An Embarrassment of Riches: The 2022 Seneca Lake Survey Yields Remarkable Results 

By Art Cohn, Principal Investigator; Seneca Lake Archaeological Survey and Affiliated Scholar at the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University

ERCA_enews_SENECA LAKE, Sloop Island canal boat wheel

The recent “never-before-seen” images of the Universe sent back to earth by the James Webb telescope had their parallel on the Finger Lakes this summer when the multi-beam sonar aboard the RV David Folger revealed “never-before-seen” images of the underwater topography of Seneca Lake.

Our research team completed a sophisticated multi-beam sonar survey of the entire lake’s depth and topography (bathymetry), as well as an inventory of sunken canal boats and other submerged cultural resources. These surveys built upon successful fieldwork conducted in this deep, glacial lake in 2018, 2019, and 2021.

When we began the 2022 survey, we had only imaged approximately 30% of the lake-bottom and therefore had about 70% left to complete this task. Our partners at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation were intensely interested in revealing bottom features that would permit a more informed strategy for future environmental planning. From this same survey, the NYS Canal Corporation and New York Power Authority were already ecstatic that more than a dozen intact, first-generation canal boats, like the Packet Boat discovery announced in 2021 by Governor Kathy Hochul, were already providing new historical canal perspectives for the Bicentennials of the opening of the Champlain (1823) and Erie Canals (1825).

To maximize the public value of the survey, these two agencies are working with the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor to develop a new curriculum based on the humanities and science lessons provided by the Seneca Lake Survey. Finally, the new shipwreck discoveries have also provided the NYS Office of Historic Preservation a treasure trove of new cultural sites for the NYS Cultural Resource Inventory (CRIS). As we have frequently observed, these shipwrecks in New York State waters are public resources and “We can’t manage what we don’t know is there.”

The 2022 survey has been a profound success. It was completed ahead of schedule, under budget, with new and significant geo-physical observations made and dozens of new shipwreck targets located. Our emphasis this season was to complete the sonar-data capturing portion of the survey and this was accomplished. We did not, however, anticipate the large number of potential shipwreck sites to be found and now find ourselves with some 25-50 promising new cultural-origin sonar targets to be examined and identified.  Based on these stunning results, we are now planning to put together a “target verification” program for this fall.

Stay tuned for further updates in future Erie Canalway newsletters or through the Finger Lakes Boating Museum website.

ERCA_enews_Seneca Lake_Students learn about the project aboard the research vessel

Erin Hogan, a project sonar specialist, with Dr. Tom Manley to her left, explains to a group of 6th grade students from the Seneca South Middle School in Ovid what the sonar data is teaching us.

ERCA_enews_Seneca Lake_Sonar image of a sunken canal boat

This intriguing multi-beam sonar target of a presumed 19th century canal boat on Seneca Lake’s deep bottom is one of the sites the team hopes to examine further with the ROV.

ERIE CANALWAY NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR, August 2022