In the pre-Columbian era, the territory was known to be included in the traditional homelands of the now-extinctWenrohronon Indians. It later became the territory of theSeneca people, one of the fiveNations of the Haudenosaunee.
When counties were established in theProvince of New York in 1683, the territory of Cattaraugus County was included withinAlbany County. This was an enormous county, including thenorthern part of New York as well as all of the modern-day state ofVermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. As additional areas were settled, the county was reduced on July 3, 1766, by the creation ofCumberland County, and on March 16, 1770, by the creation ofGloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont.
On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces,Tryon County, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city ofSchenectady. The county included the western part of theAdirondack Mountains and the area west of theWest Branch of theDelaware River. The area then designated as Tryon County is represented in the 21st century by 37 counties of New York. The county was named forWilliam Tryon,colonial governor of New York.
In the years before 1776, most of theLoyalists in Tryon County fled across theNiagara Frontier into modern dayOntario, Canada. In 1784, following thepeace treaty that ended the Revolutionary War (and a treaty with Massachusetts that finally settled who owned Western New York), the name of Tryon County was changed toMontgomery County in honor of the general,Richard Montgomery, who had captured several places inCanada and died attempting to capture the city ofQuebec. This replaced the name of the hated British governor.
In practice, however, these counties did not cover modern Cattaraugus County or Western New York. Most of that area lay within theIndian Reserve established in theTreaty of Fort Stanwix by the British; it was intended to be reserved for Native Americans and was ruled off-limits to European settlement.
The newly independent United States sought to extinguish Native reserves after the British ceded their territory east of theMississippi River and south of theGreat Lakes to the United States. This included Iroquois territory in New York; the four nations that had been allies of the British mostly relocated toOntario, Canada where the Crown gave themland grants in some compensation for losses. TheTreaty of Canandaigua, in 1794, extinguished what was left of native title, with the exception of several reservations, three of which were at least partially located in what is now Cattaraugus County.
Ontario County was split from Montgomery County in 1789 as a result of the establishment of theMorris Reserve. In turn,Genesee County was split fromOntario County in 1802 as a result of theHolland Purchase. This period was the beginning of more significant European-American settlement of this western territory. Shortly afterward, Genesee County was reduced in 1806 by the creation ofAllegany County.
Cattaraugus County was formed in 1808, split off from Genesee County. At first there was no county government due to the sparse population. From 1812 to 1814, Cattaraugus County was incorporated in Allegany County; from 1814 to 1817, records of the county were divided betweenBelmont (Allegany County) andBuffalo (then inNiagara County).
The name "Cattaraugus" derives from aSeneca word for "bad smelling banks," in reference to the odor ofnatural gas leaking fromrock seams.[6] In 1817, a county government was established for Cattaraugus County in the southwestern corner of the town of Hebe, nowEllicottville.
The first settlement in the county was inOlean. After 1860, in response to the construction of a railroad (where thePat McGee Trail is now), the county seat was moved toLittle Valley.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,322 square miles (3,420 km2), of which 1,308 square miles (3,390 km2) is land and 14 square miles (36 km2) (1.1%) is water.[7]
Cattaraugus County is in the southwestern part of the state, immediately north of thePennsylvania border, bordering the counties ofMcKean County, Pennsylvania andWarren County, Pennsylvania. The southern part of Cattaraugus County is the only area of western New York that was not covered by thelast ice age glaciation. It is noticeably more rugged than neighboring areas that had peaks rounded and valleys filled by the glacier. The entire area is adissected plateau ofPennsylvanian andMississippian age, but appears mountainous to the casual observer. It is this string of mountain-like peaks that gives the county its promotional name, theEnchanted Mountains.[8]
The plateau is an extension of theAllegany Plateau from nearby Pennsylvania. Southern Cattaraugus County is part of the sameoil field, andpetroleum was formerly a resource of the area. It is now mostly played out, butnatural gas continues to be extracted.
Cattaraugus County, New York – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As of thecensus[22] of 2000, there were 83,955 people, 32,023 households, and 21,647 families residing in the county. Thepopulation density was 64 people per square mile (25 people/km2). There were 39,839 housing units at an average density of 30 per square mile (12/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 94.63%White, 1.06%Black orAfrican American, 2.60%Native American, 0.46%Asian, 0.02%Pacific Islander, 0.23% fromother races, and 1.01% from two or more races. 0.94% of the population wereHispanic orLatino of any race. 26.8% were ofGerman, 13.2%Irish, 11.3%English, 9.1%Polish, 8.2%Italian and 7.4%American ancestry according toCensus 2000. 95.2% spoke English and 1.4% Spanish as their first language.
There were 32,023 households, out of which 32.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.30% weremarried couples living together, 10.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.40% were non-families. 26.80% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.05.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 26.20% under the age of 18, 9.30% from 18 to 24, 26.50% from 25 to 44, 23.50% from 45 to 64, and 14.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 95.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.50 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $33,404, and the median income for a family was $39,318. Males had a median income of $30,901 versus $22,122 for females. Theper capita income for the county was $15,959. About 10.00% of families and 13.70% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 18.60% of those under age 18 and 9.90% of those age 65 or over.
