MONTEZUMA - In two short years, the Montezuma Historical Society has come a long way.

Starting with a focus on the state and nationally recognized historical landmark, the Mentz Church, the place the historical society calls home, the society has grown to focus on other areas of interest such as the Erie Canal and the Richmond Aqueduct.

The group gathered at Kristie's Restaurant in Montezuma to celebrate the two-year anniversary.

“Our mission is to preserve and protect the church,” said Cheryl Longyear, treasurer of the historical society and town historian. “Really the purpose of this is just to get together and have dinner and have everyone enjoy themselves.”

Members of the historical society were joined by local author and storyteller Peg Smart, who has also gone by the name Mother Goose, for her storytelling attributes.

Smart, who recently published her latest fictional work based around Meadowbrook Farm where she grew up, put her own unique spin on a story that has an undeniable interest to the people of Montezuma, addressing the question - where did all the mosquitoes come from?

Smart started off her story with one caveat to her audience.

“I'm a storyteller,” she said. “I learned from my father. So what I'm going to tell you is based on some records from the archives, but it is only partly the truth.”

Smart said the mosquitoes can be traced back to the time before the Erie Canal, when the waterway was known as Clinton's Ditch.

After the Erie Canal was built, Smart said that the governor of New York took the waterway from Albany all across the state to Buffalo.

“So the word went out,” Smart said. “All over the place, the governor is going to be here. But when he got to Montezuma, no one was here except Mayor May, of Montezuma, like May's Point.”

As May swatted mosquitoes away, he told the governor that no one went out after 6 p.m. because of the mosquitoes, Smart said.

And when the governor returned to Albany, he wrote to all the mayors of the towns he passed through, specifically writing to May about the mosquitoes.

In Smart's version of the story, May wrote back stating that if it weren't for the mosquitoes, the ducks and geese that travel through the area wouldn't stop to feed anymore.

“Besides,” Smart said. “You never know you might want to open a wildlife preserve here some day.”

Longyear hoped that guests were able to get something out of the dinner.

“We've worked the organization from the ground up in the past two years,” Longyear said.

“This is a way to talk about the work we've done and also just to relax and listen to Peg talk and have fun.”