The Finger Lakes are a chain of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York that are a popular tourist destination. The lakes mainly are linear in shape, each lake oriented on a north-south axis. The longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in America. Both are close to 40 miles (64 km) from end to end, but never more than 3.5 miles (5,600 m) wide. Cayuga is the longest with 38 miles (61 km), but Seneca the largest in total area. Seneca is the deepest (618 feet, 188 m), followed by Cayuga (435 feet, 132 m), with the bottoms well below sea level. These largest lakes resemble the others in shape, which collectively reminded early map-makers of the fingers of a hand.
The fourteen lakes located in the Finger Lakes region are: Seneca, Canandaigua, Skaneateles, Owasco, Otisco, Cayuga, Conesus, Honeoye, Hemlock, Canadice, Keuka, Oneida, Cazenovia, and Onondaga. The following counties of New York State make up the Finger Lakes region: Seneca, Cayuga, Cortland, Livingston, Monroe, Onondaga, Ontario, Oswego, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tompkins, Wayne, and Yates.
Finger Lakes cities and larger villages are situated at the head and foot of most major lakes: Skaneateles, Auburn, Ithaca, Geneva, Watkins Glen, Penn Yan, Hammondsport and Canandaigua. These historic communities with scenic situations all are tourist destinations, as is the village of Aurora, which is situated on the east shore of Cayuga Lake, and Naples, located about five miles south of Canandaigua Lake.
The City of Ithaca (named for the Greek island of Ithaca) of Ithaca and Tompkins County sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York State, USA. It is best known for being home to Cornell University—an Ivy League school with almost 20,000 students (most of them studying on Cornell’s Ithaca campus). While Ithaca College is located just south of the city in the Town of Ithaca, the college is strongly linked to the city, further adding to Ithaca’s strong “ college town” focus and atmosphere. The City of Ithaca is the center of the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area (which also contains the separate municipalities of Town of Ithaca, Village of Cayuga Heights, Village of Lansing and other towns and villages in Tompkins County). The city is the county seat of Tompkins County. In 2000, the city's population was 29,287, and the metropolitan area had a population of 100,135. 2004 estimates puts the city population at 29,952, an increase of 2.3%.
Letchworth State Park is a New York state park located 35 miles (56 km) south of Rochester, New York. The park is roughly 17 miles (24 km) long, covering 14,350 acres (22.42 square miles or 58.07 km²) of land along the Genesee River. Within the park there are three large waterfalls on the river and perhaps as many as 50 waterfalls found on tributaries that flow into it; the gorge formed by the river, with rock walls rising up to 550 feet (170 m) in places and which narrow to 400 feet (120 m) across above the middle of the three falls, prompted the area's reputation as the " Grand Canyon of the East". The three major waterfalls — called the Upper, Middle, and Lower Falls — are located in Portage Canyon, the southern section of the park. The Seneca nation called the land around this canyon "Seh-ga-hun-da", the "Vale of the three falls"; the Middle Fall ("Ska-ga-dee") was believed to be so wondrous it made the sun stop at midday.
- February 5, 1915 – Death of Ross Barnes (born 1850 in Mount Morris, New York), star of baseball's National Association and the early National League
- February 15, 1820 – Birth of Susan B. Anthony (pictured), an American civil rights leader who was influential in the women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States
- February 18, 1979 – Record low temperature of -26 °F (-32 °C) recorded in Syracuse, New York
- February 22, 1839 – Birth of Francis Pharcellus Church in Rochester, New York – an American publisher and editor
- February 29, 1944 – Commissioning of USS Cayuga County, an LST-491-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II
Otisco Lake is one of the minor Finger Lakes, located at the eastern end of the Finger Lake District, southwest of Syracuse, New York. Otisco Lake is approximately six miles (9.8 km) long. The outflow enters first Onondaga Lake via Nine Mile Creek and then Lake Ontario via the Seneca and Oswego Rivers. The lake is the source of water for a district west of Syracuse. At its deepest point the lake is approximately 60 feet in depth. Part of Otisco Lake is man-made, due to raising the water level by damming the outlet into Nine Mile Creek. The dam initially was constructed to provide a water reservoir for the Erie Canal. The water level was raised nine feet at the time. Subsequently the dam was rebuilt, raising the level an additional four feet.
Joseph Smith, Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, also known as Mormonism, and an important religious and political figure in the United States during the 1830s and 1840s. In 1827, Smith began to gather a religious following after announcing that he had discovered and was translating a set of golden plates describing a visit by Jesus to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, near Manchester, New York. He published these in 1830 as the Book of Mormon. The plates' title page indicated the book was to be entitled the Book of Mormon: An account written by the hand of Mormon, upon plates taken from the Plates of Nephi. Translation was completed around July 1, 1829, and the Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830, with the financial assistance of Martin Harris. Smith also organized a denomination of restorationist Christianity, began preparing a new Bible translation, and directed followers to the western outpost of Jackson County, Missouri, where he planned to establish a Mormon utopian society.
- Place the {{WikiProject Lakes}} project banner on the talk pages of all articles within the scope of WikiProject Lakes.
- Article development: Improve an article on one of the Finger Lakes
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- Requested articles: Cascade, New York, Fall Creek (stream), Glenora Wine Cellars, Heron Hill Winery, Ithaca Falls, Keuka Spring Vineyards, McGregor Vineyard Winery, Onondaga Salt Springs, Ravines Wine Cellars, Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Rooster Hill Vineyards, Stever Hill Vineyards, Times-Union Tract, Wings of Eagles Discovery Center
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