Great Genesee Road

Many centuries ago, it was a Native-American path binding the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Then the trail became the principal overland conduit of the 17th and 18th-century North American fur trade. The Dutch turned the footpath into a cart track. The British and French turned it into a battleground. After the Revolution, the first homesteaders came to know it as the Genesee Road, leading them to a land of milk and honey in the western Genesee River Valley. Rambling across New York’s pastoral countryside from Schenectady, through Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and ending in Buffalo as its “Main Street”, Route 5 travels through layers of history and stories of a restless, young America. Featuring rich storytelling, generous illustrations, historical and contemporary photographs, and detailed maps old and new, The Great Genesee Road is a fascinating trip through the making of New York State, the expansion of a young country, and a piece of history that readers can still explore today. ,