We used to visit Ganondagan State Park back in the mid-1990s, when we lived nearby in “the Bloomfields.” Walking the trails there we had one of our most cherished outdoor encounters, with a new-born fawn and its mother.

*In the small visitor’s center was a small exhibition relating to the history of the site. Ganondagan was a major Seneca town back in the 1600s, far bigger than almost any town in the English colonies. The little exhibition documented those days when the hilltop outside Victor was the metropolis for many miles around.

*We knew that a lot had been added to Ganondagan, but since we moved “way away” to Bath we hadn’t gotten back until our elder son came in for a few days on a visit from Houston. He and I finally decided to take the plunge.

*We were glad we did. The most significant change is the gleaming Seneca Art & Culture Center… a year-round museum, visitors center, and educational facility. “When you’re a native person, your story is often told by other people,” says Historic Site Manager G. Peter Jemison. “Here, we tell our own story.”

*And the story begins with creation, in a mixed live-action/C.G.A. film that runs about 15 minutes, retelling the myth so dear to centuries of Huadenosaunne (that being their own, proper name, rather than the French-derived “Iroquois.”

*The large new gallery space makes use of a hundred years of archaeology at Ganondagan and similar sites, so that we get some glimpse of long-ago life through the artifacts made or used by the people themselves. Many of these items were collected under the leadership of Arthur C. Parker, the Seneca-descended archaeologist who was director of Rochester Museum and Science Center, and before that had a lengthy tenure at the New York State Museum.

*On the height overlooking the Art & Culture Center is a recreated longhouse, fully decked out within as a longhouse might have been in the days when it was a crowded home to five or six families. Docents are on hand to help us get a feel for life in the longhouse days.

*Despite the development of the past 20 years or so, Ganondagan is still criss-crossed with trails (including interpretive signage), many of the trails cut through grass that at this time of year is now waist-high. Coltsfoot, Queen Anne’s lace, and brown-eyed Susan sparkle in the meadow, and the surface is alive with butterflies, including the monarch and the eastern tiger swallowtail. Small apples drop unremarked from the trees, and acorns are starting to fall.

*The Seneca evacuated and burned Ganondagan in 1687, during a French invasion, then resettled in the Canandiagua area… farther away from the Lake Ontario invasion route. Much of the original site still remained in Seneca hands in the 1900s, becoming a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a state park in 1987… in part as a way to combat “pothunters” who were digging and stealing artifacts.

*The place is worth a visit, even more now than it was 20 years ago! I do observe that acoustics for the film are poor. It can be captioned, but you need to ask ahead of time. Apart from that, a great visit!