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CoOPCRST OWi'
OTSEGO LAKE
BEING A DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OP THE PICTURESQUE VILLAGE
AND THE “ GLIMMERGLASS,” SCENIC ATTRACTIONS IN
THE VICINITY, VIEWS, RAMBLES. DRIVES,
ETC., ETC., ETC.
1891:
C. H. POSSONS, Publisher,
GLENS PALLS, N. Y.COO?£k£foWr/

0TSEGO LAKE, made memorable by J. Feuimore Cooper
in his “Leatherstocking ” tales, has come to be a great
Summer Resort, and thousands of people yearly view
its charms. The lake—Cooper’s “ Glimmerglass	and
the section immediately adjacent proves a Mecca to the inva-
lid. Cooperstown, at its southern end, is 1200 feet above the
sea ; the climate is dry, cool and bracing, and great numbers
of people spend the sultry months of summer here, where the
city pallor is speedily exchanged for the rosy hue of health.
Cooperstown is easy of access. From New York the tourist
has the choice of two routes, viz.:	New York Central & Hud-
son River Railroad to Albany, Delaware & Hudson Railroad
to Cooperstown Junction, Cooperstown & Susquehanna Valley
Railroad to Cooperstown. Or, take Hudson River Steamers
to Albany, thence as above. The second route is: West
Shore Railway to Kingston, Ulster & Delaware Railroad to
Stamford (through cars from New York to this point), tally-ho
coach or livery to Cooperstown Junction, rail to Cooperstown.
There is now under construction a road to connect with the
Ulster & Delaware road, which will give a through rail line
from New York to Cooperstown—time, five hours.
Arrived in Cooperstown the tourist finds himself at a quiet,
yet often gay little centre of intelligence, wealth and culture,
which has grown to be one of the most popular inland resorts
of the Empire State.Otsego Take, being bounded on one side by its shores, and ou
another by its outlet, the Susquehanna River.
Cooperstown is particularly fortunate in the matter of hotels,
and possesses in Hotel Fenimore one of the finest hotels in the
State. Hotel Fenimore is of modern architecture ; is built of
brick and stone, and is conceded by the traveling public to be
equal in its appointments and table to any hotel outside the
large cities. Hotel Fenimore is open all the year. It contains
eighty rooms, nearly all of which are en suite. The ceilings
are high, halls broad, and rooms large. The public rooms are
very attractive in their furnishings, and the guest on entering
the house is impressed with a satisfactory feeling of comfort,
cleanliness and good living while under its roof. As a family
4Cooperstown is the seat of law and order for Otsego County,
and contains a population of about 2600 inhabitants, noted for
their high character, morality and intelligence. It is a village
of handsome residences and pleasant homes, and the hand of
elegant culture is everywhere to be seen. The village has an
excellent^system of water-works, the supply being secured from
Otsego Lake, and the water is considered as pure and whole-
some as can be secured in the State. Coopers town is one of
the most healthful places in the State. During the year 1888
there were but nineteen deaths on the corporation, and but one
under thirty-four years of age—a child three and one half yeans,
at the Orphanage, on the edge of the village, where there has
been an average of seventy-five children. Leaving out that
case, and of the eighteen deceased villagers fifteen were up-
wards of fifty-one years of age, six were from eighty to eighty-
seven, eleven were upwards of sixty-two, the youngest was
thirty-four, and the average age of the eighteen was sixty-five
and one-half years. We doubt whether there is another village
of its size in the State, or even in the Union, that shows as
favorable a report as this; Cooperstown has two Banks, six
Churches,, viz.: Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Univer-
salist, Baptist and Catholic ; a Union School and Academy;
three weekly newspapers ; several literary and secret societies,
and a number of eminent physicians and lawyers.
The Orphanage of Cooperstown is a monument of the noble
heart of Miss Susan Fenimore Cooper, daughter of the great
writer, James Fenimore Cooper. Its doors are open to home-
less children from every part of the Diocese of Albany, and it
is under the management of a board of trustees, of which
Bishop Doane, of Albany, is*President.
Cooperstown is beautifully placed at the southern end of
3hotel the Fenimore is remarkably well fitted, suites of any
number of rooms being furnished, thus affording the occupants
nearly all the comforts and conveniences of home. The furni-
ture is alike in all the rooms of the house; each room has its
separate steam-heat radiator ; is lighted with gas ; is connected
with the office by electric bell; and, best of all, every room
opens to the daylight. Running water, bath-rooms and closets
are on each floor, and, from a sanitary standpoint, the house is
perfect. The interior of Hotel Fenimore has been freshly
painted and renovated, and the house is in the very best con-
dition.
f*^i\in\or£ Cottage
On the west of the Hotel, and just across Chestnut Street,
are the Fenimore Cottages, three in number, combined under
one roof. These Cottages contain thirteen rooms each, and
5are rented for the season. They embrace suites that are very
complete, being steam-heated, and each suite having its bath-
room with hot and cold water. There is a lawn in front of the
Cottages, affording ground for lawn tennis.
