Sodus, NY

Sodus is a Wayne County town along Lake Ontario, with Sodus Bay reaching inland and Sodus Point marking one of the old lake entrances. The town was formed in 1789 from the District of Sodus, and Charles Williamson's 1794 settlement at Sodus Point brought roads, mills, a tavern, and lake commerce into the picture. The village of Sodus took shape farther inland and became the town's meeting place in 1815, then incorporated in 1918.

Sodus Point also carries a War of 1812 scar: British forces attacked in 1813, seized warehouse supplies, and burned the settlement, leaving one tavern standing. The bay's lighthouse story runs from an 1825 tower to the 1871 lighthouse that now houses the Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum. Add the old Shaker site at Alasa Farms and the town's Arbor Day connection, and Sodus has more than one way to surprise you. It is a lake-border town with farm country behind it, a maritime edge up north, and a village center that grew from roads rather than a single waterfront.