The Goodyear family donated some of their land on the shore of Otsego Lake to Glimmerglass Opera and also to SUNY Oneonta as a field station. The GoodYear Swamp Sanctuary is open to the public dawn to dusk. There are five acres of wetlands with developed trails and boardwalks and a guide book available at the trail head sign in.
Local Events
Like people for generations before us, we are drawn back to the Butternut Valley. We visit Morris, birthplace of the Linn tractor and home to the Otsego County Fair. We also travel further south through the valley to Gilbertsville. It definitely feels like Brigadoon! Not only does the village seem to magically appear as you travel along Highway 51 (like it was dropped here from another place and time) but also, like the musical, its enchantment saved it from destruction. The characters in Brigadoon can never leave or the enchantment will be broken, Gilbertsville's "enchantment" beckons people to stop and many choose to never leave.
There's a new trail that takes you from the village of Old Forge (trail head just behind the school) to the McCauley Mountain Ski Area. This trail is for hiking, biking and cross country skiing. It takes you along an old tow path used by downhill skiers in the 1930s & 40s, before the McCauley Mountain was established. You can see some old downhill ski equipment along your hike, like an old truck that was retrofitting with a shive to tow skier up the hill so they could ski back into town. Die-hard skier would hike beyond the tow hill to McCauley, carrying their skis on their backs.
Polar Bear Ski Club Annual Consignment Ski and Pre-season Pass Sale
Saturday, Nov. 7th 9am-noon
McCauley Mountain Ski Area, Old Forge
There's a new restaurant in East Utica adding a new flavor to the great variety of cuisine this part of the city is known for. The Phou family treats you like family and serves up authentic South East Asian food especially Cambodian. The name of the restaurant is significant to his family. As the Lotus flower rises from the muddy waters, Mr. Phou's restaurant is a dream realized -a dream that began when his family fled to the United States from a war-torn Cambodia in the 1970's. Learn more about Cambodia in my "blog" at the top of the page.
Visit them on facebook
St. Patrick's Day Dinner Sunday, March 14
Noon
American Legion Post 161
Depot St., Holland Patent
History of CNY
Baseball Players
Sunday, March 14th
2pm
Presented by Richard Hunt, Education Chairperson, Society of American Baseball Players
Clinton Historical Society, Clinton
Chief Big Way
Sat., March 13
at 9pm
The Wander Inn
Constantia
General Jacob Morris is believed to be the first European to attempt navigation of the Butternut Creek. The creek still runs through this community as does the bloodline of the Morris Family. Carla Hall Friedman is a direct descendant of the general and is the co-founder
Canal Place
Little Falls
See what's cooking at
Leatherstocking Ballet Company
Alice in Wonderland
March 20 at 1pm & 7:30
Clinton Perfoming Arts Ctr Tickets 724-4000
The Village and Town of Morris were named for General Jacob Morris, son of Lewis Morris, a signer of the declaration of Independence.
Morris
Birthplace of the Linn Tractor
It's hard to believe we'd never heard of the Linn Tractor before our MV Living adventures. On our travels over the last several years we have met collectors and enthusiasts. When you talk to an owner about their Linn, their eyes sparkle and they talk with child-like excitement about their tractor. So it was a thrill for us to visit the tractor's birthplace!
Mr. H. H. Linn came to Morris with his traveling dog & pony show in 1915 and set up "under the canvas" for a couple nights. It was here that he began work on his "dream machine" -a small, gasoline-powered half-track with a flexible traction system.
More Linn Tractor info: gasengine.farmcollector.com
Great old Linn videos! www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzbCW5Vsb_A www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzbCW5Vsb_A
Morris Tent Rentals
Otsego County Fair
Before Morris even became a village, it had ita annual county fair and cattle show. It is still home to the Otsego County Fair visited by 50,000 people each summer. This year the fair is August 3-10http://www.otsegocountyfair.org/
Everyone knows the fair has arrived when the colorful tents appear on the fairgrounds. The tents for the fair and for many other events throughout the region are made right here in Morris at Morris Tent Rentals. Morris Tent Rentals makes tents in a number of shapes and sizes.
Morris and Cooperstown share a tragedy
From Bob Thomas' website
On a September day, Hannah Cooper, sister to James Fenimore Cooper, was riding her horse along what is now Highway 51 to see here betrothed at Morris Manor. En route, her horse bolted and she was thrown and killed. Both communities mourned the loss. She was buried in the Cooper Family burial ground in Cooperstown. A monument was also placed at the site where she "was translated from this world."
Gilbertsville
Travelers through the Butternut Valley cannot help but stop and tour the village of Gilbertsville. If not for the local efforts to save the valley from a dam project this entire village would be under water. The village in its entirety is on the National Register of Historic Places, one of only two of its kind in the nation at the time! The Story by historian Leigh C. Eckmair
Walking Tour
Take a walking tour of Gilbertsville, have lunch at the Value Way Grocery Store in the Gilbert Block -historic but alive, visit the Gilbertsville Free Library, built of stone as a school in the early 1800s. Visit The Major's Inn, a great time to go is during the Morris Men's visit, April 17-18.
Spring is the perfect time to visit Southwind Farms, there are lambs and kids everywhere! Southwind Farms is only source for purebred Golden Guernsey Goats in the U.S., but they are most famous for their Standardbred horses. Among their stars is Chocolatier, the 2009 Hambletonian Winner and 2 YO Trotting Colt of the Year 2008 and quite a few other million $+ winners!
We meet the senior ballet dancers of The Leatherstocking Ballet Company during their rehearsal for their upcoming major stage production of Alice in Wonderland
March 20th
1pm & 7:30pm Clinton Performing Arts Complex
Tickets: 724-4000
EMMI
BEADS
Dragonfly
Design Studio
Saturday, March 20Leprechaun Stroll
& Potato Cook-off
12:00am -4:00pm
