Hey everyone, welcome to Seneca Lake Mysteries,
the podcast where we explore the unusual, strange,
and unexplained on New York's largest finger
lake. Thanks a million for joining me again and
for all the support. And please continue to like,
subscribe, review, and share the podcast. It
all adds up. And as always, I appreciate every
one of you. So this time around, I'll be... Revisiting
the story of the mysterious round craters that
were recently discovered at the bottom of Seneca
Lake after a six -year -long, high -tech, comprehensive
topographic mapping of the lake bed was completed
by researchers from the Seneca Lake Archaeological
and Bathymetric Survey Project. We'll look at
the current theory. that the craters were caused
by methane gas leaks in the bottom of the lake,
and then take a closer look at other cases of
pockmarks or craters found at the bottom of the
ocean, including one that has some striking and
distinct similarities with those found at Seneca
Lake, although scientists believe that that site
has nothing to do with methane leaks. Next, we'll
dive into the possibility that an ancient civilization
once roamed the Finger Lakes area. We'll start
with one of the most unusual and mysterious ancient
stoneworks in North America, the Bluff Point
Stoneworks on Keuka Lake, and how that site just
may be related to another equally mysterious
spot near Seneca Lake. And finally, I'll take
you through a... classic UFO sighting from Ovid,
New York, back in 1980, which included multiple
witnesses and even some strange physical effects
the objects had on at least one witness. But
before we get to those stories, I have a quick
one to tell you guys. This story is very short
and it lacks detail, so it's not quite substantial
enough to spotlight it with its own segment,
but the subject matter... is so wild I have no
choice but to talk about it. I found this story
in a book titled The Lake Country, an Annal of
Golden Days in Central New York, the Land of
Gold, by John Corbett, which was published in
1898. It's in a section called The Folklore,
which describes some of the stranger myths and
legends in the area. It's just one brief paragraph.
which reads as follows, quote, The superstition
of the vampire, that horror of the grave which
was supposed to harbor the dead yet derive its
sustenance from the living, had one illustration
at least about Seneca Lake. Down the western
shore, not many miles from its head, in the early
years, the corpse of a young woman was exhumed
and the heart and other vital parts committed
to the flames. The gruesome tale comports in
a remarkable manner with the general sayings
in regard to vampire. Of several sisters, all
in succession had wasted away until one remained
and she was ill. Though in the grave for many
months, the burned portions of the body were
fresh in appearance, the living sister, undoubtedly
from mental relief, recovered her health after
the event. End quote. So when I first started
digging into the weird history of Seneca Lake,
I knew there would be UFOs and lake monsters
and the Seneca drums and hauntings and just maybe
a cameo or two from Bigfoot. But I genuinely
never expected to find out there was a vampire
legend from the area, especially a story of a
dead vampire being dug up and burned along the
western shore of the lake. The more I look, the
weirder this place gets. And I guess I should
say that if you've had any vampire encounters
around Seneca Lake, please let me know. So let's
get to it. So back in episode three of the Seneca
Lake Mysteries podcast, I covered a news story
that had... recently been published around that
time and it was related to the results of the
Seneca Lake Archaeological and Bathymetric Survey
Project which was a project that was done using
state -of -the -art underwater equipment that
took place over six years that was done to that
ended up capturing not only images of 44 canal
shipwrecks, but it also created the most detailed
and comprehensive topographic map of the lake's
bottom that had ever been completed. So it gave
us an unprecedented level of detail in understanding
what Seneca's lake bed looks like. And what those
researchers found was not only the 44 canal shipwrecks,
but they found a field of around 70 indentations,
craters, pockmarks, whatever you want to call
them. Each one of them around 30 feet deep and
400 feet wide, covering an area of over four
square miles and the southern end of Seneca Lake.
But what was really intriguing, to me at least,
about these features on the lake's bottom, were
that many of the craters were near -perfect circles,
and they were sometimes lying in straight lines.
