The cold, dark depths of Seneca Lake are revealing a rare glimpse of the state’s early maritime history to a high-tech research vessel as it finds long-lost shipwrecks in the deepest of the Finger Lakes.
Armed with a multibeam sonar array, researchers from Middlebury College and the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum are producing accurate three-dimensional images of the bottom that also pinpoint wrecks from Seneca’s heyday of commercial canal shipping nearly two centuries ago.
Starting in late June, the Research Vessel David Folger was based in the newly-rebuilt marina at Sampson State Park for a two-week survey, headed by Thomas Manley, an assistant geology professor at Middlebury College, and Art Cohn, co-founder and director emeritus of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
Called bathymetric mapping, the team’s work is providing valuable insights into an era when canals drove the state’s economy. The mission is being supported through a $15,000 grant from NYS Parks Historic Preservation Office and also by the NYS Canal Corp.
“On our first day on Seneca Lake, we found several shipwrecks,” said Cohn, pointing at a color-coded computer display that showed the crisp outline of one such vessel on the bottom. After a sighting, researchers sent down an unmanned, remote-operated vessel (ROV) to video, identify and document the scene.
“The vessels being found are intact ships, many with cargo, that have not been seen for more than 150 years,” he said.
Multibeam sonar works by sending sound waves in a fan shape into the water beneath a ship’s hull. The amount of time it takes sound waves to bounce off the bottom and return to a shipboard receiver is used to determine depth, with that data then used to produce detailed, color-coded maps.
These findings add to the eight shipwrecks located during a preliminary survey by the team in summer of 2018. So far, that brings the total number of confirmed shipwrecks to 14, with more potential finds still being analyzed, said Cohn.
The David Folger mapping project also will update lake navigation maps that date to the 1870s, when depth measurements were taken from ships by crews who dropped a lead weight from a metal chain into the lake until it hit bottom.
The newly-discovered Seneca Lake wrecks are canal boats that date from the mid-1820s to the 1850s, after the opening of the Erie Canal and construction the 20-mile Cayuga-Seneca Canal in helped make the lake part of the “superhighway” of the era.
The Erie (1825), Chemung (1833) and Crooked Lake (1833) canals helped make the lake commercially accessible from north, south and west, with hundreds of canal boats each year plying the 38-mile lake carrying cargoes of corn, coal, lumber, whiskey and other goods. But winds and storms on Seneca Lake posed a threat to such lake traffic, sometimes sending canal vessels to the bottom.
Seneca Lake is up to 625 feet deep, and water temperature at such depths is in the mid- to low-30s, said Cohn, making it the perfect low-oxygen environment for preserving wooden shipwrecks. In the ocean, salt water and aquatic organisms quickly corrode such wrecks
“The shipwrecks in Seneca Lake are in many way time capsules of the 19th century,” said Mark Peckham, a former maritime history expert with State Parks and now a trustee with the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston. “I dove on some wrecks in the 1990s and was struck by their state of preservation. Some still had glass in their cabin windows and household items remaining inside.”
“These discoveries are especially significant as we are in the midst of the 200th anniversary of the construction of the NYS canal system. 2025 will mark the anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal,” said Peckham. “More than anything else, the canals of the 1820s spurred economic development, settled broad swaths of the state, made New York State first in population and made the port of New York one of the greatest shipping ports in the world.
The David Folger reached the lake from its home port on Lake Champlain by taking the Champlain, Erie and Cayuga-Seneca canals in the New York State Canal System.
The multibeam sonar array aboard the David Folger also allows researchers to understand the composition of the ground beneath the bottom of Seneca Lake, said Manley. Those sub-bottom images look almost like a slice through a layer cake.
Some images might offer clues into a long-running lake mystery _ the source of mysterious booming noises that seemingly come from the water itself. The sounds have been known locally as Seneca Guns, Lake Drums or Lake Guns.
One modern theory is that such sounds might be caused by the sudden collapse and depressurization of caverns or tunnels underneath the lake, which has a history of salt mining being done around and beneath it.
Manley pointed to a lake bottom image that shows such potential collapses _ a nearly-circular depression that is some 40 feet deep, and another such depression nearby that is shaped like a horseshoe.
As Seneca Lake shipwrecks are located, they will be protected as public resources under the Federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987. All shipwrecks located under this survey’s permit issued by the New York State Museum will be reported to the Museum and integrated into the state’s archaeological inventory.
Said Peckham, “These sites are subject to environmental degradation, such as silt deposit, erosion, organic deterioration, and the effects of mussel encrustation, and human intrusions like anchoring, diver handling, theft of artifacts, and construction of bulkheads, marinas, pipelines, and cable crossings. The latter threats can be addressed through improved public education and interpretation, law enforcement and by providing appropriate submerged heritage diving sites that foster and support responsible recreation and tourism.”
In Lake Erie, recreational diving on such historic wrecks has proved to be a popular tourist attraction. That could make Sampson State Park’ s rebuilt $7.5 million marina the perfect jumping-off point for such trips.
