New York › County

Ontario County

Kanadesaga (Geneva), the Seneca capital of the 1700s, and Canandaigua on the Central Trail west of the lakes.

Ga-nun-da-sa-ga, Kanadesaga, stood on the rise northwest of the head of Seneca Lake where Geneva now is; in the eighteenth century it was the principal Seneca town in the east. From it the Central Trail ran west to Ga-nun-da-gwa, Canandaigua, at the north end of that lake, then on through Bloomfield toward Avon and the Genesee, the line of NY-5/US-20 and the old Ontario and Genesee Turnpike.

The sheet draws the Canandaigua outlet flowing north and east to the Seneca River, Honeoye Lake (Ha-ne-a-yeh) and Canadice in the southwest, and Keuka Lake (O-go-yo-ga) on the county line. Canandaigua was the site of the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua between the United States and the Six Nations, still commemorated each November.

Trails through the county

  • The Central Trail: Onondaga to Canandaigua — The western half of the Iroquois Trail across the Finger Lakes: Marcellus, Skaneateles, Auburn, the Cayuga crossing, Seneca Falls, Geneva and Canandaigua.
  • The Genesee valley — The trail down the Genesee from the falls at Rochester through Avon, Geneseo and Mount Morris to Nunda, Caneadea and the Allegheny.

Sources

Updated 2026-09-17. Positions on the overlays are accurate to the map's stated error (about 5 km for the 1851 map): read them as which valley, not which lot.