The Resort Era

The Resort Era. . , Onondaga Lake was once the "Coney Island” of Central New York, with a number of resorts and amusement parks established along the western shore from 1875 through 1920., The Maple Bay Hotel, with a beach, large dancing pavilion, and vaudeville theater that could seat 2,500, was known as "the king of all summer resorts.", Rockaway Beach was geared toward sportsmen, catering to duck hunters and ice boaters. Menu specialties included whitefish, samphire (an indigenous salt marsh plant resembling asparagus), and duck shot by owner Joseph Hecker and his son., White City Amusement Park, illuminated by over 25,000 electric lights, flourished from 1906 until 1915. The famous "Shoot the Chutes” water ride carried guests in a hollowed out boat into a man-made lagoon., The last remaining resorts, Pleasant Beach and Rockaway, were demolished in the mid-1950's to build the new Route 690. Today, the nearby Route 690 passes over the rubble of the Rockaway, whose toppled concrete pillars near the shoreline and crumbled pier on the lake bottom are the only remaining evidence of this unique resort.