As a Summer Resort Hotel Fenimore is known far and wide,
and is increasing in favor each year. The guests of the Feni-
more come from all sections of the country, and the Hotel is
the summer home of many celebrities.
The proprietor of Hotel Fenimore is Mr. Jesse B. Brown, a
hotel man of many years’ experience. He is a natural land-
lord, affable and agreeable, and is solicitous for the comfort of
guests.
Ot^go
Otsego Lake extends, in a direction from north northeast to
south southwest, about nine miles, and varies in width from
about three-fourths of a mile to a mile and a half. It has many
bays and points, and, as the first are graceful and sweeping
and the last low and wooded, they contribute largely to its
beauty. The shores are generally high, though greatly varied.
On the eastern side extends a range of mountains that varies
in height from four to six hundred feet. A road along this
side of the lake is peculiarly pleasant, and traveled persons
call it one of the most strikingly picturesque roads within
their knowledge. The western side of the lake is also high.
Immediately opposite to the village, on the eastern side of
the valley, the range of mountains terminates, heaving itself
up into ah isolated hummock, however, before it melts away
into the plain. The rise is called the '4 Vision,” and its sum-
mit is much frequented for its views, which are unrivalled in
this part of the country. The ascent is easy, by means of roads
6and paths, and when there the spectator gets a bird’s-eye view
of the village and of the lake. The latter in particular is sin-
gularly lovely, displaying all the graceful curvatures of the
western shores, while the landscape behind them, with the
hills beyond, is one of the richest and most pleasing rural
pictures that can be offered to the eye. Nothing is wanted
but ruined castles and recollections to raise it to the level of
the scenery of the Rhine, or, indeed, to that of the minor
Swiss views.
Prospect Rock, which lies on the same range with the Vision,
also offers a good view of the village and the valley, though it
does not command as extensive an horizon as the first.
The mountains south of Cooperstown form a background of
great beauty, and it is seldom that a more graceful and waving
outline is met with anywhere. The Black Hills in particular
are very fine, and are nearly a thousand feet above the level of
the lake.
The facilities for navigation on Otsego Lake are manifold.
Besides the trim little steamers “Natty Bumppo” and the
“Pioneer,” which ply regularly up and down the lake, con-
necting at its northern end with a well-equipped line of stages
and four-in-hands for Richfield Springs, there are neat little
steam launches, the “Gem” and “Deerslayer,” always at the
service of private parties, and fleets of row-boats and sailiug
yachts, daintily painted and well furnished, lying at the village
docks, at the service of pleasure seekers.
To a lover of the beautiful a visit to Otsego Lake would be
interesting even if it had no associations. Cooper bestowed
upon* it in The Deerslayer the name of the “ Glimmerglass,”
which well describes its loveliness. The visitor comes to
Cooperstown, upon its shores, to see the spot where Cooper’s
7house stood. The house has been burned down and the place
neglected, but there are signs everywhere of the honor in
which that novelist is held by the people. The hotels partake
of his name. The steamers plying up and down the lake
derive names from his novels. There is a “ Leatherstocking
Falls,” and everywhere the nomenclature of the region is
derived from his pages.
The entire action of Deerslayer passes either upon the lake
or its immediate shores. Two-Mile Point, on the western
shore, is where Deerslayer and the Big Serpent landed to rescue
Wah-ta-Wah from the Hurons. A mile further is Three-Mile
Point, where Deerslayer first killed an Indian. The little
promontory is now a site for picnics. Five-Mile Point is a
favorite rendezvous for visitors. Back of the Point is a pictur-
esque rocky gorge called “Mohegan Glen,” through which
runs a purling brook. “ Hutter’s Point,” just above, is where
Deerslayer first saw the “ Glimmerglass. ” North of here most
of the exciting scenes of the book are laid. Out in the center
of the lake is a white barrel- buoy, which marks the spot where
“Muskrat Castle” stood. The waters of the lake, in most
other places of great depth, here shoal to but a few feet, make
it well adapted for such a structure. The lake here attains its
greatest width, stretching from Hutter’s Point about two miles
into Clarke’s Bay, overlooking which, on the slopes of Mount
Wellington, the walls of the English manor house, “Hyde
Hall,” peer forth among the darkling pines. Passing down
the lake from Hutter’s Point, and just at the entrance to the
river, we find the rounded, beehive-shaped rock designated by
Deerslayer as his point of meeting with Chingagook, well
known to all the Indians in that part of the country as a place
of rendezvous.