But not all mysteries have been uncovered yet _ researchers aboard the David Folger spotted no trace of potential relatives of a mythical Seneca Lake sea monster that was supposedly deliberately run over by the captain of a steamboat in 1899, according to a Rochester newspaper account at the time… But stay tuned.
Posted by Brian Nearing, NYS Parks deputy public information officer
New York State Parks and Historic Sites Blog 
I’d like to seek permission to reprint this article in our boating club’s newsletter. Whom can I contact about this?
Tom … You can certainly reprint the post, citing the NYS Parks blog as the source… Thanks for reading the blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 518.486.1868 … Brian Nearing
This may not mean much to this story but years ago there use to be a boat that would take people from Geneva across the lake to Pastime park where there was a pavilion and people would swim and enjoy the summer time. Ive heard many stories about the times there and i know of only one picture that came from the times there. Its on a postcard printed years ago.
Very well done, exciting article
Very interesting.
Very interesting article, have always wondered about shipwrecks and plane crashes in this huge lake.
The issue of aircraft wrecks in Seneca Lake is also interesting. If the David Folger team uncovers any of those, we would want to update the blog to let people know.
This expedition opens a new avenue of history to add to our Schuyler County. Very interesting and anxious for even more unveiling of Seneca Lake’s secrets.
As a Geneva native, this is very interesting and cool. I also love history, so added bonus! What are the chances the expedition can get Drain The Oceans to do an episode?
Is Seneca the only lake you are investigating? I would love to see all of them done. There is always a story about any one of the lakes, something or someone lost…….
The NYS Parks grant that supported this work was only for Seneca Lake. Perhaps further such research could supported by grants in the future.
I’ve had the great pleasure of talking with Art Cohn a few times. He is very interested in exploring other finger lakes.
Very interesting read. I boat on Seneca quite often over the summer. This article sheds some light on the darkness below….good job!!
Thanks … the goal of the NYS Parks grant used to support this scientific mission was to increase understanding of Seneca Lake and the historical treasures that it contains.
Thank you for a very interesting article. I hope local organizations will make good use of it. I am almost 89 yrs and spent much time on Seneca in my life either swimming, boating or living in cottages.
Thank you for kind remarks. You have spent much time around this beautiful lake, and obviously care about it very deeply; it is for people like you and future generations that NYS Parks funds this kind of valuable research.
Grew up on Seneca Lake. Learned as a youngster to respect this body of water. It can go from being calm to rolling waves in a matter of minutes. A fascinating fact to be aware of by those unfamiliar with Seneca. Where can a copy of this blog be obtained?
As someone who has kayaked on Lake George, I too have learned to respect how quickly the lake can change from calm to dangerous… What kind of copy are you looking for?The blog resides only on the Internet, and is not produced in printed form.
My grandmother told me once about a couple of men that attempted to drive a model T across Seneca lake one year when it froze around either Valois point or Peach orchard point cant remember actually what one an the car went through ice to its grave on the bottom see if you can find that
Sounds like there is much more to be discovered!
Was the video footage of the wrecks taken during the expeditions? Great article!
Wonderful info! Grew up in Seneca county, always heard how very deep the lake is. This helps understand more
I hope they can recover some of the booze. I’d think it would be well aged by now.
Lived by this lake all my life and had not heard about any of the info I read here. Very interesting to say the least.
Are there any plans to raise any of the sunken ships?
I sure hope so! Some may be unable to be moved as lives were lost on them. Others simply sunk during storms, or scuttled. It would be fascinating to have at least one raised and preserved at any one of our boating museums!
Very interesting.
David Larsen, Your interests know no bounds.
Is there any way of obtaining the GPS coordinates for these wrecks? (Fishing purposes)
This data is held by the research team, who have not announced any plans at this time to make it public.
Good luck with that, Terry!
I grew up about 7 miles from the lake. The rumor was the pond near my home was connected to the lake underground! Thank you for the interesting article.
Fascinating! I hope to attend one of the presentations about what they found. as a member of the Horseheads Historical Society, finding and documenting canal boats from the Chemung Canal that ran right through our town would be an amazing addition to our knowledge. Well written blog. I would be happy to see more pictures of the wrecks posted!
I haven’t found any published stories about a Model T that was mentioned sinking near Valois Point. There are a couple of pictures of vehicles in 1912 on ice off Valois Point during a lake freeze though. Those are included in a paper written by Seneca County Historian Walt Gable on 2009 titled “When Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake Have Frozen Over”..(https://www.co.seneca.ny.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Frozen-Cayuga-Seneca-Lakes-ADA.pdf)
Also of note was a WGMF, Watkins Glen radio station talk show by former Schuyler County Art Richards in 1977 discussing lake freezes. I uploaded it to SoundCloud for listening. (https://soundcloud.com/user-230338309/seneca-lake-freezes-over-1912-1934)
My grandmother told this to me several years ago about the car but I cant remember if was at Valois point or peach orchard point. An I can not ask my grandmother without a ouija board. She passed a long time ago I an imagine that a lot of things go undocumented
My parents had a cottage on the tip end of Glenora point. The building sat on “made land” where a house and warehouse used to stand. Years prior to the construction of our cottage, the house and warehouse were destroyed then a dam that provided power to a grist mill in the community burst and flooded the Glenora community. Reportedly the house floated down the lake in the direction of Watkins Glen and there are interesting things, reportedly, in the Glenora area. You can still see the remnants of the pilings that used to support the warehouse and it’s associated dock. Glenora was an important stop for steamboats plying Seneca Lake.
