Seniors Plan A Visit To Elmira

Senior travelers, welcome to Elmira, a city in Chemung County, New York, with a population of 30,000. Among the notable people who called Elmira home is Tommy Hilfiger and Ernie Davis, first African-American Heisman Trophy winner.

Elmira was long an area inhabited by indigenous people. It was occupied by the Cayuga nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. They had some relations with Europeans and English over fur trading, but were relatively isolated from the encroaching settlements.

The New York legislature established the Township of Chemung, now Chemung County, in 1788. The settlement of Newtown was soon established and in 1808, the village officially changed its name to the Town of Elmira, at a town meeting held at Teal’s Tavern.

Seniors Find Mark Twain’s Summer Home

It is said the town was named after tavern owner Nathan Teal’s young daughter, but that story has never been confirmed. In any case, the City of Elmira, also called “The Queen City”, was incorporated in 1864 from part of the town of Elmira and the village of Elmira. Take in some of the sites in Elmira and be sure to see the neat photos of downtown.

TripAdvisor has been to Elmira and notes 18 things not to be missed, including the Tanglewood Nature Center and Museum. This senior would want to visit Elmira College as well, located right in the heart of the city and one of the top private colleges in the Northeast.

Mark Twain, renowned author and world-traveler, summered in Elmira for more than twenty years and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Perched high above the Chemung River Valley in his octagonal study, Twain penned his literary classics.

Seniors Enjoy Finger Lakes Region

Located at the gateway of New York’s scenic Finger Lakes Region, senior tourists enjoy swimming, boating, fishing, camping, hunting, skiing and sight-seeing, including the spectacular fall foliage.

A famed civil war prison camp was in Elmira for 369 days,  from July 6, 1864 to July 11, 1865. There were 12,000+  prisoners at Elmira.

Many today however are completely unaware of the camp and the Confederate prisoners that were held there 145 years ago. The camp is gone now, except for a flagpole that stands as a lone reminder to the most important time in our nation’s history, the American Civil War.

Senior visitors to Elmira will find the city a beautiful one and with a plethora of family-minded activities. jeb