Cayuga Lake is the longest of central New York's glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area (marginally smaller than Seneca Lake) and second largest in volume. It is just under 40 miles long. Its average width is 1.7 miles, and it is 3.5 mi wide at its widest point near Aurora. It is approximately 435 ft deep at its deepest point.
The lake is the subject of local folklore; a tradition at Wells College in Aurora holds that if the lake completely freezes over, classes are canceled (though for only one day). According to Wells College records, this last happened in 1979. However, other sources suggest that the only time the entire lake froze over in the 20th century was in 1912.
Cayuga Lake, like nearby Seneca Lake, is also the site of a phenomenon known as the Guns of the Seneca, mysterious cannon-like booms heard in the surrounding area. Many of these booms may be attributable to bird-scarers, automated cannon-like devices used by farmers to scare birds away from the many vineyards, orchards and crops. There is however no proof of this.
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