Seneca Lake

About

Seneca Lake is a Finger Lake in central New York state. Spanning four counties—Schuyler, Seneca, Yates, and Ontario—it is the largest of the eleven lake glacial chain, and the deepest glacial lake entirely within the state.

Seneca Lake is 38 miles (61 km) long, has a surface area of 66.9 square miles (173 km2), a maximum depth of over 618 feet (188 m), and holds the most water of all the Finger Lakes (estimated at 3.81 cubic miles (15.9 km3), roughly half that of the entire chain).

Seneca is celebrated as the lake trout capital of the world and hosts the National Lake Trout Derby. Its significant depth and accessibility enable the US Navy to conduct testing and evaluation of range on equipment such as sonar.

The lake takes its name from the Seneca people, who inhabited the land until driven off it by westward colonial expansion. At the north end is the city of Geneva, home of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, a division of Cornell University. At the south end of the lake is the village of Watkins Glen, famed for auto racing (hosting Watkins Glen International racetrack) and waterfalls.

Seneca Lake's unique macroclimate makes it home to over 50 wineries, many of them farm wineries, and is the location of the Seneca Lake AVA and the Seneca Lake wine trail.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.