Chautauqua Institution, where I’ve spent a number of my summer
vacations over the past two decades, is, in the best sense, a throwback, a link
to Victorian America. But two weeks ago, when I was up there yet again, I found
yet another throwback, a few miles south of it.
My friend Leslie told me about Stow Ferry, which operates from Bemus Point. It has transported
passengers at the narrowest point on Chautauqua Lake since 1811, making it not
only older than Chautauqua by six decades but older than the Erie Canal, the
great waterway that opened up the interior of New York State, by more than a dozen.
Different forms of power have been used at the ferry
over the years: oars, poles, steel cables, steam, gasoline, and diesel. The
ferry endures now largely because of The Chautauqua Lake Historic Vessels Co.,
a non-profit corporation devoted to preserving historic vessels on this body of
water to which visitors still feel an almost mystic connection.
Liberty Lighthouse is located adjacent to the Bemus
Point-Stow Ferry (the subject of one of my posts yesterday), and down the road several miles from Chautauqua Institution (which I have written
about innumerable times, including this year).
