Three Mile Point also known as Wild Rose Point is a geographic cape extending into Otsego Lake in the Town of Otsego in Otsego County in the U.S. State of New York. It is located north of the Village of Cooperstown and is accessible via State Route 80. In the summer months it is also a public swimming beach and offers changing rooms, a picnic area, and a pavilion. In the winter months it serves as a place for ice fishers to park. History The author James Fenimore Cooper returned from Europe to live in Cooperstown, NY in 1836. His father, Judge William Cooper's estates in that town had been sold off by 1823 and by 1832 his son, James Fenimore Cooper then living in Europe with his family had begun the process of re-acquiring them. When he returned, he noticed that Three Mile Point which he owned was being used as public property, and that there had been extensive vandalism. In a magazine article that Cooper wrote in 1837, he said "The public cut down a tree that had a peculiar association connected with my father, and which I would not have permitted to be cut down for any ordinary reason." James was angered by the vandalism, and in July 1837 placed an announcement in the Freeman's Journal. It said "the public is warned against trespassing on the three mile point... has not, nor has ever had, any right to the same, beyond what has been conceded by the liberality of the owners." Few residents of the Village of Cooperstown viewed it as being owned by the Cooper family, and many were outraged. A public meeting was held to denounce James Fenimore Cooper for closing the point, said Judge Cooper had left it to the community, and requested Cooper's works be removed from the village library. The New York press used the story to denounce Cooper as an "aristocratic snob". Cooper's successful libel suits against these papers contributed to the development of New York libel law. Cooper included it in detail in his novel Home as Found, which describes the differences in social climates of New York City and Cooperstown as Cooper saw them. Three Mile Point remained in the Cooper family until it passed to William Storrs Cooper. In 1871 he leased it to the Village of Cooperstown. In 1899 a public appeal raised money to acquire the