May 17, 2012Steamboat Landing
Located at the Municipal Boatlanding
These steamboats were all built in Jamestown, Lakewood, Mayville and the Bemus Point area. Largest was the Jamestown (earlier called the Nettie Fox) 175 feet long, its three decks built to carry 3,000 passengers. Record show that in one season, 1907, there were 279,924 passengers aboard these steamboats.
Chautauqua Lake, cradled in the Chautauqua hills, was even more picturesque when its steamboats sailed its waters for more than a century.
Churches, factories, loges and clubs chartered the larger steamboats for picnics from the Boatlanding to Long Point and later to Midway Amusement Park. At times, on reaching their docks, the steamers had scarcely been anchored and the gang plank put in place when eager picnickers would jump over the boat rail and race for the choicest picnic tables. Band music made these rides more festive, especially on moonlight excursions, popular among young and old.
Steamboats also carried summer residents to Chautauqua Institution form various points along the lake. At Mayville two steamers often awaited the Pennsylvania trains when rival crews race their boats to get to Chautauqua Institution first. People, trunks and luggage were herded on board.
For years trolley lines extended to the end of the long Celoron Park dock. Celoron was the first stop after the steamboats left the Boatlanding for a winding trip through the Outlet’s wooded area.
President U.S. Grant, the first of nine U.S. presidents to visit Chautauqua Institution, made his historic trip August 15,1875, the second year after the Institution’s founding, on a gaily bedecked Josie Bell, a smaller steamer, and one in a flotilla of colorful boats bringing crowds to Chautauqua on that much publicized day. The last of the coal-fueled steamers, City of Jamestown, made its final public run in 1958.
The Boatlanding was served by railroad and streetcar lines which were the Chautauqua Lake Railroad 1887 – 1894; Jamestown and Chautauqua Railroad 1893 – 1901; Jamestown and Lake Erie Railroad 1901 – 1913; Jamestown, Chautauqua and Lake Erie Railroad 1900 – 1913; Chautauqua Traction 1903 – 1926; Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern Railroad (electric) 1913 – 1950. As early as 1884 horse-drawn street cars of the Jamestown Street Railway Company (electrified in 1891) also served the Boatlanding until 1938.
STEAMBOAT LANDING
FROM HERE BEGINNING IN 1828, FIFTEEN TWO AND THREE DECKED STEAMBOATS PLIED THE WATERS OF CHAUTAUQUA LAKE CARRYING UP TO A QUARTER MILLION PASSENGERS IN A SINGLE SEASON TO HOTEL DOCKS, PICNIC AND ENTERTAINMENT SITES.