A special ceremony on August 21 at Lakefront Park will mark the unveiling. Bernadette Castro, the New York State Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, will be the keynote speaker.

"It's nice to get her here because she was in power when the district went through in 1999," said Martha Frey, executive director of Otsego 2000, the organization responsible for the project.

"People come here, but nobody really knows about the history of the region," said Frey.

The signs will be three feet by four feet, and will contain locator maps, information about each of the sites compiled by local historian Jessie Ravage, black and white photographs of the areas described, donated by NYSHA, antique maps in the background and a newly created Glimmerglass Historic District logo depicting Kingfisher Tower. The plaques were designed by Chris Rossi.

A companion brochure will be the next phase of the project, which was funded in part by the Scriven Foundation and Otsego 2000.

"This is a continuation of the Glimmerglass Heritage national historic register project," Frey said. "This is an educational, public outreach component."

Lee Malone, village trustee and chairman of the Parks Board, said it's "very nice" that the plaques are being posted.

"The public comes here and sees how beautiful this place is but they don't know the history. This will give people a greater sense of who we are," Malone said.

The plaque for Fairy Spring Park explains that the unusual name of the park comes from a reference made by James Fenimore Cooper in his novel "Home as Found." Acquired from Robert Sterling in 1937, the park was developed by the village in the "rustic style popularized at the time by places like Harriman and Letchworth state parks with grassy lawns under mature trees and heavy timbered buildings with massive stonework."

Other sites visible from Fairy Spring Park, described on the plaque, are the Otesaga Hotel and Leatherstocking Golf Course. The Otesaga was built in 1909 by Ambrose and Edward Severin Clark to provide accommodation for the region's many summer visitors. Once a winter school for girls, the Otesaga now hosts conferences and still holds guests.

The Fenimore Farm, directly across the lake from Fairy Spring Park, can be identified by the church and large stone barn. James Fenimore Cooper was among the farmland's earliest owners. Two generations of the Clark family kept dairy herds on the site.

Natty Bumppo's cabin at Fairy Springs is a special site because it is the setting for many of the events in James Fenimore Cooper's book, "The Pioneers."

Three Mile Point Park is one of several capes, or points, formed by the outwash of small streams found on the west shore of Otsego Lake, according to the plaque.

"William Cooper, founder of Cooperstown, recognized the point's natural beauty and reserved it for his family's use as a picnic ground. The point became the subject of controversy in the mid-1830's when William's son James, the novelist, returned to Cooperstown and found that people had used the point and vandalized the property. James asserted his ancestral rights by publishing his father's will in the local paper. In 1899, the village of Cooperstown acquired the land and it became a public park."

Other attractions detailed are Three Mile Point House and a clearcut hillside, depicting a view of the lake's eastern shore where much of the land, acquired by Edward Clark beginning in the 1860's, is still suggestive of the wild setting of Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales."

Cooperstown Lakefront was developed in 1871 to coincide with a steamboat company. By 1894, ten private and public steamers were operating from the dock area. Sidebars on the plaque include boat livery, a 1905 photograph of the launching of "Mohican," a steamboat that could carry 400. She was taken out of service in 1935.

The Otsego Lake Park Pavilion is also described with various changes over time.

The festivities will begin at 5 p.m. on August 21 with a chicken BBQ hosted by the Cooperstown Vets' Club. The Otsego County Big Band will take the stage at 6 p.m.