History of Chautauqua Lake

(This historic information is from a report on the lake prepared by the late John Luensman, who was Chautauqua County planning director.)

There is some evidence that the Paleo-Indian may have camped and forged in the Chautauqua Lake watershed in the pre-8000 B.C. time period. The most dominant artifacts in the watershed are from the late Woodland (prehistoric) culture from A.D. 800 to 1650. This period of time was closed out, some researchers believe, with the defeat of the Erie nation of Indians and their replacement by the Seneca Indians around 1650.

This historic records of Chautauqua County note many areas around the shore and within the watershed of the lake which contain much evidence of this prehistoric occupation. The records note the location of small camps, longhouse areas and villages and the recovery of large quantities of pottery shards, stone and flint tools, net sinkers, flint debris and native burial graves. There are indications that, at some point, the Village Park at Bemus Point may have been used as a pottery-making site. Well-drained, gravelly loam areas were cultivated by these native people throughout the period just preceding and beginning historic time.

We do not know what the Chautauqua Lake level was prior to James Prendergast's construction of dams in 1811 and 1812. It may have been several feet lower than the 1308 foot average summer elevation that we have become accustomed to (provided through the assistance of the Warner Dam on the outlet of the lake).

E.R. Warren notes that someone using the lake and river prior to the development of the Jamestown settlement may have influenced the level of the lake by placing a dam-like structure across the Chadakoin River. Holes (which presumably supported the dam) remain in the shale above the rapids of the lake's outlet as evidence of this structure. An attempt to identify the lake shore boundaries at the Busti-Ellicott town line and Ellery-Ellicott town line from Holland Land Company field notes suggests that the location of the boundaries at these points has not changed appreciably over the last two centuries.

All of the county histories are replete with detail relating to the harvest of forest products by early European settlers as a means to earn hard cash, and the additional clearing of watershed lands for farming purposes. Such deforestation created a dynamic change in precipitation runoff rates, erosion, and nutrient loading. The resulting eroded material is now resident in the bottom of the lake.

The first historical accounts of Chautauqua Lake document the lake as part of a portage system from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River Basin. Chautauqua Lake was also used as an industrial energy water supply and a means of moving the lumber of the watershed to markets downstream. With the advent of the steam engine, Chautauqua Lake became an exciting recreational area. Meshed with the development of the steam engine, of course, were the steamboats of the lake as well as the railroad industry. The use of steam in these two modes of transportation permitted access to and on the lake and stimulated large hotel construction in Lakewood, Bemus Point, Chautauqua Institution, Mayville, Point Chautauqua, Wooglin and several other points. Before and at the turn of the century, these were the attractive recreational accommodations for Chautauqua Lake. The advent of the steam engine also stimulated an ice harvest industry which serviced (via the steam engine) distant areas.

A review of plot maps of shoreline developments provides indications that much of the shoreline development (individual cottages, many of which became year round homes) began with land speculations between the turn of the century and the completion of a new Warner Dam in 1919. In several instances, such development included the construction of canals where the material taken from the canals was used to raise the level of the land. The major examples of this type of development are at Maple Bay, Vukote, Bonita and Shadyside. Any increase in leisure time for the general public brought another pulse of development around the shores of Chautauqua Lake.