a band played, hot air balloons
were launched. It was quite a day. And after
the paddle wheel and the other machinery were
removed, 500 pounds of dynamite, 300 pounds of
blasting powder, and a barrel of gasoline were
distributed. around the onondaga the onondaga
was then towed to the center of the lake off
kashong point and was ignited at about 4 30 p
.m three long tongues of fire shot out from the
ship sending debris flying in all directions
a massive dome of dense yellow smoke surrounded
and obscured the boat from view for a while as
a 500 -foot mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
And over the next several days, small pieces
of the Onondaga were found scattered on the lake.
But this wasn't quite the end of the story of
the Onondaga because in August of 2012, almost
114 years after the explosion, the destruction
of the Onondaga, A group of researchers located
the wreckage of the steamboat at the bottom of
Seneca Lake at a depth of around 400 feet. Next
up, I have a story called The Mighty Ben Loader's
Deadly End. So the largest and most powerful
steamboat ever built on Seneca Lake was the Ben
Loader. Construction on the boat was completed.
And it was placed into service on Seneca Lake
in 1849. Now, this was a behemoth. It was 250
feet long and could transport 1 ,500 passengers
at a time with a top speed of around 20 miles
an hour. So at its peak, the Ben Loder was completing
four round trips between Watkins Glen in Geneva,
each day. Then in 1853, the steamboat was sold
to a new owner and converted to a towboat. Now,
the way these towboats worked, there were horse
-drawn canal boats that were carrying coal and
agricultural products and building materials
and other cargo that would arrive in Geneva on
the Seneca Cayuga Canal. Then the canal boats
would be tied together and hitched. to a towboat
and then the towboat would pull the canal boats
down the lake to be unloaded in Watkins Glen.
Then the canal boats would be reloaded with cargo
and towed back to Geneva. Now the crew of each
canal boat would take the trip from Geneva to
Watkins and back and they'd either leave their
horses in one of the large horse barns in Geneva
or they'd bring the horses with them on the canal
boats. for the round trip some of the larger
tow boats were known to pull dozens of canal
boats at one time the largest number of canal
boats ever towed at once was 70 and that record
was held by you guessed it the ben loader now
in 1861 during its 12th year of service on seneca
lake The assistant engineer and a deckhand were
killed on the Ben Loader by a boiler explosion.
A dozen canal horses and several other crew members
were scalded by the blisteringly hot water that
came from the boiler during that explosion as
well. Then on the evening of May 15th, also 1861,
the Ben Loader was on its way from Geneva to
Watkins Glen. pulling 27 boats and 17 cribs of
lumber. About 12 miles south of Geneva, the steamer
encountered a sudden storm and a violent gust
of wind from the southwest slammed into the steamboat
and its cargo, causing the last 11 boats that
were tied to the bend loader and that were also
filled with lumber, railroad ties, coal, and
barley to break free. And the Ben Loader's crew
watched in horror as three of the boats were
lifted almost completely out of the water before
plunging and disappearing into the waves. And
on board those apparently sunken boats were the
crew and their horses, all of whom were assumed
dead. But the next morning, the Ben Loader and
another steamboat, the STR -0, were sent to look
for the missing boats and the crews and horses.
And when they arrived at the scene of the previous
evening's events, they found all of the boats
and the crews either ashore or anchored nearby.
By some miracle, only minor injuries were suffered
and all the crew members were alive. It was learned,
however, that when the three coal boats plunged
underwater, they flipped over, lost their loads
of coal, and then bobbed to the surface upside
down. And in the process, six horses were lost.
But interestingly, only one of those horses'
corpses were found. uh when it drifted to shore
then just a few weeks later the ben loader finally
met its end on june 2nd 1861 the steamboat was
docked at a coal trestle in watkins glen for
the night and at some point during the night
the ben loader caught fire the flames raged out
of control the crew made the decision to cut
the steamboat adrift so the fire wouldn't ignite
the coal storage facility nearby and possibly
the entire village. So the Ben Loader floated
out onto Seneca Lake, fully engulfed in flames,
and would be completely incinerated down to the
waterline. Now the next story is a quick one.
