Local authors’ new book highlights Fulton’s Lake Neatahwanta and Recreation Park
By Stefan Yablonski
“Hiding from the River: A History of Lake Neatahwanta and Recreation Park” was co-authored by Jim Farfaglia and Timothy Carroll. The book was launched April 24 at the War Memorial — on the banks of Lake Neatahwanta.
“I teamed up with fellow Fultonian Tim Carroll to write a history of our city’s Lake Neatahwanta and Recreation Park,” Farfaglia explained. “Tim and I took a deep dive into history to create the first book of these two gems.”
The title of the book comes from their research on the true translation of the Onondaga word Neatahwanta into English. They go into more detail about how they came to that conclusion in the book, he added.
Profits from the sale of the book will be donated to Fulton events located at the lake and the park, he said.
Farfaglia and Carroll graduated high school together.
“The seed for this book was first planted when Jim and I collaborated on a short booklet for our 50th class reunion a couple years ago. It was titled “Time in a Bottle” and highlighted what was going on in our lives in our high school, in our hometown and in the wider world during our high school years from 1969-1973,” Carroll said. “Everything from the first day of high school, to the first fast food restaurant to open in Fulton, to Woodstock, the first man on the moon, the war in Viet Nam. It was meant to call up memories, give us a perspective on all the years that had passed and give us things to talk about during the reunion events. It was very well received.”
“It was fun and we really enjoyed it. I’ve never worked with anybody on a book before. So we thought we’d do a project together,” Farfaglia explained.
“While I’d done a lot of technical writing over the years as an ecologist — environmental impact statements, summary reports to various government agencies, research papers, procedures and such — I’d never written a book. After the experience of working together on the reunion book, Jim asked if I would be interested in collaborating on a more substantial book in the future. I agreed; we tossed around a few ideas, but never came up with anything worth pursuing,” Carroll said.
“We chose this topic because we both have fond memories of the lake — also because we are concerned about it and want to support it. He has been involved with the lake — trying to restore it for probably 30 years. He’s the brains behind this book, I’m the storyteller,” Farfaglia said of his co-author.
Park and lake go hand in hand
It was around October 2023 that they both attended a public information meeting regarding potential reclamation efforts to restore Lake Neatahwanta. It was well attended by local residents, many of whom took the opportunity to share concerns memories with the elected officials, their representatives and scientists who sat at the head table during the meeting.
“Jim and I spoke after the meeting and were impressed by both the positive energy and memories expressed by local residents. A couple days later, Jim called and suggested writing a book about Lake Neatahwanta. I quickly agreed and we began researching and writing around November 2023,” Carroll said.
The tome is about the lake and the park. Originally, they thought it would just be about the lake.
“Jim and I met during the fall of 2023 to talk about how to write the story of the lake and quickly realized we couldn’t tell that story without including Recreation Park. That being said, we divvied up topics to research — mine being more science-based and his of a more historical-personal memories perspective,” Carroll said. “We shared info we found in our own research if it was more applicable to each other’s topics.”
“The park and lake go hand in hand,” Farfaglia said. “Many community events including the Cracker Barrel Fair, sporting events, bands and singing groups used to play there. The Memorial Day parade ends there.”
Live music at the book’s launch welcomed people and there was also a segment where they played in homage to the famous Big Bands like Tommy Dorsey and Ozzie Nelson that once appeared in the lakeshore park’s auditorium, Carroll added.
“I personally have a long history with the lake going back to my childhood and I was a member of the first reclamation committee formed in January 1988 to address issues with the lake,” Carroll said.
“It has an interesting history that neither of us really knew about — because we’re not that old yet,” Farfaglia quipped.
“After several months of us researching, writing, rewriting (lots of rewriting!), critiquing our own and each other’s words, reorganizing and rearranging chapters, we had an acceptable draft in January of this year. It really was a collaboration and several of the chapters were mashups of things we had each written separately. And yes, Jim did give me several pointers. Especially helpful were his suggestions on how to bring the reader into the story and how to make the reader care about what was written,” Carroll said. “In the end, it was a truly collaborative effort and I believe we were able to tell the story of the lake and park with one voice.”
Carroll went way back into the history. The book begins with the Ice Age (believe it or not) and talks about how the lake was formed.
And then he followed it through some of the early groups and tribes that came through the area.
Then Farfaglia picked it up when farmers founded what was called an agricultural society.
“Oswego County Agricultural Society had an annual fair. They used to move the fair around to different parts of the county. But people loved the location right there (Recreation Park). I’m talking the mid-1800s. So they adopted that as their park for that fair,” Farfaglia said. “For 40, 50 years that was the fair to go to in all of Central New York; it was before the state fair got established. There were 20,000 to 30,000 people attending that fair.”
