In past years, the Harbor Hotel in
Watkins Glen has hosted an ice bar for its patrons. In February 1875 there was another
version of an ice bar. A man named
Richard Knight of Geneva related the story of his saloon on ice during that
winter. Seneca Lake has frozen over on
only a few occasions, and that winter was one of those times. The lake froze solid enough that one man drove
a wagon pulled by a team of horses across the lake near Geneva. People zoomed along the lake on ice schooners, and many people strapped on their ice skates to enjoy recreating on the ice. Knight figured all those people enjoying the
outdoors could use a little something to warm them up, like a shot of
booze, so he put a saloon right on the
frozen lake. The operation was highly
illegal since Knight had not paid for a liquor license. His brilliant idea was to put the saloon on
runners and park it where the county lines of Seneca, Yates, and Schuyler came
together. Any time he got word of an
impending raid on his business, Knight had his saloon pushed across the line to
another county, thus thwarting the authorities.
Knight proved to be a slippery suspect as he was able to skate away scot
free.
Source: Watkins Express, February 14, 1912.
Note: Knight claimed in the article that the saloon was located where the borders of Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, and Ontario met; however, Ontario County does not border all of those counties.