I call it the legendary Otetiani's egg -citing
finale. Well, so this isn't necessarily evidence
of a curse or a hex, but the final days of the
Otetiani were a bit strange. You may recall if
you listened in episode two, I talked about the
incredible encounter between the Otetiani and
the Seneca Lake Serpent that took place in 1900,
the most famous Seneca Lake Serpent story ever.
And after that event, the Otetiani continued
doing regular routes between Geneva and Watkins
Glen through late 1905. And it was around that
time, 1905, 1906, that it was renamed the Seneca.
And for the next three years, it was only intermittently
in service between Watkins and Geneva. And when
the steamboat reached the end of its useful life,
It wasn't just disassembled for parts or burned
in the lake or anything like that. It was docked
in Watkins Glen in the winter of 1908 to 1909.
And part of the boat was brought ashore and cut
in half and began the final phase of its life
as a hen house. And finally, we wrap up the...
stories of the seneca steamboat hexes with the
final tale the sinking of the manhattan and the
end of the steamboats so as railroads completely
took over the manhattan was still regularly bringing
passengers between geneva and watkins glen in
1915 now this steamer like many others that had
traveled seneca lake over the previous hundred
years, ended its career quite abruptly and in
dramatic fashion. So the Manhattan was anchored
at the northern end of the lake near the canal.
Now somehow one evening the steamer broke away
from its moorings and went adrift, and it made
its way about a hundred feet through the canal
before getting wedged under a bridge. So the
crew came, the boat was dislodged, And then it
was towed back and reattached to its moorings
when the Manhattan promptly sunk. So the owners
worked to successfully plug the leak and towed
the Manhattan to Cayuga Lake and docked it there.
At which point the Manhattan sunk again, marking
the final chapter in Seneca Lake's steamboat
era. okay so the steamboat era was over but i
have one more story from the early 1900s came
right after the steamboat era and i loved it
i think it's just a really delightful little
tale and i call it from luxury boating to liquor
bootlegging the tale of the portadora so in 1909
the first gasoline powered boat to run a regular
schedule on Seneca Lake was built. It was 43
feet long and capable of carrying 50 passengers.
Name of the boat was the Portadora, and it was
owned by Captain Frank Power. And the Portadora
was a very sleek, very modern machine for its
time. Now, five years after the Portadora's launch,
Captain Tower wanted to find a way to attract
more passengers to his boat. So he developed
Pastime Park on the northeast side of the lake.
On this property, Captain Tower built tennis
courts, a picnic grove, a bathhouse, and a 5
,000 square foot pavilion for entertainment and
dancing. And pretty soon, Genevans began... building
cottages at Pastime Park, where businessmen could
spend the summer with their families while commuting
back and forth to work on the Portadora. Now,
after nine years of running the Pastime Park
route, the Portadora was removed from service
and sold by Captain Tower to what was described
as a group of New Yorkers in 1923. And those
new owners were about to put that old passenger
boat into a very different kind of service. The
United States era of alcohol prohibition was
in full swing at this time, which created the
illegal bootlegging industry. Now, in the northeastern
United States, one popular route to bring booze
from Canada to the United States was via boat
across Lake Ontario. And the new owners of the
Portadora put the boat to work transporting this
illegal alcohol. And these boats were called
rum runners. Now, I'm not sure how long the Portadora
was in service running alcohol, but eventually
the long arm of the law caught up and the Portadora
was seized by revenuers. And after having brought
joy and laughter to so many countless families
on Seneca Lake for so many years, the Portadora,
like many rum runners of the era, was ordered
to be destroyed. Well, that's it for this time
around. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks so much
for listening. And if you have any thoughts on
any of the topics in this episode, please let
me know. And remember to like and subscribe wherever
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.com and subscribe to the email list so you don't
miss anything. A new podcast comes out every
month on the sevens. I'll talk to you then.