Keuka Lake, Finger lake in Steuben County, US.

Keuka Lake is a Y-shaped Finger Lake in central New York, about 20 miles long and 0.5 to 2 miles wide, with a 60-mile shoreline. Its two arms meet near Branchport and Penn Yan, and the lake drains northeast through the Keuka Lake Outlet into Seneca Lake. The photograph shows wooden docks near the shore and a long, low wooded hill across the water.

Settlers arrived after the 1779 Sullivan Expedition, and by 1790 a mill stood at the outlet falls. The Crooked Lake Canal opened in 1833, linking the lake to Seneca Lake and the Erie Canal; the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad of 1872 made it obsolete. Steamboats such as the 85-foot Keuka Maid carried wheat between Hammondsport and Penn Yan until 1848.

Wine production shaped how people settled and lived around this lake starting in the early 1800s. Today visitors see vineyards on the slopes and small tasting rooms scattered through nearby towns, reflecting this enduring local tradition.

The lake drains at its northeastern end through the Keuka Lake Outlet in Penn Yan, which flows to Seneca Lake at Dresden; the outlet's old towpath is now the Keuka Outlet Trail for hiking and cycling. Penn Yan sits at the northeast end, Branchport at the northwest end and Hammondsport at the south end. Keuka Lake State Park lies on the east shore of the northwest arm, and Keuka College is in Keuka Park on the west shore of the eastern arm.

Keuka Lake drains only at its northeastern end, where the Keuka Lake Outlet runs from Penn Yan to Seneca Lake at Dresden. Because the lake sits more than 260 feet above Seneca Lake, the outlet's fall powered grist mills and sawmills before the stream was widened as the Crooked Lake Canal.