There is certainly no secret that once the tourism season picks up in Cooperstown after Memorial Day, parking and traffic can be nothing short of a challenge in the village.
It has been a problem for decades, but a solution to help ease the congestion has been around for 25 years that has helped somewhat. That was the introduction of the motorized trolley vehicles that brings visitors from remote parking areas into the village and all the attractions.
Two such trolleys, the “Natty Bumppo” and “Deerslayer,” made their first runs Monday, June 15, 1987. According to The Daily Star, the trolleys were operated by the Molly Corp. of Ogunquit, Maine. It was hoped from the beginning that if the experiment was successful over the next three months, a local group would take over the trolleys in future years.
While both trolleys started out that day, with fares at 50-cents a ride or $1 for a day pass, only the “Natty Bumppo” finished because business was fairly slow and because the trolleys kept catching up to one another.
Passengers were encouraged to leave their private vehicles in the Cooperstown school parking lots to ride the trolley to downtown attractions that year.
“Natty Bumppo” rode with both of its rear plastic windows rolled up, giving the feeling of riding in a convertible. From the inside there was a sense of airiness with large stenciled windows, polished oak benches and brass railings.
Wanda Richards and her husband Will were riders on opening day.
“We approve,” Mrs. Richards said. “We tried it and we liked it and we’d do it again. And this morning I played queen. I waved to everybody; some waved back, some didn’t.” Will Richards wasn’t so sure. “I think it’s crazy, but it’s fun,” he said.
“The major portion of our riders today have been school kids,” said Carl Larsen, driver of the “Natty Bumppo.” Some kids on skateboards were trying to freeload a ride by hanging on to the rear of the trolley.
The Cooperstown Police were called to discourage that. This was always a problem in any village or city, dating back to the years when trolleys ran on rails as a form of public transportation. There were other opening day glitches. Larsen rang the trolley bell once and it broke.
The sound system featuring a taped account of things to see and do in Cooperstown hadn’t yet been hooked up. Larsen said he got stuck behind delivery trucks on Main Street a few times. Those delays took about 20 minutes, the time required to travel the entire planned service route.
There were hopes to bring the trolleys back for 1988, based on a fairly good response for the first season.
Because of a lack of merchant and other local support, there was no service the next year, but the trolley system was returned in 1989 for one of the village’s busiest seasons so far, when the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Unlike today, the trolley did not serve the Farmers’ Museum and what was then called the Fenimore House in 1987.
Three new trolleys were purchased in 1989 by the Clark Foundation, and began service during the weekend of June 16. A new parking strategy was worked out for that year, as the Clark Foundation expanded a parking lot just north of the Fenimore Art Museum, as well as a new lot at the former Glen Garage, which the foundation bought in 1988.
A third lot was added the next year, just south of the village on state Route 28.
The Clark Foundation and the village spent about $1,600 to improve the village’s signs for this park-and-ride system, placed outside of the village on state Routes 80 and 28. In recent years, the Cooperstown trolleys have been made available as rentals for special occasions.
This weekend: First college degrees were awarded at the Oneonta State Teachers College. CITY HISTORIAN Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before.
His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian. com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Mark Simonson
Cooperstown trolley service a help during busy tourism season
- Mark Simonson
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Blackmail scheme failed to hurt Richfield Springs resort season in 1888
The timing simply couldn't have been worse. Thousands of visitors were making plans for their summer vacations to Richfield Springs in 1888 when a bombshell of a newspaper article hit the newsstands of New York City. The article appeared in The New York Sun that stated typhoid fever and diphtheria had a "heavy presence" in the resort village, known and respected worldwide for its cleanliness and good health.
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General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
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Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
Area residents mulled over the idea of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as their next President of the United States. New fitness opportunities emerged for all ages. One area landmark was saved while another was razed. It was only a part of our life and times in May 1968.
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Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
In the economy that was the Great Depression, there were times people would do what it took to try to earn some money.
- Monday, May 6, 2013
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Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
I realize I've got the wrong month in mind when I say "May came in like a lion." However, that's what happened in 1983 as a number of twisters moved through our region, leaving plenty of damage behind in their trails. Add some melting snow and heavy rain, and scenes of cleanups were widespread 30 years ago this month.
- Saturday, May 4, 2013
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Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
- Monday, April 29, 2013
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Job opportunities abounded in area 45 years ago
If you were looking for a job in April 1968 in our area, or perhaps looking to change your employment situation in the near future, opportunities were pointing in your favor.
- Saturday, April 27, 2013
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Oneonta greeted an aviation giant in 1928
An early aviation superstar came to Oneonta in 1928.
- Monday, April 22, 2013
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Area saw its own armed standoffs 30 years ago
This past Friday, we watched how the Boston area went into a lockdown during a tense search for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Had I still been living and working in that area, as I was in the early 1990s, I would have had a day off from work Friday, as police scoured the city of Waltham.
- Saturday, April 20, 2013
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U.S.S. Maine explosion, war drew much local sentiment
For most people in our area in early 1898, a growing conflict between two distant nations probably didn't get much attention, other than some glances at the newspaper. When a young Oneonta man was one of many injured or killed in an explosion of a battleship he was aboard, the local attention increased markedly to what was soon to become the Spanish-American War.
- Monday, April 15, 2013
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Oneonta river walking path came from a surveyor's daydream
Leon Kalmus of Oneonta spent a lot of time surveying land near the Susquehanna River in the early 1970s around the time Interstate 88 was being planned and built in this area. What he saw along the shores of the river, he called “pristine,� and soon had an idea for some kind of walking or hiking pathway along the shores of the river in the town of Oneonta.
- Saturday, April 13, 2013
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Decline of Prohibition led to return of beer in April 1933
“I think this would be a good time for a beer,� remarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933. This marked the beginning of the end for Prohibition that year.
- Monday, April 8, 2013
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Dietz Street shifted from residential to commercial through the years
By taking a walk along Dietz Street today, heading north to Walnut Street, one can see a lot of businesses and the recently refurbished parking lot on the east side of the street. It would take some imagination to see this street lined with houses and a church, but prior to the late 1940s, that’s what was there.
- Saturday, April 6, 2013
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Oneontans voted for a 'dry' city in 1918
- Monday, April 1, 2013
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Future city historian kept family busy for Easter and April 1958
- Saturday, March 30, 2013
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Colliscroft became new Oneonta landmark in 1902
If the Oneonta building trade sector of the economy could have awarded a plaque to a most valuable individual customer of 1902, it would have nearly been a shoo-in. That was Edward H. Pardee, who was listed in the Oneonta Directory around that time as a farmer, on Southside.
- Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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Historic Cooperstown cottage got a new address in 1988
To unknowing tourists seeking information from the tourism information center at 31 Chestnut St. in Cooperstown, they would probably believe that the mid-19th century cottage had always been on that site. It blends in well with some of the grand old houses along that street, and the same tourists might think it has an interesting history behind it.
- Saturday, March 23, 2013
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Free mail delivery began in Oneonta 125 years ago
- Monday, March 18, 2013
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Oneonta enacted first building code 60 years ago
There will be no parade, fireworks display or commemorative coins minted for the occasion.
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Blackmail scheme failed to hurt Richfield Springs resort season in 1888
