Imagine the pristine beauty of this area when the Cayuga Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) occupied this land. With abundant natural resources – fish, game, and native foods to harvest, the Cayuga and Seneca people found this land and its waters along the south shore of Lake Ontario to be not only bountiful, but beyond scenic – a part of nature with which they were one.
The first white settler in the area that is now the Town of Huron was Captain William Helm, from Virginia, who arrived here around 1800 with some seventy slaves, settling at the head waters of Sodus Bay, in the area now known as Resort. The first task the slaves had to tackle was to clear the land of the forest so fields could be planted. The brutal winters, lack of food, wilderness animals like bear, wolves, and panthers, as well as their unfamiliarity with the skill of cutting timber, made the first year for these settlers intolerable. By the second year, Helm, with most of his slaves, removed to Bath, NY where conditions were more civilized.
The Old Town of Wolcott, established in 1807, included the present towns of Butler, Huron, Rose, and Wolcott. Obadiah Adams, a Wolcott resident, was one of the shakers and movers of his time. He operated enterprises which included a mill, a distillery, and a tavern. When the stagecoach road between Rochester and Oswego was completed, Adams bought land on the east side of the Great Sodus Bay and built a shipping community there, from which he exported produce and goods to Canada and down the St. Lawrence. The success of Adams’ company made this area one of the busiest shipping docks on Lake Ontario. Unfortunately, his success did not last long. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825. Very quickly shipping activity was drawn away from the northern communities along Lake Ontario, including Sodus Bay, to the safer and faster Erie Canal route.
In 1826, the towns of Butler, Huron and Rose, seeking recognition in their own right, separated from the Town of Wolcott by an act by the New York State legislature on February 25, 1826. The Town of Huron, then Port Bay, Butler, and Rose each became fully organized on April 3, 1825. The name Port Bay was changed to Huron on March 17, 1834, in honor of the Native American Huron Nation, whose people lived across Lake Ontario in Canada. The Town of Huron consists of approximately 21,800 acres of land. The town is bordered on the north by Lake Ontario. Great Sodus Bay extends into the town from the northwest corner. East Bay extends into the town from the north and Port Bay extends into the town from the northeast corner. The lakeshore rises in a series of bluffs (drumlins) – the most impressive being Chimney Bluffs with an elevation of 175 feet above the lake.
Around the same time the Town of Port Bay was established, in February 1826, a unique religious group, the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming, or Shakers, purchased a tract of land consisting of a little more than 1,331 acres, part of which was located in the western portion of the Town of Port Bay, at what is now known as Alasa Farm/Cracker Box Palace, Shaker Heights, and the surrounding area. The Shaker community believed in equality of the sexes, industriousness, honesty and self-sufficiency. The Sodus Shakers were the first to package seeds for sale and established a successful business, earning a reputation for quality.
The Shaker Community was not to be long lived in Wayne County. Lyons attorney, William H. Adams was an enthusiastic supporter of the Erie Canal. He and others in the area had a dream to build another canal from the Erie Canal in the Town of Galen to Sodus Bay. It was reasoned that a canal to Sodus Bay would develop a port that would outrival Rochester and Oswego. The route of the proposed canal went right through the Shaker Tract land – in Huron. Concerned for the future of their community, the Shakers reluctantly sold the property in Wayne County, moving to Groveland in Livingston County in 1837.
Over time, Huron has been the site of interesting people and events. But at its core, Huron has developed and remains a predominantly agricultural area with fruit farming and processing the two major industries. With three embayments and lake shore, the Town of Huron is also known for its resort properties, and as an avid recreation area for boating, fishing and other water sports, as well as hunting, hiking, and sightseeing. On the shore Lake Ontario, Chimney Bluffs State Park offers visitors exceptional views of the lake from the shore, as well as from the 125-foot bluff. A spectacular vista for sunsets over our Great Lake Ontario.
Historical Narrative – Sculpted from material by former Huron Historian, Carol Flint, with additional material by Huron Historian, Rosa Fox