Information Leads

Name/Organization:

Burdett Ladies Aft. Club

Searsburg Comm. Church

Schuyler Co. Historical Soc.

Hector Grazing Assoc.

Hector Presbyterian Church

Presbyterian Cemetery Assoc

Hector Union Cemetery

Mecklenburg Cemetery

Logan Cemetery Carleton Fenton

Hector Tire

Montour Library

All area libraries

Reynoldsville Church

Reynoldsville Cemetery

Reynoldsville Commun Club

20th Century Club

Earlier Granges

4-H Local Clubs County Fairs

Sons of Union Veterans

Perry City Church

Horticultural Society-Ulysses

Horticultural Society-Hector

Searsburg Grange

Hector Grange

Covert Grange

Interlaken Grange

Reynoldsville Grange

1-Room Schoolhouses

FFA

Farm Bureau

Sportsmen Clubs

Sheep Growers Association

Hector Fruit Growers Assoc

Dairy Co-Op

Store in Searburg

PTAs - Burdett

Red House Country Inn

Wickhams and other farms

Undertakers - Burdett

Interlaken Newspaper

Trumansburg Newspaper

Ray Dan store

Feed Store - Watkins Glen

County Highway Depts.

Local Telephone Co. Direct

Railroad and Stations

Cornell University Archives

New York State Archives

All local Historical Societies

Digs in FLNF - artifacts

Native American Organizations

Burdett Presbyterian Church

Town and Village Historians

Hazlitts

Pauline Burr

Edith and Ed Foster

Jerry Messmer

Ruth Wagner

Bond Family

Alta Boyer

Mark Murphy

Bill and Dave Wickham

Telephone Operators

Becky

Keith Vanderzee

Don Shannon

Carleton Swick

Holland Smith

Mark Brown(Bud Adams son)

Barbara Bell

John Knight

Joanna Weatherby

Bill Fletcher

Bill Ellis

Marjorie Bleiler

John Wertis

Richard Cook

David Smith

Roy and Connie Ike

John Feller

Walt Hollien

Bruce Adams

John Hart

From our Official Brochure

Group Mission:

To identify and facilitate public access to sources of information documenting the history of the people, communities, and lands in and around the Finger Lakes National Forest and promote the study of this history.

History Matters!

Please share your stories, photos, and information. Help us save your history for generations to come.

How can you help?
To volunteer to help with the project, please contact Kari Lusk at the below address.

We have the following committees established and invite you to join us:
1. Steering Committee
2. Oral History Committee
3. Interpretation and Education Committee
4. Communications Committee

How do I share my information?

If you’d like to share stories, information, or pictures, please contact us!

Kari Lusk, Finger Lakes National Forest
(607) 546-4470 or klusk@fs.fed.us

Allan Buddle, Interlaken Historical Society (607) 532-4213 or orchardland@zoom-dsl.com

Andrew Tompkins, Schuyler County Historical Society, (607) 535-9741 or info@schuylerhistory.org

Did the group receive a grant, and what is it for?

The group was awarded grant funding to determine what kinds of historical documentation exists in the community and where it is. Local survey workers will be out talking to people and community organizations to see what kinds of information they have.

The Backbone Ridge History Group is grateful to the New York State Archives, a unit of the State Education Department, for awarding this grant under their Documentary Heritage Program. The grant provides an opportunity to begin the process of documenting the important history of the Hector Backbone and its impact on the surrounding communities.

What is the Backbone Ridge History Group?

The Backbone Ridge History Group is a grass roots organization that formed to collect the history of the land and people between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, in and around the area that is now known as the Finger Lakes National Forest (FLNF).

What is the Backbone Ridge?

The Backbone Ridge is the name given to the hilltop ridge that runs between Seneca and Cayuga lakes, and through the center of the national forest.

Why focus on this area?

The group is very interested in this area because the Backbone Ridge was once heavily populated with people, farms, and towns.

Between 1936 and 1940, the Resettlement Administration purchased more than 100 farms on the Hector Backbone in Seneca and Schuyler counties.

This New Deal program was designed to aid economically stressed families and to conserve natural resources by removing lands with poor soils from agricultural production. Most of the homes and barns were razed, some of the land reforested, and some of the land remained as pasture. The FLNF is comprised of these farmlands, and remnants of the past such as old stone walls, cellar holes, stone foundations, wells, and cemeteries dot the landscape.

What does the group plan to do this year?

Talk to community members and organizations and collect oral histories.

Hire survey workers to go out into the community and ask people and organizations if they have historical resources such as diaries, photographs, and books that will help us understand the lives of the people that once lived on the Hector Backbone.