History
Flock rests on ~200 acres of breathtaking land in the southern portion of the Finger Lakes of New York—a region rich in geological history—shaped and sculpted by the hands of glaciers.
The land is centrally located in what is known as “The Emerald Necklace”, an impressive forested mosaic, which arcs around the city of Ithaca, and contains more than 50,000 acres of conserved land—stretching from the Finger Lakes National Forest in the west to Hammond Hill and Yellow Barn State Forests in the east. The area is considered “a world-class ecological, recreational and educational resource” and contains 35 free pubilc nature preserves, 50 miles of walking trails, and nearly 18,000 feet of protected lakeshore. Every year, around 1,000 more acres become further protected within this vital area where Flock sits.
Image from Finger Lakes Land Trust Article.
After two years of searching for land in the Finger Lakes region we were able to secure this little slice of heaven. This area of land likely took a while to have any permanency in settlement due to its remote location, dense forest, and its distance to a major river system. This area in particular was known by the Onödowá’ga:’ as “Shades” due to its dense tree coverage and ultimately proved to be quite the obstacle for many. There were a few paths that traversed across the surrounding area prior to the Revolutionary War, most of which originated at Painted Post, now located in Steuben County, New York.
Directly prior to our stewarding of the land, part of the area was managed as a well-respected garden center and container nursery for 28 years. Before that, however, it primarily lay fallow and had one condemned house in the 1970s. Given the even-aged stands (~60-70 years old) of a good portion of the forest, it is evident that it had been cleared in the 1950’s and used for marginal grazing lands and lumber harvest in the late-1800s and into the mid-1900s. A few individual trees and older growth forests on highly sloped land have seemed to stand through the test of time and have been estimated at around 200-300 years old (Mike DeMunn, Onödowá’ga:’ forester, in conversation, 2021).
The first record of deeded land specifically on the land that Flock now sits was in 1861, which sold for a total of $500, which would be $14,705 in today’s dollars.
This parcel of land was part of a survey known as the Watkins and Flint Purchase that divided the larger area into twelve townships, which in turn was subdivided into quarter townships. It was bounded north by the Military Lands retained for grants to Revolutionary War veterans and to the northwest by the “Purchase of James Watson” and to the west by the “Preemption Line” and the Gorham and Phelps Tract. The entire Watkins and Flint Purchase comprised parts of modern day Tompkins County, Tioga County, Schuyler County, Chemung County, and the towns of Newfield, Danby and Caroline.
Given the history of the land, it’s forested nature, poorer soil quality and its distance to major river systems, there likely were no known permanent or semi-permanent First Nation settlements, though it’s plausible it could have served as ancestral hunting lands most likely for the Susquehannocks and perhaps even for the Onödowá’ga:’ and Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ to the north or the Lenape to the East. Based on what is known from history and archaeology, homeland territories for many groups were not immutable through time and fluctuated in relation to neighboring indigenous peoples (J.C. Lothrop, Ph.D., Curator of Archaeology, New York State Museum, in email 2022).
During the American Revolution, General George Washington appointed General John Sullivan and James Clinton to head the Sullivan Expedition, which was a brutal military campaign mobilizing 6,200 troops that razed and decimated almost 50 native villages in the greater Finger Lakes area. The military campaign did not traverse this land according to historic maps, likely because there were no permanent indigenous settlements. Instead, the troops marched from Easton, Pennsylvania and followed the northern branch of the Susquehanna River northward, largely targeting the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ, some of whom were able to escape to Canada. However, there has been a recent and uplifting revival of some native Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ rematriating to the Finger Lakes area—northwest of the Finger Lakes National Forest—and are working to reestablish some of their cultural heritage that had gone missing for nearly 200 years.
Native lands of the Finger Lakes region.