At the northwestern tip of the Town of Clay, the Oneida River flowing from the east and the Seneca River arriving from the south converge to form the Oswego River, which flows northward to Lake Ontario. This confluence -- Three Rivers Point -- has been the most strategically important site in the town's history, drawing Haudenosaunee diplomats, French and British armies, American pioneers, and eventually Victorian-era tourists to the same few acres of riverbank 12.
The Haudenosaunee knew this place long before any European set eyes on it. Town Historian Dorothy Heller records that Three Rivers Point "hosted the five Iroquois Nations tribes: Onondagas, Senecas, Mohawks, Oswegos, and Hurons" 1. When Patrick McGee first saw the confluence in 1780, the riverbanks displayed a clearing without a shrub or tree for more than a mile along the water -- the maintained landscape of a council ground used for generations 34. Clark's 1849 history identifies the specific orators who addressed assemblies there: "Dekanissora, Sadekanaghte and Garangula have addressed the braves of the Hurons and Adirondacks, and the Abenaquis. And here too, have the French and the English met, in these distinguished chiefs, orators and diplomatists, equal to themselves" 3.
The site's strategic value made it a military crossroads during the colonial wars. Count Frontenac invaded Onondaga territory via the Oswego River in 1696, passing through the confluence 1. Between 1753 and 1759, New York constructed "a stockaded fort with three storehouses" on the north side where the rivers merged -- a fortified supply depot approximately sixty feet square 15. During the French and Indian War, the campaigns that passed through Clay reshaped the continent. In August 1758, Colonel John Bradstreet traveled with 3,600 men through the area, camping near present-day Caughdenoy before proceeding to destroy Fort Frontenac in Kingston, Ontario 5. In 1759, General John Prideaux assembled 6,000 men and camped at Three Rivers Point on June 23 before proceeding down the Oswego River to besiege Fort Niagara 5. The following year, General Jeffrey Amherst arrived with 10,000 troops, launching his expedition to Montreal from Oswego in July 1760 15.
After the Revolution, settlement came slowly. As early as 1790, Simeon Barker was living at the point, and Beauchamp's 1908 history corrects the common assumption that McGee was first: "Two or three white families were near there in 1791; Barker alone occupied the point in 1792" 6. In 1791, Elkanah Watson documented his arrival, writing: "We pitched our tent at Mr. Moses Dewitt's camp... A city will rise at this spot" 1. McGee likely arrived around 1793, building a log cabin and later erecting the first frame house in Clay about 1808 or 1809 346. He lived and died on the same ground where he had once been held prisoner, and was buried there 4.
The fishing traditions that sustained the Onondaga at this confluence continued under new stewards. By mid-March each year, fishermen lined sixty-seven miles of Clay's waterways -- the Seneca River, Oneida River, and canal cuts 7. The Oneida River at Caughdenoy was particularly renowned for its eels, which Clayton noted were caught "in great abundance and superior quality" 4. Oak Orchard, also on the Oneida River, served as both a fording place and a fishing ground, as well as the site of the extensive Indigenous burial ground 4.
Three Rivers Point entered a new chapter in the late nineteenth century. Fred Barnum created Barnum's Hotel there in 1889, featuring shore dinners and attracting visitors via the steamer "Bessie Lang," which charged ten cents for a round-trip between Phoenix and Three Rivers 1. The Syracuse Northern Railroad, opened in 1871, had made the area accessible, and its Phoenix branch crossed the Oneida River at the Point 8. Bruce described Three Rivers as having "recently sprung into considerable popularity as a favorite summer resort, having accommodations for picnic parties and a few cottages" 8.
The resort era reached its peak in the mid-twentieth century when Dom Bruno purchased the property in 1955 and transformed it into the Three Rivers Inn. His first headliner was Mae West in 1956, and the venue went on to host Tony Bennett, Paul Anka, Bobby Darin, Jimmy Durante, Connie Francis, and Sammy Davis Jr. 1. The Inn burned in 1973 and relocated to Phoenix Plaza, ending an era.
Today Three Rivers Point is town-owned, and development plans envision parks, boat launches, and waterfront amenities 2. The spot where Haudenosaunee orators once addressed assembled nations, where British generals camped ten thousand troops, and where Victorian tourists arrived by steamboat for shore dinners remains what it has always been: the place where the waters -- and the stories -- of Clay converge.