And also, around the time that these results
were published, the results were published actually
in March of 2025, and then in May. it was announced
that researchers from Cornell University and
the SUNY College of Environmental Science and
Forestry in Syracuse were being provided with
a grant of over $12 ,000 to investigate these
recently discovered holes or pockmarks or craters
in the bottom of Seneca Lake. to see if those
holes were releasing methane or other chemicals
that might explain the Seneca drums. Now, the
theory of the Seneca drums being just gas bubbles
rising to the surface has been around for almost
100 years, since at least 1934. But again, it's
still a theory. No one has ever proven or found
evidence showing that the Seneca drums come from
the release of gas bubbles that come from the
bottom of the lake and rise to the surface. So
I got curious about this subject, this idea of...
methane gas being released in the bottom of a
lake and rising to the surface. So I did a little
bit of research on my own just to learn about
other examples of this phenomenon happening.
And it's a pretty common phenomenon in the world's
oceans. The Barents Sea, which is located north
of Russia and Norway, the Arctic Ocean, craters
have been seen there. There are craters in the
Arctic Ocean that are ancient and believed to
have been caused by methane gas escaping from
the bottom of the ocean. The Barents Sea, there's
also craters there. The Barents Sea is... north
of Norway and Russia. There are craters there
that have been studied and photographed that
are believed to have been created by gas escaping.
And while some researchers believe that there
are newer craters, new craters being created
in the Barents Sea, there's really no evidence
of that specifically. happening now. The theory
that these were created by methane explosions,
both the Arctic Ocean and Barents Sea, both of
those theories are that it took place thousands
of years ago. However, of course, the idea that
gas explosions or methane leaks in the bottom
of the ocean are a real phenomena. They've been
photographed it does happen it's not an uncommon
event now i was but i was also curious about
these the craters in seneca lake seeming to be
a lot they seem to be of mostly uniform sizes
and arranged in linear fashion so i was wondering
if that phenomena is also tied to these Arctic
Ocean craters or Barents Sea or any of these
other locations with gas leaks in the bottom
of the ocean. And none of them really were. Crater
Lake, which is in Oregon and is the deepest lake
in the United States at 1 ,949 feet. uh has craters
on the lake's bottom but they're various sizes
some of the photos i've seen different sizes
um they don't really seem to be have the same
kind of order that the pockmarks in the bottom
of seneca lake have so this field of craters
in the bottom of seneca lake is highly unusual,
specifically because of the uniformity, like
I've said, the uniformity of size of a lot of
the craters and the fact that a lot of them seem
to be arranged in rows. But I did find one example
of a field of pockmarks or craters in the bottom
of the ocean that are... Uniform in size and
seem to be arranged in lines. And those are known
as the pockmarks of Big Sur or the Big Sur pockmarks
off the coast of California. Now, the Big Sur
pockmark field, as compared to Seneca Lake, the
one on Seneca Lake is just over four square miles.
The Big Sur pockmark field is roughly the size
of the city of Los Angeles, which would be 400
to 500 square miles, I would believe. The Seneca
Lake pockmarks, there's about roughly 70 of them.
The Big Sur pockmark field has over 5 ,200 craters
on the ocean floor. The craters in Seneca Lake.
are roughly 400 feet across and about 30 feet
deep. The formations in Big Sur are roughly 650
feet across, so larger, and about average of
15 feet deep, which is half the depth of the
Pog Marks in Seneca Lake. And what was very interesting
to me is that for... Decades, researchers and
scientists have believed that the Big Sur pockmark
field was caused by methane gas leaking through
the ocean floor. But in recent years, there have
been discussions of putting in wind farms out
in the ocean off of right in that area around
the Big Sur pockmarks. And there were concerns
that if there was methane leaking through the
ocean floor, that that would cause stability
problems for the wind farm. So researchers took
another look at it and came to a very different
conclusion back in 2024. So there was extensive
research done by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute, the MBARI. along with help from the
U .S. Geological Survey and Stanford University.
