A Tale of Two Glens
Season 7, Episode 5
Waktins Glen, New York is a small town at the tip of Seneca lake that, despite its small size, brings in millions of visitors each year to its two major tourist attractions. The first is the Watkins Glen State Park, a longstanding beautiful gorge that the town was originally built around, and the second is the Watkins Glen International Racetrack, a more recent addition to the region that brought with it new opportunities, new dangers, and new crowds of people. We analyze the everchanging relationship between these three entities – the Town of Watkins Glen, the State Park, and the Racetrack – and how they have supported, affected, and at times conflicted with each other over the past century.
Lead Researcher
Dane Yoder
Works Cited:
1950. “AUTO DRIVER DIES AFTER RACE INJURY: Sam Collier Thrown From Car in the Watkins Glen Grand Prix--Goldschmidt Wins Apparently Loses Control Seneca Race to Walters.” The New York Times [New York, N.Y]. p. S2.
Argetsinger, Michael. 2013. Watkins Glen International. Arcadia Pub.
Beatty, Bob. 2025. “The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen.” Longlivetheabb.com. Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the Crossroads. July 28, 2025. https://www.longlivetheabb.com/p/watkins-glen.
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Blackstock, Elizabeth. 2021. “Meet Frankie Fazzary, the 7-Year-Old Boy That Changed Racing in America.” Jalopink. July 17, 2021. https://www.jalopnik.com/meet-frankie-fazzary-the-7-year-old-boy-that-changed-r-1847312449/.
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House, Kirk W, and Charles R Mitchell. 2008. Watkins Glen Racing. 1st ed. Arcadia Pub.
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Johnson, Hollister. 1936. The New York State Flood of July, 1935. Vol. 1936. United States Department of the Interior, Geological Survey.
Klein-Hewett, Hans. 2021. “Timeless Scenery vs. Changing Tourists: The Design History of Watkins Glen State Park.” New York History 102 (2): 259–80. https://doi.org/10.1353/nyh.2021.0037.
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———. 2025. “How Watkins Glen Truly Defined F1’S Place in the United States.” PlanetF1. October 17, 2025. https://www.planetf1.com/features/how-watkins-glen-defined-formula-1-place-in-the-united-states.
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———. 2026a. “Did the MEDIA Kill the 1960 US Grand Prix? #F1.” YouTube. February 18, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT3wn8FzNTc.
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———. 2026b. “The Forgotten First US Formula 1 Grand Prix (Sebring 1959).” Substack.com. Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys. March 18, 2026. https://deadlypassionsterriblejoys.substack.com/p/the-forgotten-first-us-formula-1.
Martin, Douglas. 2008. “Cameron Argetsinger, 87, Road Racing Pioneer, Dies.” The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/sports/othersports/27argetsinger.html.
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Miller, James. 2024. “Watkins Glen’s Circus Era: When Formula One Came to Town.” Podbean Podcast Episode. BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show. IMRRC. https://gtmotorsports.podbean.com/e/imrrc-3-miller/.
NYSOPRHP GIS Bureau. 2025. “Watkins Glen Topographical Map.” https://parks.ny.gov/sites/default/files/WatkinsGlenTopographicalMap.pdf.
“Watkins Glen.” n.d. RacingCircuits.info. https://www.racingcircuits.info/north-america/usa/watkins-glen.html.
“Watkins Glen, The Street Years: 1948-1952,” 1999-01-01, WSKG Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 12, 2026, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-257-0644j2qt.