Jim Moore / November 11, 2026
HAMMONDSPORT – As our nation pauses to observe Veterans Day honoring American service members, the quiet waters and rolling hills surrounding Keuka Lake stand as a reminder of the region’s foundational role in United States military history.
Though mainly celebrated for the quiet vineyards and scenic shorelines, the Keuka Lake area served as both the proving ground for American military aviation and an early sanctuary for veterans returning from the nation’s deadliest conflicts.
In Hammondsport, local inventor Glenn H. Curtiss transformed the southern inlet of Keuka Lake into the cradle of modern naval aviation. In July 1911, he demonstrated his Curtiss A-1 Triad, which was America’s first airplane purchased by the U.S. Navy, gliding over the water of the lake and initiating a completely new chapter of military planning. That same summer in the air above Keuka Lake waters, America’s Navy Lieutenant Theodore Ellyson completed his test flight, earning the title of Naval Aviator No. 1.
Just a few miles south, along the old Bath & Hammondsport rail line, the sense of duty transformed into one of long-term caring responsibility. Established in the late 1870s, the New York State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in Bath was founded to provide housing, treatment, and comfort to elderly and disabled Civil War Union veterans. The institution later became the current Bath VA Medical Center. Nearby is the Bath National Cemetery, where thousands of veterans from the Civil War, two World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam lie buried under rows of white headstones.
From being the birthplace of naval flight wings to having provided safe haven and medical honor to successive generations of war fighters, the Keuka Lake corridor has maintained an irrefutable link to the military services through the years.
