If you're a literary buff or art lover visiting the Finger Lakes, Elmira is a must-see destination. Visit Mark Twain's study and gravesite and spend an afternoon at the Arnot Art Museum!

Dressed in a motley assortment of beat-up clothes, a group of more than 200 men straggled down Water Street in Elmira, making their way toward the train station about a mile ahead. They were thin and hungry. They looked like they’d been through a war—because they had. They weren’t in great health, but they’d survived. It was July 1865, and these were the last survivors leaving “Hellmira,” the notorious Civil War prison camp on the banks of the Chemung River.

Elmira City Historian Diane Janowski offers a look at the many names associated with the area.