View source for Montezuma Marsh

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{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
[[Image:Montezuma Marsh-NY right.jpg|frame|right|Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge four miles northeast of [[Seneca Falls (village), New York|Seneca Falls]]]]
'''Montezuma Marsh''' is a [[marsh]] at the northern end of [[Cayuga Lake]] in the [[Finger Lakes]] region of [[New York (state)|New York]]. Much of the marsh is part of the [[Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge]], which is a major point on the route of many [[migratory bird]]s, such as [[Canada goose|Canada geese]] and [[mallard]] ducks.

The Cayuga valley is an old [[Ice age|preglacial]] valley, which once drained northward into the [[Ontarian River|Ontario Valley]]. Cayuga Lake and Montezuma Marsh were partially created by the damming effect of huge quantities of glacial drift brought from the [[Laurentian Shield]] of [[Canada]] and the deepened Ontario valley. (Cayuga Lake was also deepened southward of the area of the marsh.) The valley is completely buried by a [[drumlin field]] between the marsh and [[Lake Ontario]].

The marsh was a barrier to westward travel in colonial times as roads could not be built across it, with the technology of the time. The first major passageway was the [[Erie Canal]], which was completed in 1825 but the digging of the section that crossed the marsh was one of the most difficult, with great loss of life due to [[mosquito]]-borne [[fever]]s (possibly [[malaria]]). The cut was finally finished by digging it in the winter (also with great suffering, due to frostbite) when mosquitoes were dormant.

==Bibliography==
*{{cite encyclopedia |last=Monje|first=Scott C.|editor=Peter R. Eisenstadt |editor2=Laura-Eve Moss|encyclopedia=The encyclopedia of New York State|title=Cayuga Marshes|date=2005|publisher=Syracuse University Press|location=Syracuse|isbn=9780815608080|oclc=57506556|pages=292–93}}
*{{cite gnis|957553|Montezuma Marsh|July 24, 2011}}

{{Coord|42|57|56|N|76.|45|26|W|type:city_region:US|format=dms|display=title}}

[[Category:Marshes of New York (state)]]
[[Category:Protected areas of Seneca County, New York]]
[[Category:Protected areas of Wayne County, New York]]
[[Category:Landforms of Seneca County, New York]]
[[Category:Landforms of Wayne County, New York]]