Mention Cooperstown to most anyone and the response is “baseball”. According to legend, Cooperstown was “The Birthplace of Baseball”. After much debate, it is agreed “America’s sport” was not invented here. However, the village is now “The Home of Baseball”. And, recently, the town has adopted a more appropriate moniker: “Cooperstown, America’s Most Perfect Village”. Now that is saying something!

While not quite perfect, the area does have many, many positive attributes; from its very friendly citizens to its quaint Main Street, the area has something to offer everyone.

Yes, baseball continues to contribute to the local economy. The Dreams Park baseball camp attracts more than 1,000 teams to its campus each year, and, of course, there is the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which pulls in nearly 400,000 visitors every year…not bad for a little town with just 2,000 full-time residents. And then there is Doubleday Field where baseball is played almost every day. But there is so much more to this town made famous by James Fenimore Cooper.

From the Alice Busch Opera House to The Fenimore Art Museum, The Farmers Museum to the Farmers Market, the village and surrounding area offers a host of interesting and special destinations and activities. Dotting the countryside surrounding Cooperstown are numerous villages, each offering up its own selection of shops and restaurants. The backroads connecting these hamlets provide exceptional terrain for biking, hiking and sightseeing.

The centerpiece and crown jewel of Otsego County is nine-mile long Otsego Lake. As the headwaters of the Susquehanna River and the source of drinking water for the village and many summer camps around its shores, the lake is one of the cleanest and most thoroughly monitored and studied bodies of water in the northeast.

The lake comes to life in the spring with power boating and sailing, swimming, canoeing and kayaking and fishing. The area boasts a number of golf courses, two of which were built right along side the lake.

And for the serious fisherman, two feet of ice during the winter months serves as little deterent as little ice-fishing tents appear on the frozen lake. Cross-country and nearby downhill skiing, along with snowshoeing and ice-skating are some of the outdoor wintertime activities.

The Clark Sports Center provides a host of indoor sports options including racquetball, swimming, basketball, bowling, elevated running track, weight rooms and aerobic studios. During the warmer months there are a number of outdoor tennis courts as well.

Restaurants, shops, cider mills, boat tours, antiquing, sightseeing, and a number of parks (including Glimmerglass State Park at the north end of the lake), provide opportunities for those looking to unwind and relax.

Located just 200 miles from New York City, Cooperstown remains a tranquil, beautiful destination town that has managed to retain its yesterday qualities; one stoplight, no fast food, and an extraordinary array of 19th century architecture. No wonder dotting the shores of the lake, hidden in the shade of the majestic forests, and cultivated in the rolling hills of the area are gentlemen’s farms, camps, cottages and estates that serve as getaways for many families from the metro areas.

Cooperstown…truly “America’s Most Perfect Village”.