In June of 1968, the last lad walked out onto the Glen Haven Schoolhouse porch singing “School’s out for summer… School’s out forever,” and tossed his lunch pail into the air. A geocacher might look for the evidence of this event by locating that very lunch pail nearby (and that looks a lot like a lock & lock container). Four years later, Alice Cooper would score a mega hit with the song.
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The Glen Haven hamlet nestles the shore of Skaneateles Lake by the north town line (known as Glen Haven on the western shore, Fair Haven on eastern shore).
The scenic hamlet includes the original home of The Glen Haven School and Public Library. This historic library building recalls borrowers from earlier days, when a large resort hotel attracted visitors arriving on the southern end of Skaneateles Lake by steamboat. The Glen Haven Sanitarium and Summer Home, established in 1847, offered water cures for the treatment of a variety of ailments. The school was the last functioning one-room schoolhouse in Cortland County. These days the site continues to inspire with programs for all ages and as the home of the Glen Haven Historical Society.
Down the road and nearby this geocache one can find the Fair Haven Marina, the Glen Haven Inn, and some excellent fishing. Grout Brook, which flows into the south end of Skaneateles Lake, is a premier rainbow trout fishing spot, especially in early spring when trout head upstream to spawn. Bring a canoe, fishing pole, your curiosity, and perhaps dinner money to enjoy this “secret” hideaway.
It was at this southernmost point of Skaneateles Lake that local lore says a rotund young native maiden, advised by a tribal elder, sought to manage her weight by swimming the length of the lake. Upon exiting the waters at the north end of the 16-mile lake she is purported to have happily exclaimed, “Skinny at last!” And thus the lake was named, some insist.
- SC