‘History and Mystery’ in Video Form

Four Local Cemeteries in Wreaths Across America

The Local Link to a Civil War Legacy

What Our Forests Looked Like Before White Settlers

Meet the Locals Behind Douglass’ and Anthony’s Crusade

2024 Burning Springs Event Dates Are Set

How Falconry Is Practiced In the Finger Lakes

Renowned Folk Artists Jay & Molly to Play at the Grange

Four Local Cemeteries Join Wreaths Ceremony

Our Grange Hall’s Centennial

Finger Lakes Decoys: Art and History

Burning Springs Open Gardens

Announcing ‘History and Mystery’ Publication

Wildflowers Since the Ice Age

Bristol’s 19th Century Farming Roots

Bristol Hills Wildlife Through the Centuries

Society Joins Wreaths Across America Event

Two Local Pioneer Sites Featured in Upcoming Talks

Lecture: History of Our Soil

Burning Springs Open to Public

Annual Meeting, Board Elections, Dues Statement

How Glaciers Made the Bristol Valley

Metal Detecting in the Bristol Hills

Explore Our “Ghost Town”

Honoring Veterans for the Holiday Season

October 26, 2024, press release announcing the Nov. 9 premiere of the video version of our popular History and Mystery book, and telling the story of how the project came to be through a collaboration between the historical society and FLCC. Details about the event are here, about the video (with a trailer to view) are here, and about the book itself are here.

October 17, 2024, press release announcing the Historical Society’s third annual participation in the national Wreaths Across America campaign. Four local cemeteries, two each in Bristol and South Bristol, will have each of 75 veterans’ graves marked with a wreath, provided there are enough local donors and volunteers to place the wreaths and say each veteran’s name during the national event on Dec. 14. Read more about the program and view photos from past years’ events here.

October 9, 2024, press release announcing our next program: the October 24, 2024, talk by Canandaigua city and Ontario County historian Preston Pierce titled “Bounties, Bonds, Banknotes and Taxes: How the Union Financed Victory in the Civil War.” Pierce’s research shows the key role played by New York banker Frederick Ferris Thompson, namesake to our local hospital and builder of Sonnenberg Mansion, and how those changes to our economic and monetary systems reverberate today.

August 12, 2024, press release announcing our next program: the Sept. 12 talk by SUNY Geneseo geographer Stephen J. Tulowiecki on how modern research in geography, ecology, and history can tell us much about the forests that covered the Bristol Hills and western Finger Lakes before the arrival of white settlers.

May 17, 2024 press release announcing the Historical Society’s annual meeting program, featuring town historian Beth Thomas on the local activists who helped fuel the civil rights crusades of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. People in our towns in the Bristol Hills played pivotal roles in the movements to abolish slavery and grant women’s suffrage.

April 25, 2024, press release announcing the dates for the annual opening of the privately owned Burning Springs farm in Bristol, the town’s oldest “tourist attraction” that will be accessible to the public the last weekend of May. Learn the history of this site and enjoy the natural beauty of a Finger Lakes gully hike and beautiful spring peony gardens in bloom.

March 13, 2024, press release announcing a talk by a licensed practitioner of the world’s oldest sport on how falconry is practiced in the Finger Lakes. Markus Hardt brings his red-tailed hawk Heidi to the Historical Society’s Grange Hall for this presentation on the training that goes into ethical falconry.

March 11, 2024, press release announcing the March 29 start of ticket sales for the May 30 performance by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason at the Historical Society’s Bristol Springs Grange Hall. Jay and Molly have performed at the White House, on Prairie Home Companion, and on the soundtracks of multiple Ken Burns PBS documentaries. Jay’s “Ashokan Farewell” was the theme song for Burns’ documentary series The Civil War. All net proceeds of this special event benefit the Historical Society. Members receive a $10 discount. Tickets go on sale at this site.

October 16, 2023, press release on the Historical Society’s expanded participation in the National Wreaths Across America Day campaign. Learn how to sponsor a holiday wreath to be placed on one of the 77 graves of local veterans buried in the four cemeteries participating in this national day of respect for the sacrifices of our veterans and their families. The ceremony and placing of the wreaths will occur December 16, 2023, and we need volunteers to help place all of the wreaths in Bristol’s two designated cemeteries (Bristol Center and Vincent Hill) and South Bristol’s two cemeteries (Coye and Wilder).

October 11, 2023, press release announcing the rededication ceremony on November 11, 2023, for our headquarters building, the Bristol Springs Grange Hall, which turned 100 years old this year. Read about the history of this landmark. Additional details on this event here.

August 8, 2023, press release announcing the society’s next local history lecture, “The Art and History of Finger Lakes Waterfowl Decoys.” Dealer Mike Martin will present a hands-on talk about decoys since Native American times and will offer free appraisals of any decoys brought to the event. See the events calendar for other details.

May 15, 2023, press release announcing dates and times for the Historical Society’s popular, annual opening of the Burning Springs farm in Bristol. This year’s event will be held on four weekend afternoons, the last weekend of May and first weekend of June.

April 14, 2023, press release on the publication of the Historical Society’s new picturebook, “History and Mystery: The Folklore and Legends of the Bristol Hills.” This announcement provides details on the May 20 publication-day celebration.