They used state -of -the -art underwater robots
to map the pockmark field and to research the
sediment, and they found absolutely no signs
of methane. And of course, I found this very
interesting, considering what's going on at Seneca
Lake, that there's going to be further research
done on the pockmarks in Seneca Lake, which have
been, you know, the Seneca drums have been believed
to be caused by methane. And now that these pockmarks
have been found, it's believed to be caused by
methane. These assumptions were wrong, at least
about that pockmark field. So what did the researchers
in California figure out? What did they say caused
these pockmarks? They discovered that powerful
ancient sediment flows, so mud, sand, water,
rushing downhill along the seafloor, Almost like
underwater avalanches have been shaping and creating
and maintaining those pockmarks for hundreds
of thousands of years. They estimate 250 ,000
years or more. 280 ,000, excuse me, or more.
Now, of course, even though the photographs or
the bathymetric Images of the Big Sur pockmarks
do look quite similar to the bathymetric images
at the bottom of Seneca Lake and those craters.
There's still a huge difference in the locations
because you're talking about the shore of the
Pacific Ocean compared to a freshwater lake.
in the middle of upstate New York. It's understandable
how hundreds of thousands of years of ocean floor
sediment moving back and forth, avalanches, underwater
avalanches, the power of the tide of the oceans
causing the sediment to swirl and to move in
these patterns and creating... These pockmarks
in the bottom of the ocean. How would that have
happened in Seneca Lake? Are the currents of
Seneca Lake strong enough to create these types
of indentations in the bottom of the lake? Were
these indentations created hundreds of thousands
of years ago in the bottom of Seneca Lake? Are
they actually... incredibly ancient. It's hard
to tell, and I'm not an expert, but I am going
to make a prediction right here on the Seneca
Lake Mysteries podcast. I predict that the research
that's done by Cornell University and the SUNY
ESF are going to find no indication that methane
created these pockmarks in the bottom of Seneca
Lake. I think the Seneca drums are a bigger mystery
than anyone wants to admit. I think these pockmarks
are a much bigger mystery than anyone is admitting
at the moment. And I invite everyone to go back,
look at these images that were released of the
bottom of Seneca Lake. Go to SenecaLakeMysteries
.com. I have the images up there. And remember
that this is a... detailed, high -tech topographic
map of the bottom of the lake. These aren't rough
images. These are huge, round, some of them perfectly
round, craters in the bottom of the lake that
are arranged in just one small area, arranged
in perfect lines at times. And I'll also put
some links in the description or at least a link
to show the Big Sur pockmark field as well so
you can see just how similar they are. And I
will be interested to see what the researchers
find in the next year or so when they're studying
these pockmarks and seeing if there are any chemicals
or methane leaks down there. But I also strongly
believe that... This finding, this field of pockmarks
in the bottom of Seneca Lake is extremely unusual
for a freshwater lake. I've looked at bathymetric
maps of Lake Champlain for comparison. There
are none of these pockmarks. If you look at the
bathymetric map of the rest of Seneca Lake, because
this is only a small portion, there are none
of these pockmarks. It's a highly unusual phenomenon
that cannot be... explained at this time. So
this story sort of begins outside of the Seneca
Lake area. So I'm going to tell you the story
of this particular place. And although it's not
a place within the Seneca Lake mysteries realm
that I normally talk about I'm going to after
I tell you the story I'm going to tie it to another
story from the Seneca Lake area and the first
part of the story that does take place further
away isn't really that far away it's on Keuka
Lake west of Seneca Lake And some of you might
have heard about this location called the Bluff
Point Stoneworks. The Bluff Point Stoneworks
are a prehistoric stone complex, stone structure
located in the middle of, in between, Keuka Lake
is shaped more or less like a Y. And right in
the middle of that Y is where the Bluff Point
stoneworks are located. They're on a high point
in between the two branches of Keuka Lake. And
unfortunately, this site is mostly destroyed.
There's some areas of... of stone and some traces
of the site that are still in existence but the
the original site was written about and described
in the late 1800s and the descriptions and the
drawings of this site are absolutely astounding
they do not match up with any other Ancient.
