Picturing history: Cayuga Lake

More than 60 members of the church from the area of Colesville, N.Y., left for Ohio in April 1831. After a relatively short overland journey, the Colesville Saints reached Ithaca, N.Y. This town is situated on the southern end of Cayuga Lake, one of the glacial Finger Lakes of western New York state. Here the Colesville Saints could load their baggage and other belongings on a water vessel. This they did on April 25, 1831, when they boarded a boat on Cayuga Lake. Once they traveled the 40-mile length of the lake and reached its northern end, they were able to continue traveling by water over a series of canals, including the Erie Canal. Those waterways would take the travelers to Buffalo, N.Y., the waters of Lake Erie, and Fairport Harbor, Ohio. From Fairport, it was about 12 miles overland to Kirtland, Ohio.