Nice to read about Glendora and know who wrote it!
I grew up in Lyons, NY and had a cottage on Lamoka Lake. We spent alot of time in, on and around Seneca Lake. Currently, I live in Carolina Beach, NC between the Ocean and the Cape fear river. We too have “Seneca Booms”. I find it funny that the locals call them that after the same booms from Seeca Lake ! They have been documented here for several generations. Any idea of the correlation between the 2 ?
THERE IS ALSO A TAIL THAT THERE IS A CHANNEL THAT RUNS FROM ELDERIDGE LAKE IN ELMIRA N.Y. TO SENECA LAKE. HOW COME ALL THIS RESEARCH IS ON THE NORTH END OF THE LAKE, WHY DON’T THEY COME TO THE SOUTH END AND CHECK IT OUT, SAY FROM LODI POINT SOUTH, JUST WONDERING
The boats that took party folks to the Pastime park pavilion from Geneva in the 1800’s is of great interest to me. I soent my summers on that lake for 50 years and knowing the woods like the back of my hand, i and a couple other people are the only ones who know where they dumped all the garbage during that time period. Believe me when i say they went a little ways to dump their garbage but when you dig in the area, you find bottles, jewelry, plates and anything else you can think of in this dump. Best thing is, the deeper you dig the older the items and most if not all are still intact. Ive found cork glass bottles from the 1800’s along with silver items.Ive also found parts from a model T ford and some early early sunglasses there.Each scoop brings another hidden treasure. Its a thrill to dig there id have to say. I have kept it a secret for my whole life and will continue to do so.
How nice to share. I to have lived from this lake area from Lodi to Watkins boating. Fishing skiing an my father did scuba diving even been through the locks a few times. I’m age 69
Did the underwater surveying find any airplane wrecks – especially around the Sampson ex-Navy base?
I have dived several wrecks on both Seneca and Keuka I also discovered an old 1930ish auto fully intact. Wrecks were a great source for antique fishing lures hundreds of them. I remember thinking what a source of fishing history on these wrecks. Must have been a great fishing hole.
The best wrecks to dive are in the area of Glass Factory Bay. 2 are in approx. 110 ft. 1 in approx. 150 ft. 1 in approx. 160 ft. 1 in approx. 190 ft. My favorite”s are the one in 150 ft. its completely intact, and the one in 190 ft which has a large anchor in the cargo hold, it also has a stable in the bow section for horses.
wonderfuyl stuff, i was on lamoka and keuka for a while, is the canal from keuka to seneca open again?
Loved the news of Seneca Lake. Interested, if those caverns you mentioned opened and suddenly filled, wouldn’t the lake level also drop significantly?
Also curious, are any of the lakes connected by underwater tunnels and caverns?
loved the article and hope to read subsequent ones on the Finger Lakes underwater search – more pictures please of any findings!! Happy Boating and Happy Hunting -underwater!
Will there be a possibility of getting ROV footage or pictures of the 1860 steamer ‘Onondaga’? Her spectacular explosion and subsequent discovery has always left me yearning to see more than just the scratchy sonar image of her at lake bottom. Although today the Onondaga may just be a broken keel sticking out of the lake bed, she’s the perfect representation of when steamboats ruled Seneca lake. Hopefully some consideration or care can be brought to this extraordinary steamer, and
won’t be left forgotten in a old 2012 article. I hope the research and the exploration of Seneca lake has yelled a vast amount of history to explore.
In 1939, my uncle Capt. John Roberts had his 30 ft. speedboat sink while carrying passengers. The Stroller took aboard passengers and Capt. Roberts ran sinking boat toward Painted Rocks on east side of Seneca. Engine died before he could beach, and boat sunk. Attempts to salvage were called off by my grandfather when a hard hat diver almost perished trying to reach the wreck, lying upside down in over 100 foot depth. The speedboat may be a Sea Lyon, very rare.
also this lake has a rise and fall to it, how do i know this is because my grandfather had thermometer tied on to a line at the end of his short pier and some times it was slightly under water and other times it was at least a foot or more. when we as kids were allowed to use the old boat( as a row boat)we were made to and when we beached the boat we were made to pull it up far enough to prevent water enter in the stern. even if we were going out it after lunch. one day we didn’t pull it up far enough the water rose along with with some small waves and we went swimming to grab the bow rope (whew) would we have been in big trouble if our parents found out..
Great story and history of a “Great” Lake. I grew up near Galveston, Texas so I’m familiar with some shipwreck stories. While dredging in Galveston Bay for a deeper channel to accommodate the super tankers bringing oil to be refined, a Civil War ship was discovered.
The history of commerce in Seneca Lake is so very fascinating and important. Loved the story.