Native sites. Or ancient stone sites. In the
northeast. At all. So let's get into it. The
Bluff Point Stoneworks. Are on a. Were on a roughly
seven acre. Area. At the top of the bluff. It's
right at the highest point. Between the two.
branches of Keuka Lake. And one of the more striking
and unusual features of this stone complex are
referred to as graded ways. And what these graded
ways were were long lines of stone. paths or
roads or whatever you want to call them approximately
three feet to eight feet wide and about one foot
high and the base of them the the flat part were
all stones that had been laid down and along
the sides there were additional stones embedded
into the ground and standing on end and tilted
inward toward the middle of these graded ways.
And these graded ways were hundreds of feet long.
And many of these straight lines were in crossing
patterns, 90 degree angles, what have you. An
extremely unusual type of structure. But in addition
to these graded ways, there were several stone
circles with large stones arranged in patterns
standing on end. And there was one large stone
in the western end of the complex that was roughly
8 to 10 feet tall. standing completely on end,
often referred to as a monolith when talking
about stone structures around the world. Now,
unfortunately, there was never any official investigation
of the site by archaeologists. It was all amateur
archaeologists and other amateur researchers.
who studied and mapped the Bluff Point Stoneworks.
And among these older accounts of the Bluff Point
Stoneworks are some features that are even more
intriguing and more strange, although it's essentially
impossible to sort out whether these are legitimate
claims or whether these were made up. But it
was said that many of the stoneworks included
engravings on the stone of human heads and animal
heads that were arranged in patterns similar
to those made by the Etruscan and ancient civilization
in Italy that were around 900 BC. to about 27
BC. And another account even said that there
was an engraving of the face of a veiled woman
that looked to them like Isis. Now, there have
been lots of theories thrown around over the
years as far as who actually built the Bluff
Point stoneworks. Some folks claimed that it
was The Hopewells, the mound builders who had
left their mark around Western and Central New
York and around the Finger Lakes, apparently.
However, there are no other examples of Hopewells
building complex structures out of stone like
the ones found on Bluff Point. or Celtic people
who had traveled to the North American continent
before Columbus had come and built these structures
for various reasons, archaeoastronomy, placed
a signal beacon, something like that. But ultimately,
to this day, Nobody knows who built the Bluff
Point stoneworks. And like I said, there's very
little evidence left of these stoneworks. And
researchers and experts, specifically in the
field of ancient earthworks, ancient stoneworks,
say that there are no other examples of any other
site looking like this one. anywhere in North
America. Now, I had mentioned Bluff Point in
one of my previous podcasts, one of the ones
where I was speaking with Soraya up at Willard
Cemetery, and I had mentioned it. One of my listeners
heard that episode and kind of... rekindled my
interest in Bluff Point sent me a link a couple
weeks ago. I'm going to put that link in the
description. It's a YouTube video from six years
ago that's called The Lost Civilization of Bluff
Point, New York. And I encourage all of you who
are curious about Bluff Point to check out that
video. Very interesting. Well done. And honestly,
I love the title of it, The Lost Civilization
of Bluff Point, New York. Because the truth is,
nobody knows who built this. And whoever built
this should be considered a lost civilization.
Also, in an interesting piece of synchronicity,
there's a podcast called Legends of the Lost
with Nina Alvarez. And I just found that Nina
had reposted the first episode of this podcast,
Legends of the Lost, which deals specifically
with the Bluff Point ruins and goes into detail
about a newspaper man named Gilbert T. Brewer,
who spoke a lot, brought a lot of attention to
the Bluff Point ruins back in the 1930s and 40s.
So I'll put that link in the description as well.
I haven't listened to the podcast, but hey, it's
about Bluff Point ruins. So if you're interested
in learning more, check out the links in the
description. So how do the Bluff Point ruins
connect with the Seneca Lake area? Well, when
I was looking at the Bluff Point ruins again
in recent weeks, there was one piece of information
that reminded me of another old story that I
talked about in the first episode of this podcast
relating to Aunt Sarah's Falls in Montour Falls.
