Keuka Outlet Trail

Keuka Outlet Trail. . , Where Worlds Met and Penn Yan Grew , 1. This area – surround by Lake, Main and Water Streets – was an early industrial center of the community which became Penn Yan. David Wagener built the first sawmill on the south bank of the Crooked Lake Outlet. The second sawmill was built on the north bank in 1801. , 2. Grist mills, sawmills, carding machines, fulling mills, tanneries, plaster mills, distilleries, woolen and cotton factories, spoke factories, shingle factories, triphammers and about 40 industrial enterprises, along with 12 dams, were situated along the 7 mile long outlet. , With the 1833 opening of the Crooked lake Canal just north of the outlet, the waterway’s ravine bustled with industry and commerce. When the first steamboat – named Keuka – began operating in 1835, the Keuka Lake area was connected to the world by water. The 80-foot long craft was used mainly for the towing canalboats on the lake. Lake boats met up with the canal boats in the stretch of the outlet between here and the boat launch area upstream of the Liberty Street Bridge., 3. By the end of the 1800’s, nine dams remained, with three grist and planing mills in Penn Yan. The only water flow regulation that remains today is the dam on this side of the Main Street Bridge. , By 1844, several products - wheat, corn, barley, oats, butter, cheese, eggs, dried apples, dried peaches, and plums, potatoes and more were shipped to Seneca Lake and beyond on the Crooked Lake Canal., 4. The brown, tan, and red buildings across the outlet now contain apartments, but during the canal days, canalboats floated under a cantilever at the Randall and Eastman Warehouse (the second building upstream from the Main Street bridge) to load products through trap doors. The Randall and Eastman Warehouse is the only canal building left in Penn Yan., 5. By 1875 there were two malt houses on the Water Street side of the outlet and a cooperage on the Lake Street side. When another warehouse on Water Street was remodeled in 1893, a sign was found that read “S.S. Hutchins, keeper of the Fugitive Home.”, 6. After the canal was abandoned in 1870, a group of businessmen purchased the right of way, and completed construction of a rail spur for the Penn Yan and New York Railway in 1884. , The branch later became the Fall Brook branch terminating at the foot of Keuka Lake. The Main Street bridge was completed in 1884 to allow the passage of locomotives.br> Flooding in 1972 damaged the tracks beyond repair, and the road was abandoned in 1974. About 1979, Yates County and the village of Penn Yan brought the right of way from the railroad, and the county’s portion was later turned over to the Friends of the Outlet, who also owned property formerly owned by NYSEG., 7. The stone building across the outlet is the former Penn Yan Gas Light plant, where coal was converted to gas for illumination. It was built in 1899 on the site previously occupied by the H. Tuttle and son Malt House, pictured at left. , A lengthy environmental clean-up project was completed in 2020. , Other businesses along the canalway over the years included a dairymen’s League creamery, and Walker Bin, built as a sash and molding (planing mill) in the late 1800’s, which was run by a steam engine. A portion of the mill’s foundation is visible along the south side of the trail., The large building on both photographs is the H.Tuttle and son Malt House and Wood Storage., By the Numbers , 27 Number of Locks in the Crooked Lake Canal , 40 Total number of mills along the outlet before the Civil War , 12 Total number of dams along the outlet before the Civil War , $10,000 Total canal tolls collected in Penn Yan in 1860 , 15,000 Tons of goods shipped on the canal in 1860 , 19080 Gallons of domestic spirits shipped on the canal in 1860 , 44 Years the Crooked Lake Canal operated; never being profitable , Trail rules and lower map legend was not transcribed.