For more than two hundred years the story of the Tioughnioga has been the saga of the development of America as early pioneers made their way north to settle New York’s frontier.
But even before that, the Tioughnioga was part of a larger story of geological history — the result of the glacial epoch or Pleistocene Ice Age that created the uniquely beautiful Finger Lakes region and carved out its prominent curving ridges, sculpted hills and lake basins. The ice sheet that once covered the region in innumerable small glaciers moved slowly over a nearly million year period through highland areas, forming and reforming, while deepening valleys, steepening hillsides and excavating natural basins for the thousands of lakes and gorges that imprint the region. Flowing silently and slowly farther down valleys, rock fragments from this long excavation deposited ridges of stones and boulders along valley margins, while meltwater streams coursing away from the glaciers carved out the Tioughnioga and Susquehanna River basins. The scenery of the region is made even more dramatic by ridges, sharpened to steep crests by more than a million years of frost, making the region’s glaciated hills and small mountains different from those that have never known glaciers.
Cortland, "The Crown City of New York," sits amid the convergence of seven of these glacial valleys at the northern end of the Allegheny Plateau. Its elevation makes it one of the highest cities in the state.
The same glacial flow carried deposits from the Tioughnioga and Susquehanna basins more than 400 miles south to the Chesapeake, carving out a river corridor that reaches the sea at what is now Havre de Grace, Maryland. It was the Tioughnioga’s significance as the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay that brought the first settlers to what is now Cortland County in 1791.
These waters became preferred travel routes for both native Americans and early European settlers. When settlers needed access to the ocean for their merchandise, the natural Tioughnioga and Susquehanna valley route through the Appalachian plateau and mountains became the roadway to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It was natural for this point of convergence to become a center for meetings, commerce, and settlement. The first Europeans were obliged by the rough, rocky, and heavily wooded landscape to use the river for their travels, and the first settlers, Amos Todd and Joseph and Rachel Todd Beebe paddled up the Tioughnioga in 1791 to the junction of the two branches of the Tioughnioga where they built a crude shelter before moving to what is now the Village of Homer. Other communities along the river trace their beginnings to the same early settlement pattern.
The landing at the junction of the two branches of the river quickly became a center of great activity, particularly after Elkanah Watson bought land in 1805 and laid out a checkerboard of streets and lots which soon became Port Watson, the leading port north of Binghamton for shipments to 'southern' markets. Before long Port Watson became the thriving community that is now the City of Cortland. Log rafts and "arks" began their voyages down river from the port, and boat yards, a tannery and a rope walk across the river marked the site. Grain, potatoes, salted beef or pork, potash, gypsum and whiskey, as well as dried apples, maple sugar and other items produced in the county were exchanged in Harrisburg, York and Baltimore. Still other craft carried gypsum and salt from Ononodaga to Port Watson which was the head of navigation. Long before the Erie Canal, these waters were one of New York State’s primary commercial waterways.
By the mid 1800s, the Tioughnioga rail corridor also began to develop as one of the earliest rail corridors ever built in America. When the railroad industry was only 24 years old - long before rails crossed the Mississippi River - civic leaders in Central New York banded together to connect Syracuse and Binghamton by rail as part of a through route to Montreal, Philadelphia and south. Completed in 1854 and later named the Syracuse, Binghamton & New York Railroad (SBNY), control of the line passed to the DL&W in 1869, and service and capacity were continually upgraded in the early decades of the twentieth century as the railroad became an important carrier of Pennsylvania coal, products manufactured in Syracuse, Cortland and Binghamton, as well as regional agricultural products such as milk.
Today, the Tioughnioga rail corridor (known as the Syracuse branch) is owned by the New York, Susquehanna & Western (NYS&W) and is one of the few rail lines remaining in the nation to provide historically accurate passenger services to the public. The NYS&W’s Tioughnioga rail corridor is one of less than 10 rail operations across the United States and Canada that can still provide a ride in historically accurate equipment, and one of only a small handful of operations that features an original steam locomotive. In that sense, the Tioughnioga corridor is one of the last remaining glimpses into American rail history. And, it is fitting that the NYS&W is one of the key partners in the BDC/IDA’s modern-day Tioughnioga redevelopment effort.
A Community Partnerhip
The BDC/IDA invites your participation. Contact us to learn more about the project, or to become involved...
Cortland County Waterfront Development Commission
Cortland County BDC/IDA
Cortland, NY 13045
(607) 756-5005
(607) 756-7901 fax