Not all of the actions that truly change the world happen in big city boardrooms or with much fanfare and pomp, but in quiet little towns like those in the Finger Lakes, by people you’ve probably never even heard of, which is part of the joy of exploring a destination’s history when you travel, uncovering hidden gems and making new discoveries along the way. And the Finger Lakes region has a history of innovators and world-changers, visionaries, inventors, scientists, and people who simply wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“In the 19th and early 20th centuries the Finger Lakes became a land of dreamers and doers. . . . Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at his summer home in Elmira. Glenn H. Curtiss put Hammondsport on the aviation map by flying his June Bug just under a mile in 1908. This rich history spawned institutions of higher learning and of the arts that continue to thrive . . . the Corning Glass Works (and Steuben Glass) and the Corning Museum of Glass, to name a few.”
—Fodors