No trace of the old road is visible from across the lake (left), but its approximate route appears as a white line. The center scene shows it descending to Spafford Landing, with the cliffs appearing at the left of the photo. The view at right shows where the last vestige of the road at Spafford Landing disappears into the forest.

 

 

The road through Spafford Landing still follows the route seen in the old photo above, although the small saplings in this photograph have grown to make the point more wooded. The point is also more populated with modern cottages, of course. The road from Glen Haven descends from the cliffs at the lower left corner. The photo below was taken looking southward (to the left, above) from the road back towards those cliffs. The road ascends again up to Morris Run behind the steep slope at the right edge of the photo.

 

 

What was the purpose of such a difficult road? As evident in the older view, there was not much settlement at Spafford Landing. There were docks, however. One shows in the black-and-white photograph. Probably the steep road up the hillside served farm wagons, bringing grain to load at Spafford Landing onto steamboats, bound for the village of Skaneateles. Mills had long been established there, since the late eighteenth century.

Why was Morris Run abandoned? Local recollection is that when automobiles supplanted horses, the new machines could not cope with the steep grade the way the horses could. When the horses disappeared, so did Morris Run.

 

Old photographs and maps are reproduced from the collection of Bill Hecht.

New photographs and comments by Paul Malo, with help of Barbara Shoemaker, Town Historian.

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