Cooperstown (pop. 1,794) is a resort village on Otsego Lake, in the east-central part of New York state. William Cooper, a judge, purchased land and surveyed the wilderness site in 1785 and settled there in 1790. His son James Fenimore Cooper set two of his famous Leather-Stocking Tales in the region. Cooperstown was incorporated in 1807.
Cooperstown is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which was established in 1939. Many people then believed that baseball had been invented in Cooperstown by Abner Doubleday in 1839 (see Baseball (The Abner Doubleday Theory); Doubleday, Abner). The Fenimore Art Museum and the Farmers’ Museum also attract many visitors. Fenimore is a museum of American folk art. The Farmers’ Museum re-creates early American farm life.
