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In 1912 the Horseshoe Lake Amusement Company was formed as a Summer Resort in Stafford, New York. A resort existed here prior but I am unsure as to what dates...


Hodges named his lake Horse Shoe Lake, and more recently it appears on maps as Horseshoe Lake. We are not sure just when this change took place.

Hodges owned Horse Shoe Lake for 20 years, hiring different young men to run it for him. In 1911 Anthony Fix became the manager and Hodges offered to sell the resort to Anthony Fix's brother, Frank Fix. Frank and Anthony Fix were printers who had many other interests through the years besides Horseshoe Lake. They were the Fixes of the Fix Printing Company. In 1912 Frank Fix organized the Horseshoe Lake Amusement Corporation financed by a number of other local men. Anthony Fix and James McCormick (we believe a brother-in-law of George Watson of the Hotel Richmond). George W. Pratt and Christopher Casey (the father of the present Christopher Casey) were members of the board. James L. Kelly, a local attorney, was secretary. The new owners made many improvements, rebuilding the bathhouses, adding more boats and installing a steam launch in the Lake. They then put up billboards along roads leading to Buffalo and Rochester that read GENESES COUNTY-CONEY ISLAND-HORSESHOE LAKE. People began to come from distances away. The corporation built a toboggan slide, which was just a long chute that ran out over deep water down which the venturesome slid sitting on a board. There was a merry-go-around there for one summer. One Monday issue of the Daily News reported that there bad been a style show at the Lake the Saturday before. Louis Wiard had been in New York City and had brought back the latest in bathing costumes, which his wife and her friend Mrs. Kinne wore at the Lake the next weekend. Of course the latest in bathing costumes in 1914 bad skirts down to here and stockings up to here and a dust cap for a swim cap, but Horseshoe Lake was able to see what was being worn at the smartest beaches. Virginia Trietley wrote articles about early days in Genesee County for the Daily News for a number of years and in 1956 wrote one in which she called this period 'the golden age of entertainment at the Lake.'

Prank and Anthony Fix ran the Horseshoe Lake Amusement Company for 15 years, until 1926. In 1926 The Amusement Company sold out to a man from Bowmansville, Harry Pasternak. He made some changes, winterized the Sea View Tavern and renaming it The Horseshoe Lake Tavern. He offered lunches and music through the winter, along with skating on the lake. In 1928 to stimulate interest in the dances he offered a Dance Marathon. There had been a dance marathon at Crystal Beach early in the summer and others in some neighboring cities. Pasternak had Harry F. Adams run the marathon dance for him in September. They offered three prizes: one of $1,000, one of $350 and one of $150. Two couples from Batavia, Louis Fanara and Betty Nigro, Frank Battaglia and Geraldine Heale, determined that they would win first and second prizes.

The dance started at 8 P.M. on Saturday night. Dancers danced for 45 minutes and rested for 15. The Daily News says that the dance lasted 44 hours. On Monday morning there were a number of dancers still on their feet, including our Batavia friends. Early that morning a truck backed up to the entrance to the dance pavilion, loaded on dancers who were from Buffalo, and drove away. Those left behind were told that the dance would be finished at the Kit Kat Club in Cheektowaga. There was wild excitement at the lake. Cottagers had loaned blankets or pillows to dancers and were afraid that they would not get back their property. The Daily News later reported only one coat never turned up. Our Batavia dancers were most upset. They said that they had been promised payment. They declared that the dance had been mismanaged. The Sheriff, who was on the spot to keep order, called the State Police and the next issue of the Daily News reported that there had been a riot at Horseshoe Lake the night before. We believe that this is the only Marathon dance, and the only riot ever reported from the lake.



CREDITS: Excerpts: Horseshoe Lake Corporation, 781 Crocker Rd., Sacramento, CA 95864