Program

Legends & Lore®

Subject

Legend

Location

7377 US-20, Waterville, NY 13480, USA

Lat/Long

42.9162, -75.4006

Grant Recipient

Route 20 Association of New York State

During the mid-1800s the Loomis Gang wreaked havoc in communities throughout New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada. For their time, they were thought to be the largest crime family in America. The Loomis homestead was based at the southern end of Sangerfield township. A short distance away from the family homestead was Nine Mile Swamp, which, according to local legend, was used as a hideout by the notorious gang for stolen horses, cattle, and other goods. A 1903 obituary for Amos P. Loomis printed in an unknown newspaper includes mention of the swamp and its strategic location:

The farm house looked out with unobstructed vision over the valley extending in either direction and the eye from this unhappy abode of crime could take in at a glance nearly the entire length of the Nine Mile swamp, which with its almost impenetrable depth of darkness covered the level which extended between the two lines of hills. The dark swamp below, the dark deeds above, were destined to hold close fellowship. Few knew the paths which ran only at long intervals through these damp fastnesses of thick undergrowth of cedar; but some know the swamp right well and of all of these the Loomis family knew it best. It became their refuge from pursuit and arrest and received into its ample recesses the proceeds of untold forays and in some cases the bodies of unfortunate victims.

While the homestead is gone and the Loomis Gang are no longer around to generate new legends, the lore surrounding the infamous gang’s association with Nine Mile Swamp endures to this day.