April 7, 2023, press release on the upcoming talk by Dr. Bruce Gilman, “After the Ice Age: The Return of Plant Life to the Bristol Hills.” This is the third in the Gilman trilogy, which started with talks on how the glaciers carved our hills and lakes, and how the retreating glaciers affected our soil composition.

March 24, 2023, press release on the upcoming program by SUNY Geneseo researchers who will discuss their findings from an archaeological dig at one of the town’s first farms, their research of the economic systems they developed to share labor and goods, and details on the oldest surviving barns in Bristol.

January 26, 2023, press release on our first educational program of the year. How two centuries of changes in forest cover and hunting led to the decline and then resurgence of wild game – and their predators. Learn from a DEC wildlife biologist about this region's historic ups and downs in populations of wolf, cougar, bear, bobcat, fisher, deer, grouse, turkey and more. 

October 10, 2022, press release announces the Historical Society’s participation in the national Wreaths Across America campaign. We are seeking local sponsors of holiday wreaths to be placed on the graves of local veterans in the Bristol Center and Coye cemeteries.

August 22, 2022, press release explains the work of two teams from SUNY schools who are conducting archaeological digs at a pair of early settlements in Bristol and South Bristol. The lead researchers will explain what they have found and what it teaches about our towns’ settlement in these Sept. 25 and Oct. 6 events.

August 14, 2022, press release announcing a follow-up to one of our most popular recent lectures. Last April, Dr. Bruce Gilman gave a talk on the Bristol Hills’ glacial history. On Sept. 14, he will explain how that glacial legacy shaped the composition of the soil that determines what grows well here and how we farm and build on the land.

The Bristol Hills Historical Society hosts its annual opening of the privately owned Burning Springs on two upcoming weekends, with a lecture on the site’s centuries-old history, an optional hike up the gully to see the lit flame and waterfall, and a new attraction this year – an archaeological dig at the site of the original settlers’ cabin on the property. Read more here in this April 29, 2022, press release.

The Historical Society’s annual meeting and election of officers and board members will be held June 20, 2022, at our Grange Hall at 7 p.m. It’s also time to renew your annual support for the society. Read President Ann Jacobs’ April 3 letter to members with this and other news.

March 13, 2022, press release on the April 13 lecture by Dr. Bruce Gilman, a local expert on the glacial history of our region. Dr. Gilman brings his scientific and hands-on experience to a discussion of what we now know about the formation of the Bristol Valley. See the events page for more details.

February 3, 2022, press release on next month’s talk by local metal-detecting hobbyist Joe Miller, who will share tips on exploring for buried treasures at local historic sites. Miller will share some of his finds and show the tools of his hobby. His free talk is Thursday, March 3, at 7 p.m. at the South Bristol Town Hall.

January 15, 2022, press release on the upcoming February 19, 2022, event at Rochester Museum & Science Center’s Cumming Nature Center to announce what’s been found so far in the archaeological dig at the South Bristol site of Frost Town, one of the region’s original logging communities and probably its oldest “ghost town.”

This November 2021 press release announces the Historical Society’s two wreath-laying ceremonies on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021, to honor military veterans from Bristol and South Bristol. It is timed to coincide with the National Wreaths Across America Day.

Spring Into Bristol With Garden Tour at the Burning Springs

May 2021 press release about the Historical Society’s two consecutive Saturday outdoor events, May 29 and June 5, featuring an afternoon-long open garden with more than 150 tree peonies in bloom, plus a 2 p.m. walk to the historic Burning Spring, with a talk about its history and a demonstration of its naturally fed flame.

A Complaint About a Local School — 204 Years After the Fact

January 2021 press release on our new website, featuring highlights from a newfound letter posted on our history page showing what life was like in Bristol in 1817.

A ‘Magical’ Mix of Art and History

October 2020 press release on a new fundraising project: creating a book of original paintings by local artist Anna Overmoyer, commissioned by local landowners of their favorite places that tell a historical or personal story. Owners keep the original artwork and the Historical Society publishes a book with prints of the paintings and the stories about our land.

Covid Cancellations

April 3, 2020, letter to Historical Society members from President Ann Jacobs announcing the cancellation of 2020 fundraising events and the need for donations to pay for the new roof on the Bristol Springs Grange Hall.

2020 Events Calendar

This press release announced the 2020 Historical Society events (before the pandemic forced the cancellation of all events).

This newsletter announced the formal merger of the Bristol and South Bristol Historical Societies into the Bristol Hills Historical Society, and included a letter from board member John Holtz proposing his idea for a book of fanciful illustrations of local beauty spots.

This newsletter announced the completion of the project to replace the roof on the Society’s headquarters building, the historic Bristol Springs Grange Hall. This project depleted the Society’s resources, so we are asking for donations to replenish our funds.

This newsletter carried the president’s message about the cancellation of all 2020 fundraisers and other events due to the pandemic. It also announced the creation of a food pickup site at the Society’s Grange Hall by the Victor-Farmington Food Cupboard.

This newsletter announced two events in November 2019: the Nov. 18 presentation by Ontario County Historian Preston Pierce on the origin of the newly donated library books from Seneca Point’s Billy Lee Memorial Library; and A.J. Magnan’s presentation Nov. 7 on historic flags.