Now, Aunt Sarah's Falls, as I mentioned before,
is probably my favorite waterfall in the Seneca
Lake area because... You can visit Aunt Sarah's
Falls and see the falls, which are about 100
feet high. However, you can't see from the ground
that the falls actually extend another probably
200 feet above the 100 feet that you can see
from the ground. There are drone videos that
are really cool to see. So Aunt Sarah's Falls
is... So unique to me because you can't see all
of Aunt Sarah's Falls. Part of it remains kind
of hidden and kind of mysterious. So, when I
heard the mention of a carved woman's face in
the stones on Bluff Point, it reminded me of
a story related to Aunt Sarah's Falls. And this
story I found in a report from the Ithaca Journal
back in January of 1861. The name of the article
is Legend Surrounds Aunt Sarah's Falls. It goes
into the legend surrounding the naming of Aunt
Sarah's Falls. But the part that got my attention
is related to... stone carving on Aunt Sarah's
Falls. And here's what the Ithaca Journal article
says. Quote, The only known clue to Aunt Sarah's
true identity was supplied many years ago by
Gail Compton, who resided in Havana, now Montour
Falls, before the Civil War. In writing about
his boyhood in Havana, Compton testified concerning
a stone formerly at the site of the falls upon
which was carved the face of an Indian maid.
During the gold fever in Schuyler, this stone
was removed or destroyed by an eager prospector,
end quote. And I've come across other mentions
of this carved stone saying that someone had
actually used dynamite or some type of explosive
to blow up the carved face because there was
a rumor that there was gold inside of the stone,
which turned out to be false. Now, I understand
that the carved face of an Indian woman isn't
exactly the same as the carved face of an Egyptian
woman, Isis, wearing a veil. But if it's true
that there was a carved face of a woman at Bluff
Point and there was a carved face of a woman
at Aunt Sarah's Falls and Montour Falls, which
are roughly 20 miles apart, and when you consider
that there are no... known people or civilizations
that have lived in the Northeast that were known
for carving faces into stone. It adds another
whole layer of intrigue because it points toward
the possibility of an ancient lost civilization
existing not only near Cayuga Lake, but also
near Seneca Lake. Who were these people? How
did they get here? How long ago were they here?
So many questions. Let me know what you think.
Let me know if you know of any other folklore
from the area that might point towards this lost
civilization. And by the way, if you've never
been to Antseras Falls, it's well worth a visit.
It's right along Route 14 in between Watkins
Glen. and Montour Falls. So this story was sent
to me by Soraya Azkath from the Where Did the
Road Go podcast. My compadre down in Ithaca,
he sent it to me a couple months ago, I think.
It's a really great story. It's from 1980, so
it goes back a few years, but it's a newspaper
report, multiple witnesses. And it's definitely
worth taking a look at. So the article was published
in the Finger Lakes Times in Geneva on February
22nd, 1980. And it refers to an event that happened
several days earlier on February 18th, 1980 in
Ovid, New York, which is, for those of you who
aren't familiar with the areas, on the eastern
side of Seneca Lake. So the story begins with
an 11 -year -old witness named Scott Nittle,
and he and his mother ended up seeing this object
around 9 .45 p .m. So Scott said, I was just
laying in my bed and then this light came through
my window and made everything orange. And at
first he thought it was the moonlight, but when
he took a closer look, he saw that it was an
oval shaped object with about 10 windows straight
across it. And it was hovering in a field behind
his house on Route 96. So he called in his mother
and she came in and she said, that the whole
room was lit up in an orange color. So she went
over to the window and saw the thing was up in
the air about 30 feet high and 150 feet away.
She described it as egg -shaped and about 5 feet
wide. She said, I've never seen anything like
it. It was just a big, bright orange blob. Then
she said, Seconds later, the object shot up straight
into the air and headed north toward Auburn,
and then it appeared to explode. I thought at
first it was an airplane crash, but there wasn't
any noise and there wasn't a fire or flames or
anything, she said. It was just like someone
turned a light switch off and it was dark again,
except there was like a little red blinking light.
that came from it after it blew up and i just
watched that until it disappeared so scott's
mother called several relatives for help including
her husband and that's around the time she said
she discovered that her son's eyes were bloodshot
and there were other people in the area a myrtle
bull event who saw the object she said She and
her husband, Fred, watched it for about four
minutes from the porch of their Orchard Street
home. And Myrtle said, it looked like a round
reddish gold ball, almost orange color, and it
must have been on fire, whatever it was, because
we could see smoke swirling over the top of it.
