Editorial of May 16, 2024

Tough Travels

Among the many scenic routes in this state, the two lake roads we have at the northern end of the county, the longest in an area of beguiling lakes and inviting lake roads, wind courageously up and down Otsego Lake. They are pretty spectacular. They give us, at different times and from different vantage points, remarkable bird’s-eye views of the often sparkling but occasionally threatening waters –we can peer endlessly all the way up, or all the way down, the lake –and intriguing close-ups, where we can look the flourishing flora and fauna right smack in the eye. But it was not always like this.

The first lake road was built on the east side in 1787, specifically for the wife of William Cooper, who strongly objected to returning to Springfield by canoe. This road was crude, but nevertheless strong enough for Mrs. Cooper’s coach and horses, who were stabilized by men walking alongside holding ropes attached to the top of the coach to keep it from tipping over. This first road lasted a mere five years, but another attempt was made in 1795: two dirt tracks with some grass between them, built near the ridgeline high above the lake to lessen the need for bridges across the many streams. James Fenimore Cooper used this road in the mid-19th century to reach his Chalet Farm, just under what is now Star Field. The road was paved after World War II and the Pathfinder bridge was fixed for the first of a number of times. Recently a few parts of that section of the road, high up on the ridgeline, have come tumbling down into the lake, causing chaos and closure.

Until the early part of the 19th century, there was no road along the west side of the lake, until at long last the State of New York chartered the Otsego Lake Turnpike, in 1818. This road took a rather circuitous route from Cooperstown to Springfield, beginning in the village and then moving up along a ridgeline to Pierstown, on what is now the Pierstown Road, and then on to Richfield Springs by way of Rum Hill. There is an arm of the road that goes back to the lake, dropping down through Mohican Canyon on what is now Canyon Road, to Five Mile Point, where the Five Mile Point House (later called the Tunnicliff Inn) welcomed travelers. The final portion of the Turnpike, also called the Springfield Turnpike, went north from Five Mile Point to Springfield, where it terminated at the Third Great Western Turnpike, coming from Cherry Valley. (This turnpike follows roughly a stretch of our present Route 20; Route 20 now runs from New England to the Pacific Northwest.)

Farther south, Thayer’s Hotel at Three Mile Point was reached along the lakeshore from Cooperstown, but this is where the road from the village stopped. Perhaps the area along the lake north of Three Mile, to Five Mile, with many cascading streams flooding the roadway and a steep shoreline falling into the lake, was not good terrain for a stable road.

The West Lake Road, as we know it, began as a plank road, built between 1850 and 1870 on the site of the Otsego Lake Turnpike but also including the lakeside stretch north from Three Mile Point to Five Mile Point, providing transportation for stagecoaches, and tourists, to and from Cooperstown from Fort Plain, in the Mohawk Valley. These roads were of heavy planks about five feet in width laid atop timbers, with space on either side for drainage ditches and for passing, with privately-owned tolls every three miles or so. Considered at first to be the answer to road construction, sadly, but predictably, they did not weather the mud and rain of upstate New York, and they soon deteriorated, giving way to the early macadam roads, which were constructed of layers of gravel.

In 1924 the state began to give numbers to certain highways, and in 1930 the West Lake Road became part of NY State Route 80, which stretches from Nelliston, on the Mohawk River, southwest along the lake to Cooperstown, and then west to Tully and finally north to Syracuse. This is what we have today—a beautiful West Lake Road, with a few issues. Along with its sister road to the east, there are increasing problems with slope stabilization, especially between Three and Five mile points on the west and near Pathfinder on the east, where the underlying soil conditions do not support the weight they are being asked to bear; the drainage is equally impossible, due to the steep slope of the terrain. Relentless truck and bus traffic has several times broken up the lake side of both of these roads, causing road and lane closings in each, often for many months, and questioning whether large vehicles should be using them.