Three Waves: The Story of Lake Ronkonkoma
Three Waves: The Story of Lake Ronkonkoma
Written by: Ann Farnum Curtis
Hardcover/Specialty Book
Size: 9" Width x 11" height
ISBN 13: 978-0-9791463-2-9
ISBN 10: 0-9791463-2-1
Available now! Limited quantity available.
SUMMARY
Lake Ronkonkoma has been called a place of haunting mystery. Indians and white men alike wondered about its source of pure fresh water and its unexplained tendency to rise and fall periodically with no apparent relationship to the local rainfall. Many legends, myths and superstitions about Lake Ronkonkoma were based on the theory that the lake was bottomless. Other legends are based on a forbidden love between a beautiful Indian princess and an English settler who met a tragic end together.
The title "Three Waves" refers to the three groups of people who came to Lake Ronkonkoma and caused dramatic changes. The first wave was caused by the railroad which brought the wealthy and famous to the lake in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The second wave came with the automobile which changed the lake to a full-blown summer resort in the 1920's and 30's. The final wave was made up of permanent residents who came after World War II.
Hundred-year-old deeds, records, historic journals, letters, poems, postcards, dozens and dozens of treasured pictures, shared memories and anecdotes from life-long residents all tell the great story of Lake Ronkonkoma, "The Gem of Long Island."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, ANN FARNUM CURTIS:
Ann's love of the area she vacationed in as a child grew into a book she penned as a tribute to the bicentennial. She realized the dream, when following her retirement from the Baldwin School system, she and her husband, Matt, permanently moved to the area where they had first met. She worked on the book for three years, using people as her primary source of material. After a series of interviews with the local newspaper - the Ronkonkoma Review - she delivered a manuscript and old photos to the Review, which they promptly serialized.
Three printings of the book enabled her to form, with a board of trustees, the Lake Ronkonkoma Historical Society. The society serves the community Ann Curtis loved and, along with this book, is a gift from a gracious lady to its people.
Ronkonkoma Review, Thursday, December 1, 1977
