Seneca Lake (New York) - Painted Rocks

Painted Rocks

The painted rocks located at the southern end of the lake on the eastern cliff face depict an American Flag, Tee-pee, and several Native Americans. As the story goes, back in the late 18th century when General John Sullivan was avenging the Wyoming and Cherry-Valley Massacres, he chased a group of renegade Native Americans, up from present day Athens, Pennsylvania (then known as Tioga Point) through the valley, to a point somewhere along the cliffs. The Indians escaped down a narrow footpath to canoes that they had hidden earlier in the underbrush. They used these canoes to paddle across the lake to safety. Later they came back and painted these paintings in commemoration of their escape. The paintings found along the bottom of the cliff are the originals, the American flag and the tee-pee were added in 1929 during the Sullivan Sesquicentennial.

The painted rocks may not be authentic Native-American paintings as the Seneca Indians lived in longhouses not the tee-pee used by western Native-American tribes. Historian Barbara Bell suggests that the paintings may have been made for tourists on Seneca Lake boat tours