Very interesting description. It may have been
smoke. It very possibly would have been smoke.
But sometimes with these UFO sightings, there
will be sort of a distortion in the air, like
a distortion of a field around the object. Maybe
that was what they were seeing. I don't know.
But she said, but then oddly enough, she said
she hadn't figured out what it was, but there
was one possibility that she ruled out. It wasn't
anything like a flying saucer by any means, she
said. Then another witness named Shirley Durleth
was sitting in the living room of her home near
Boyce's Four Corners. When she spotted the object,
she said it looked like this big orange ball
hovering in the sky. She watched it until it
faded away, and she said, And then a little light
appeared and then moved away and disappeared.
Now, Mrs. Derleth didn't say what she thought
it was, but she said, quote, really, it scared
me half to death because I didn't know what it
was and I still don't. Another witness, a David
Kaiser who lived on Route 96, noticed the object
because he said the houses. in the area were
all lit up in an orange color. He said it looked
like a big flare and was really huge. Then there's
an interesting quote from the journalist who
wrote the article, Sonny Sampson, who said, most
who spotted the object were reluctant to discuss
the sighting because they said they feared public
ridicule. I find that really interesting because
it's... indicates that there may have been a
lot more witnesses to this sighting, but were
unwilling to talk about it publicly. Article
goes on and says that the area was searched by
a Seneca County Sheriff's deputy named Robert
Favreau. When the incident was reported that
night by Scott Niddle's mother, Beverly Cowan,
the deputy said nothing was found. But he said,
quote, I believe they saw something. It's just
one of those unexplained things. Now, of course,
at the time, the Seneca Army Depot was active
and U .S. Coast Guard had the Laurencee Navigational
Tower, which was a navigational tower that was
used by the Coast Guard. And this transmitter
or station was used to guide ships and aircraft
up to a thousand miles away. So the Laurency
Navigational Tower, the U .S. Coast Guard personnel
said they didn't detect any electrical disturbance
in the area that night. So they asked Robert
Zemanek, who was the public affairs director.
at the Seneca Army Depot, and he said there were
no tests being conducted, and, quote, no one
here saw anything, end quote, which I find hard
to believe. Then the article goes on and says
that Bob Barrow, a field investigator with the
Area Phenomenon Research Organization in Syracuse,
had looked into hundreds of sightings in the
central New York area. and said that egg -shaped
objects were, quote, quite a predominant shape
in UFO sighting history, end quote. He also said
that objects with windows, explosions without
a noise, and bright blinking lights appearing
after explosions were reported quite frequently,
and red and orange glows coming from an object.
are also very common. He also added, interestingly,
that, quote, in many cases where there seem to
be bright lights involved, you will find that
someone will get bloodshot or a burning sensation
in their eyes. It's almost as if they had been
affected by ultraviolet light, end quote. He
also said it's very common in these cases where
at the scene of the sighting, There's not a trace
of debris or any evidence like that. And the
article concludes with Bob Barrow saying, quote,
it's just bizarre. The whole phenomenon is bizarre,
end quote. So, yeah, that's a remarkable story
that took place 40 years ago, over 40 years ago
now, over Ovid. Anybody out there remember this?
Anyone see this UFO in 1980 over Ovid? Anything
to add to this? Let me know. Let me know in the
comments. Shoot me an email. Podcast at SenecaLakeMysteries
.com or leave a voicemail 607 -307 -1167. I'd
love to hear from you. Whether it's this. particular
incident or any sightings that you've had yourself.
I know for a fact there have been numerous sightings
on this side of the lake in the vicinity of Seneca
Army Depot and of course these sightings continue
to this day. I also see a similarity between
the story that I told in episode 11, the Burnt
Hill UFO chase, although the object was described
quite differently. It wasn't egg -shaped, and
it didn't have windows, but it was a bright orange
object in that Burnt Hill UFO chase. 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 you get your podcasts.
And get over to SenecaLakeMysteries .com and
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anything. A new podcast comes out every month
on the 7s. I'll talk to you then.