IO“Kingfisher Tower,” erected by Mr. Edward Clark, in 1876,
on Point Judith, about two miles up the lake, adds much to the
picturesqueness of the lake scenery. This tower consists of a
miniature castle, after the style of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, standing upon the extremity of the Point, and rising
out of the water to a height of nearly sixty feet. The effect of
the structure is that of a picture from mediaeval times, and its
value to the lake is very great.
t>i5tai\c;^5 ar\A. I^la^s of Ir\t^r^5t
The numerous points of interest about Cooperstown, with
distances from Hotel Fenimore, are :
Far View Road, in rear of Cooper house, fifteen minutes’ '
walk.
Cooper’s grave, Episcopal Church yard, five minutes’ walk.
Site of Otsego. Hall (Cooper’s home, ) five minutes’ walk.
Hannah’s Hill, west side of the lake, thirty minutes’ walk.
Lakewood Cemetery, east side of the lake, thirty minutes’
walk.
Prospect Rock, east side of the lake, forty minutes’ walk.
Mount Vision, east side of the lake, forty-five minutes’ walk.
Cooper’s Monument, in Lakewood Cemetery.
One-Half-Mile Bay, west side, one-fourth mile.
Lakewood Cemetery Landing, east side, one-fourth mile.
Fairy Spring, east side, one-half mile.
The Echo and Natty Bumppo’s Cave, east side, one mile.
The Grove, west side, one and one-half miles.
The Cascade, south side of Mount Vision, one and one-half
niles.
Point Judith, east side, two miles.
11Water Lily Bay, west side, two and one-half miles.
Wild Rose Point, or Three-Mile Point, west side, three miles.
Deer Brook (the Dugway), east side, four and one-half miles.
Live-Mile Point, west side, five miles.
Canyon, at Five-Mile Point, west side, five miles.
Gravelly Point, east side, six miles.
The Shoal, site of Muskrat Castle, west side, seven and one-
half miles.
Head of the Lake, nine miles.
The Chalet, Cooper Farm, two miles.
Susquehanna Valley View, two miles.
Leatherstocking Falls, two and one-half miles.
Mohegan Glen, three miles.
Hartwick Cemetery, four and one-fourth miles.
Hartwick Lakes, five miles.
Clarksville, six miles.
Mount Otsego (sixty mile view), seven miles.
Westford, or Moose Hill, nifie miles.
Pierstown Hills and back by lake shore, ten miles.
Cherry Valley, thirteen miles.
Richfield Springs, twelve and sixteen miles.
. Around the Lake, twenty miles.
Middlefield Center, seven miles.
Milford, eight miles.
Sharon Springs, twenty miles.
BOAT LANDINGS.
Foot of Fair Street—Dock of Steamers “ Natty Bumppo ”
and “ Pioneer.” Kelly’s Dock—Sail, Row and Fishing Boats.
Foot of Pioneer Street—Cooper’s Dock, Sail, Row and Fish-
ing Boats. Dock of Steamer “ Gem. ”
12Foot of Say Street—Potter’s Dock, Sail, Row atid Pishing;
Boats. Steam Yacht “ Deerslayer.”
CHURCHES.
Christ Church (Episcopal), River Street; Rev. Charles S.
Olmsted, Rector.
Presbyterian, Pioneer Street; Rev. James Otis Denison,
Pastor.
Universalist, Pioneer Street; Rev. S. W1 Sutton, Pastor.
Methodist Episcopal, Elm Street; Rev. T. F. Hall, Pastor.
Baptist, Elm Street; Rev. B. G. Boardman, Pastor. *
St. Mary’s (Catholic), Elm Street; Rev. Daniel O’Connell,
Pastor.
Y. M. C. A.—Rooms corner of Main and Fair Streets ; open
day .and evening. H. J. Wilkins, General Secretary.
t)riV^5 ai\&
A series of delightful drives may be taken about Coopers-
town, each possessing its peculiar charm. Among them we
will mention the following :
Up the west side of the lake, to the first road on the left;
take that, and each succeeding left hand road, until you re-
enter the village. Distance, about eight miles.
Up the west side of the lake, till you reach the second road;
on through Pierstown, till you reach the first road running
towards the lake; that terminates at Five-Mile Point; south
along the lake until you re-enter the village. Distance, about
eleven miles.
Up the east side of the lake, about three miles, take the road
leading across the mountain, and which affords some of the
finest views of the lake ; turn to the right on reaching the val-
Gley beyond, and return to tbe Fenimore by the “ Vision ** foad,
Distance, about nine miles.
