Swan Lake, NY

Swan Lake is a hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Liberty, Sullivan County, at the eastern end of the lake that shares its name. The 2020 census counted 372 residents. The lake, wooded Catskill hills, and roads into Liberty give the community a classic Sullivan County setting, with fishing and summer travel built into the local calendar. Hotels and guest houses have been part of Swan Lake's economy since the late nineteenth century.

The place began as Stevensville, named for the Stevens brothers who built a large sole-leather tannery there. The tannery lasted into the 1870s, and the area shifted toward hotels and tourism in the 1880s. Alden S. Swan acquired much of the land and the lake in the 1890s, and the name changed to Swan Lake in January 1927. The Commodore and Stevensville hotels followed, helping place the community inside the Catskills' long resort history. Swan Lake still has the old ingredients: water, fishing, wooded hills, and a name that grew out of a family, a lake, and a change in how visitors arrived.