Gannagaro was a large eastern Seneca town on a high hill, approached by terraces and surrounded by hilly land, a valley, a brook, marshy ground, and cleared fields. In 1669 and 1677 visitors described it as a great village on elevated ground, with about 150 houses, where the people welcomed guests with feasts and dancing. In 1687 French forces under the Marquis de Denonville advanced against the town, fought about eight hundred Iroquois near it, found the village burned and abandoned, then encamped there and destroyed corn and the surrounding cultivated land. The town was recorded under several names, including Ganaguiara, Gaaensara, Gazeroare, Kohosaeraghe, and Canagora. It is probable that its inhabitants had earlier lived at a series of sites upstream along Ganargua Creek before settling here, and after Denonville's expedition they moved between Canandaigua and Cayuga lakes; by the late eighteenth century they lived in a large town at the foot of Seneca Lake.