Down the River road, west side, about three miles; cross the
Valley by the first road, Phcenix Mills bridge; return to the
village by the road on the east side of the river ; or, continue
on down the river about six miles from the Fenimore, to the
Clinton factory, and cross there.
Down the River road to the first road on the fight; take that
through Toddsville, and return to the village by taking either
a road over the hills, two turns to the right, or turn to the left
and come back by way of the River road. The latter is about
seven miles ; the former about eight miles.
Down the River road to the road next below Hartwick Sem-
inary ; turn to the right; at the top of the hill you reach two
beautiful little lakes. The view from this point, of the lake
and village of Cooperstown, is a very fine one.
Cross either bridge at the village, into Middlefield; turn
south, and then drive around the “beaver meadow,” going one
side of the hill and returning the other. Distance, about seven
tniles.
The drive to “Mount Otsego Observatory,” about eight
miles north of the Fenimore, affords one of the best and most
extensive views in the State.
“Hooker Mountain ” is ten miles south, and rivals “Mount
Otsego ” in variety and extent of prospect, many of the prom-
inent peaks of the Catskills being visible on a clear day. In
going, take the road through Westville, and return by the
“gulf,” on the direct road to Schenevus*
“Moose Hill,” near the line of Middlefield and Westford,
about eight miles southeast of the Fenimore, affords an exten-
sive view of a beautiful section of Country. _	-
*4tn driving to Richfield Springs it is well to go by Way of the
lake to Five-Mile Point, and over the hills to that noted resort}
Of, through Pierstown and over Mount Otsego ; return by way
of Schuyler’s Fake. Or, take the lake boat and tally-ho
coach. There are several other routes to Richfield.
In driving to Cher y Valley those who do not know "the
roads to that historic town will do well to follow the selegraph
wires leading there. Or, drive to the head of the lake, turn to
the'right, and on about four miles to the village. Distance by
this route, fifteen miles.
A drive around the lake, distance about twenty miles, is one
of the most pleasant.
The drive to Sharon Springs via Cherry Valley is about
twenty-three miles.
Qoop^r 2V\oi\Un\£i\t
No person will think of Visiting Cooperstown and not see
Cooper’s Monument, in Fakewood Cemetery. The monument
stands on an eminence, about forty feet above the waters of the
lake. It is of white Italian marble, resting on a granite base
. six feet square. The 9haft, including the base, die and cap
from which it rises, is about twenty-five feet in height, and is
surmounted by a richly carved Corinthian capital. Sculptured
on the base is the name only, “ J. Fenimore Cooper,” encircled
with a wreath of oak and laurel leaves. On the north, in high
relief, are naval emblems, illustrating his romances of the sea
and lakes, and his naval histories; the anchor, the oar, the
Indian paddle for the bark canoe, the naval sword and the
harpoon of the whaleman. On the east side are sculptured the
volumes of his works, with pen, inkstand, and 6ft Urn, with
■ *5incense rising. On the south side are emblems illustrating hid
Indian stories; bows and arrows, the tomahawk, hunting-
knife, bear’s claws, etc. Crowning the column is a statue of
the “ Teatherstocking, ” four and one-half feet high. He leans
easily on his long rifle. Clad in hunting-shirt and deer-skin
cap and leggins, his long powder-horn and bullet-pouch swung
around his shoulder, his figure is life-like and full of expres-
sion, His dog is at his feet, looking up into the hunter’s face
with a look so expressive you almost expect him to speak.
A climb up the precipitous mountain side beyond the Cem-
etery is rewarded by a sight of “ Teatherstocking’s Cave.” It
hardly deserves so ambitious a name, being simply a small
opening in the rocks, on which the thin covering of earth sup-
ports a few scraggy trees, or, rather, bushes. Directly oppo-
Bite this cavern, on the lake, a fine and distinct echo is ob-
tained from the steep and rocky shore, calls being repeated up
the mountain almost as distinctly as in the boats of a fishing
party.
The student of Natural History finds Cooperstown and vicin-
ity a favorite locality for the pursuit of his studies and investi-
gations. The number and variety of trees, shrubs, mosses,
ferns, flowers, grasses, etc., growing here is very large, and
not a few of them quite rare. This locality is also visited by a
great Variety of birds, butterflies, moths of the larger species,
etc.
Cooperstown is a favorable location for persons threatened
with pulmonary diseases. Actual tests and comparison have
shown that Cooperstown affords a more uniform temperature
and a dryer atmosphere than many places which boast freedom
from pulmonary complaints. It is very seldom that a case of
consumption is reported in this village.
16under whose direction it was made.