Lost Village, New York

Lost Village, known locally as Eel Weir, is an unincorporated community in Oswegatchie, New York, in the northern part of St. Lawrence County.[1] It is located on the Oswegatchie River, near where it meets Black Lake. The site is less than a mile east of Galilee, and is about 4 mi (6.4 km) south of Ogdensburg.

Indigenous origins

It is plausible that Lost Village was originally a site belonging to a local Indigenous tribe.[2] Arrowheads, potsherds, and other artifacts have been found up and down the Oswegatchie River due to the presence of the Oswegatchie Trail, an Indigenous trade route along the Oswegatchie, Black, and Indian Rivers.[3] In 1910, a St. Lawrence Iroquoian burial site (including artifacts such as a pendant gorget) was uncovered at Eel Weir.[4] There was an Indigenous village there during Oswegatchie's early pioneer period, but it is unclear to which tribe it belonged.[5] It is also possible that various Haudenosaunee and Algonquian bands used the site as a temporary hunting camp.

Eel Weir today

While the site is legally known as Lost Village, and it is recognized as such on most GPS sites, it is more often referred to by locals as Eel Weir. In the New York State Gazetteer, a register used by the state's Department of Health, Lost Village is recorded as a hamlet, under gazetteer code 4472.[6] Today, the site consists of a small handful of farms and mobile homes, two cemeteries (the newer Pine Hill Cemetery and the older Sand Road Cemetery), Eel Weir State Park, a bridge over the Oswegatchie River, and the Eel Weir Dam.

References

  1. ^ "Lost Village". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved February 5, 2026.
  2. ^ Smithers, Nina W. & Biondi, Mary H. (October 1, 1965). "From Podunk to Zip Code 13652" (PDF). Saint Lawrence County Historical Society Quarterly. Gouverneur, NY: St. Lawrence County Historical Society. pp. 8–9. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  3. ^ Crowell, Marnie Reed (1975). North to the St. Lawrence. Canton, NY: Raquette Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-916136-02-4. OCLC 499240807.
  4. ^ Parker, Arthur C. (1920). "The Archaeological History of New York, Part 2". New York State Museum Bulletin. Albany, NY: The University of the State of New York. p. 689. OCLC 221117854. OL 23424832M. Retrieved December 18, 2025.
  5. ^ Davies, William H. (February 13, 1954). "Black Lake Community" (Document). St. Lawrence County Center for History and Culture archives: WSLB, Ogdensburg. p. 1.
  6. ^ "New York State Gazetteer". State of New York. 23 September 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2026.

44°37′10″N 75°29′33″W / 44.61944°N 75.49250°W / 44.61944; -75.49250

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