What a treat to find this little museum tucked away in the Finger Lakes wine country of New York! Located in Hammondsport, NY, on Keuka Lake, it contains living history of the many motorized adventures of Glenn Curtiss from early motorcycles to airplanes. I believe the man was a daredevil, in fact, in 1907 he was recognized as the fastest man on earth by attaining the speed of 136.4 MPH on his V-8 powered motorcycle. Not that impressive by today’s standard, however picture a V-8 engine strapped to
a bicycle frame and you get the idea of what a scary ride that must have been.
My central fascination was with the large collection of early Curtiss airplanes. After blowing away the land speed record in 1907, he followed it up with flying his “June-bug” in 1908 and earned pilot’s license #1. Not to be confined to mere land, he mastered landing on water which later began an association with the US Navy. In fact, he is recognized as the father of Naval Aviation.
Hammondsport is also home to the Dr. Frank Winery, producers of one of my favorite white wines, Salmon Run Chardonnay. We had a tour, sampled some of their varietals and boxed up a case of new wines to try.
On the northern edge of Lake Keuka, is the village of Penn Yan made famous by its boat and canoe building. If you think the name is odd, it was a compromise of Penn to honor Pennsylvanians and Yan, short for Yankees. Boat building ceased operations is 2001 but the town is still a vibrant community and home of Birkett Mills processing buckwheat since 1797, over two hundreds years of delivering a quality product to the marketplace. Who knew?
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