It was nineteen degrees outside last Sunday when Jeanette and I were headed to Aurora, NY for a late lunch at the Fargo Bar and Grill. We followed State Route 90 down along the east side of Cayuga Lake and as we came into the little village of Union Springs, NY, I spotted a pond filled with Canadian Geese and an assortment of ducks. I turned the car around and pulled off the road.
The pond was covered with geese and ducks, paddling around and talking to each other. This pond I later learned is a spring fed pond which goes way back to 1789 when it was created by damming up the underground springs and the water was used for a series of mills that were erected at this site. The current stone building was built in 1839 by George Howland. Since the pond was fed by underground spring water, the pond never freezes in the winter and the mills that occupied this site could be used all year around. The spring water comes from the hill just on the opposite side of the road. Normally, ground water is around 55 degrees and I am sure that the migrating water fowl soon discovered a nice natural sauna bath for their winter enjoyment!
Much can be learned about the little village of Union Springs by reading the Village of Union Springs Comprehensive Plan (click here). Both the North Pond and the South Pond are classified as Federal Wetlands. The population of Union Springs is listed as approximately 1,010 in the 2010 US census.
Thank you, I’ve recently been looking for information approximately this topic for a while and yours is the greatest I’ve found out till now. However, what about the conclusion? Are you positive concerning the supply?
It’s a spring fed pond. The level of water in the pond depends upon the amount of rain and snowfall during any particular year.
Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Over the summer of 2019, I had my website updated. I have had no complaints in regards to loading problems. Make sure that you are a registered user of my site and that you have a log-in. From there, it’s the speed of your internet service and the type of computer that you have. My computer greatly speeded up when I got rid of the old disk drive and installed a solid state drive memory.