Memories of the Calls 19 - Silver Lake in June
A great event of the summer was customarily annual trip for the young people to Silver Lake. It was usually held the latter part of June when the farm boys would set a date, and then there was great preparation. The best horse and buggy were shined up, and while the girls looked after their dresses, baked their nicest cakes and prepared their choicest picnic edibles. In the early morn the boys starte out, each for his best girl and drove the twenty miles or more. They usually went to Walkers, where there were rustic seats and tables where the picnic lunch could be spread out and partken of, and there were facilities for caring for the horses. Sometimes a small steam boat was chartered and the party rode around the lake on that. But always they went rowing on the lakes, and weren't they delighted when they found some water lilies! Often the girls had sunburnt cheeks and noses the following day.
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Patty's notes on this entry
Silver Lake is located in Wyoming County, New York. The towns of Silver Lake, Castile and Perry (where the Call's Cole cousins lived) are on the lake. Silver Lake is located about 20 miles from Stafford where the Call's lived.
Walkers may refer to the area where the Walker Hotel was located. The original hotel burned in 1857, and was associated with the legend of a sea serpent in the lake in the 1850s. When the hotel burned, firemen discovered the remains of a canvas sea serpent. The Walker's had created a monster to boost tourism. I've seen photographs from the 1900's labeled Walker Hotel, Silver Lake so I assume it was rebuilt after the 1857 fire.
Steamboats have been used to transport people and goods on New York's lakes since 1817. During the late 1800's and early 1900's - an afternoon cruise on a lake steamboat was a popular summer activity.
While I don't know what steamboats were on Silver Lake in the 1870s and 1880s - they may have been something like the Horicon, which ran on Lake George as seen in the photo from 1880.
Credit: Lake George, New York: the Horicon steamboat showing a clear reflection in the water. Photograph, ca. 1880. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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Patty's notes on this entry
Silver Lake is located in Wyoming County, New York. The towns of Silver Lake, Castile and Perry (where the Call's Cole cousins lived) are on the lake. Silver Lake is located about 20 miles from Stafford where the Call's lived.
Walkers may refer to the area where the Walker Hotel was located. The original hotel burned in 1857, and was associated with the legend of a sea serpent in the lake in the 1850s. When the hotel burned, firemen discovered the remains of a canvas sea serpent. The Walker's had created a monster to boost tourism. I've seen photographs from the 1900's labeled Walker Hotel, Silver Lake so I assume it was rebuilt after the 1857 fire.
Steamboats have been used to transport people and goods on New York's lakes since 1817. During the late 1800's and early 1900's - an afternoon cruise on a lake steamboat was a popular summer activity.
While I don't know what steamboats were on Silver Lake in the 1870s and 1880s - they may have been something like the Horicon, which ran on Lake George as seen in the photo from 1880.
Credit: Lake George, New York: the Horicon steamboat showing a clear reflection in the water. Photograph, ca. 1880. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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