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.

What is the group’s 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.

Why the interest in the Backbone Ridge 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's Happening Now! Survey workers, paid by grant money the group received, are out in the community asking 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. The group is also pulling together a third grant funding request package. The Schuyler County Historical Society is the lead agency for this grant round.

Press Releases

Interlaken Historical Society Receives NYS Grant to fund historical records search December 2008	Interlaken Historical Society Receives Grant October 2007
Oral History Workshop September 2007	Success Story - History Seminar (Feb 2007)
Success Story - Grant Award (Oct 2007)	Success Story - BRHG Partnership (Feb 2007)
Success Story - Oral History Training (Oct 2007)	"Uncovering the History of the Backbone Ridge" written by Seneca County Historian Walter Gable, April 2009

Letters to our members

October 6, 2008	March 12, 2008
November 21, 2007	April 2, 2009

Public Events
Open House at SUNY Archaeology Lab 2008
Feb 17th 2007 History Seminar
Collecting Oral History Workshop Sept. 2007
History Seminar 2007 with Carol Kammen and Tanya Warren
Nov 15, 2007 Public Lecture - Dr. LouAnn Wurst at Ulysses Historical Society Bldg in Trumansburg
2008 Public Lecture - Dr. LouAnn Wurst at Schuyler County Bldg
Pancake Breakfast 2008

Find Your Family Name!
Listing of names by town showing land purchases under Bankhead-Jones Tenant Act (which ultimately formed the Finger Lakes National Forest)

Relocation Report on the Hector Project dated 11-14-41
Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

Historical aerial maps from 1938 - Seneca County

Doing Genealogy? Our Finding Aid will be coming soon. If our third grant request gets approved, we will be able to publish a Finding Aid that will help people locate photographs, letters, diaries, and other valuable documents.

How do I share my information or volunteer to help?
If you’d like to share stories, information, or pictures, please contact us! We also need volunteers and are eager to welcome new members!
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

Links:
Schuyler County Historical Society
Seneca County Historian's Office
Interlaken Historical Society and Farmer's Museum

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

A photograph of the former Red House Country Inn. Photo compliments of Joan Martin.