The Bluff Point Stoneworks

S. Hart Wright, in "The Aboriginal work on Bluff Point, Yates County, N.Y." - included in the 35th Annual Report of the New York State Museum of Natural History - described the Stoneworks as he saw them in 1879 and 1880.

In The Crooked Lake Review # 68, November 1993, David D. Robinson argues that the Hopewells who used to live in Western New York were too primitive to build a structure like the stoneworks.

A. Glen Rogers wrote a book titled Forgotten Stories of the Finger Lakes in which he stated that the layout of the stoneworks were not suitable for a fort.

Though most of the structure had disappeared by 1980, Christopher Wright illustrated that "some of the excavation pits [from the 1940 dig by Gilbert Brewer] are still visible from Skyline Drive, in a thicket of deer brush and poplar."

Quoting S. Hart Wright's 1879-80 work, they, too, described "graded ways...bordered by large flat stones edgeways leaning toward the center of the ways; compartments or rooms which varied in dimensions; rectilinear division of structure into units, some of which exceeded 500 feet (150 m) in length; upright stone slabs arranged in circles, squares, and arcs; and eight-foot-high monolith; depressions which indicated possible roofport holes."

Some claim that there are more ruins located underground, and every few years a group of amateur archaeologists travels to Bluff Point in order to attempt another excavation.

Berlin Hart Wright, writing in 1938, complained, "We surveyed the ruin and, at that time, an earnest plea was made to State authorities for the preservation of this unique remnant of a great aboriginal structure.