July 2 Sightseeing Activities – Oneida Lake
We spent 3 days and 2 nights in the East Syracuse, NY area. This blog post is a continuation of sightseeing activities on Sunday, July 2 (day 2 of our weekend getaway). In previous blog posts, I wrote about an unplanned stop in Manlius NY and a planned stop at Chittenango Falls State Park.
From Chittenango Falls State Park we drove to Verona Beach Lighthouse and then drove around Oneida Lake. A friend suggested that we visit The Wild Animal Park in Chittenango NY, en route the lighthouse. We planned to visit the animal park but opted not to do so, when we saw how busy it was! We were stopped for several minutes in traffic that was entering the animal park.
According to a Wikipedia article, Oneida Lake is the largest lake entirely within the state of New York. The lake is about 21 miles long and about 5 miles wide with an average depth of 22 feet. The shoreline is about 55 miles. While not included as one of the Finger Lakes, Oneida is sometimes referred to as their “thumb”. Because it is shallow, it is warmer than the deeper Finger Lakes in summer, and its surface freezes solidly in winter.
The Verona Beach Lighthouse is one of three identical lighthouses on Oneida Lake. The other two lighthouses are located in Brewerton and Frenchman’s Island. The Brewerton Lighthouse was constructed to mark the juncture of the western end of the lake with the Oneida River. The Frenchman’s Island Lighthouse was constructed to mark a pair of islands in the southwestern portion of the lake. The Verona Beach Lighthouse was constructed to mark the entrance to Wood Creek Canal from the eastern end of the lake. We saw only the lighthouse at Verona Beach.
approximately 85 feet tall.
Leaving Verona Beach, we began our drive around Oneida Lake. We stopped for lunch at Y HILL Express, located in Blossvale at the intersection of Routes 49 and 13. Bob had a chef salad for lunch, with a big chocolate chip cookie. I had a tuna melt sandwich with a soft serve twist ice cream cone. Lunch was good and our least expensive meal so far on this trip.
We made two other stops, while driving around Oneida Lake.
We stopped at Lakeview Park in Cleveland. The park overlooks Oneida Lake.
This lovely gazebo honors those who died on September 11, 2001.
Our last stop, during our drive around Oneida Lake, was in Brewerton. We visited the Oliver Stevens Blockhouse Museum on the grounds of the former Fort Brewerton. You may read all about Fort Brewerton and the blockhouse by clicking here.
The Oliver Stevens Blockhouse houses a museum with collections of local artifacts, including native materials. Here are a few photographs inside the museum. All photographs were taken on the second floor of the museum.
These arrowheads were found on the Fort Brewerton grounds
and nearby locations.
From Brewerton we continued our drive around Oneida Lake to Bridgeport, where we headed south to Green Lakes State Park — the subject of my next blog post about our weekend getaway to the East Syracuse, NY area.
The Beauty Around Us 
2 Responses to “July 2 Sightseeing Activities – Oneida Lake”
Hello Linda, I lvoe the lighthouse and views of the water. Beautiful collection of photos.
I love the block house home! We have one in Muskegon but it was used as a small fort on a dune over Lake Michigan. I like it as a home better! that is one cool place!