Intercity bus service is provided throughCoach USA, which runs through the county on its twice-daily Jamestown to Olean route (with connections to Buffalo and New York City).Trailways offers a once-daily north-to-south run between Buffalo and points south in Pennsylvania.
The county does not have a unified public transit system. The Seneca Nation serves much of the county through its own bus line, which connects its reservations; another service, the Olean Area Transit System, connects the cities of Salamanca and Olean.
There is no regular passenger rail service in Cattaraugus County;Amtrak does not serve the county. TheWNY & PA Railroad, based in Olean, provides freight service on most of the rail routes in Cattaraugus County; theNew York and Lake Erie Railroad serves the northwest corner and theBuffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad runs a north-to-south route.
Cattaraugus County is run by aunicameral legislature who appoint a county "administrator". This individual serves many executive duties of a county executive but has no legislative veto power and is not elected.
The legislators are elected independently by districts (while some also serve as mayors of the villages they represent, their status as mayors does not affect in any way their seats on the legislature and thus it is not aBoard of Supervisors). The county uses a system ofproportional representation in which each legislator's vote is weighted to the number of persons in their district; each district can have between one and three legislators. This system was imposed in the 1960s in the wake of theone man, one vote federal court rulings of the era; before this, the county operated under a true board of supervisors model. There are currently 17 members of the legislature with 16 Republicans and 1 Democrat. Each legislator serves a four-year term, with a limit of three terms.
All but one of those serving on the county council are Republicans, and only two years in the entire history of the county legislature (1992 to 1994) have seen the Democrats in the majority.[26] Howard VanRensselaer, Sr. of Randolph serves as chairman, and Andy Burr serves as vice-chairman. In 2023, the lone Democrat's seat was redistricted out of existence, prompting the local Democratic Party to withdraw from all county legislature races that year in protest.[27]
The county generally votes for Republicans in most statewide and national offices. For instance, in 2004George W. Bush defeatedJohn Kerry in Cattaraugus County by a 60–40 margin, althoughBill Clinton won Cattaraugus County very narrowly in 1996. In 2006, the county narrowly choseEliot Spitzer overJohn Faso by a margin of about 1 percent inthe governor's race, andHillary Clinton defeatedJohn Spencer in the county by a 10 percentage point margin. In all other positions up for office in 2006, Republicans won all congressional and state legislature representatives. In 2008, the county voted for the Republican presidential candidate, withJohn McCain defeatingBarack Obama by a 55-44% margin. In 2010, RepublicanCarl Paladino carried Cattaraugus County over Democrat (and eventual winner)Andrew Cuomo 65% to 31%. SenatorKirsten Gillibrand and SenatorChuck Schumer, both incumbent Democrats, carried the county by 51% to 46% and 54% to 43% margins, respectively. The county regularly has high turnout for presidential elections, with upwards of 70 percent of eligible voters typically voting in the county. Only three Democrats have carried the county since 1900, with Democrats winning in 1912, 1964, and 1996.
An emerging trend among Cattaraugus County's villages has been consolidation with their surrounding towns.Limestone voters approved dissolution into theTown of Carrollton in September 2009; that took effect at the beginning of 2011. On March 18, 2010, three other villages (East Randolph,Randolph andPerrysburg) followed suit and approved dissolution into their surrounding towns (Town of Randolph for the first two, andTown of Perrysburg for the third); these three villages dissolved at the beginning of 2012.
Two geological formations, both called "Rock City," have the appearance of a town laid out with streets. One is inOlean and the other is inLittle Valley.
Olean is the largest city in the county and is the major center for business.Ski country runs through Cattaraugus County; two ski resorts, popular with Canadians, lie in the town ofEllicottville:Holiday Valley Resort and HoliMont; Cattaraugus County once had numerous ski resorts within its bounds, scattered throughout the county, before contracting into Ellicottville alone by 1980. In addition, several snowmobile trails cross the county, including thePat McGee Trail, a flagship for the county's trail system, and theNorth Country Trail.
The sales tax in Cattaraugus County is 8% (4% from New York, 4% from the county).
A largeAmish community is located in the western part of the county; with an estimated 2,500 residents, they constitute slightly under 3% of the county's population.[28] A portion of this community maintains an exceptionally older order that eschews indoor plumbing, which, combined with a small number of Seneca who still live on traditional subsistence, gives the county a high rate of homes without indoor plumbing compared to nearby counties.[29]
WWHC-LD (channel 20),WVTT-CD (then channel 25) andWBUO-LD (channel 30) were all previously licensed to Olean. All have since been relicensed to Buffalo.
Timothy Kellner U.S. Army Staff Sergeant of Ischua, regarded as one of the top snipers in U.S. history with 139 confirmed kills duringOperation Iraqi Freedom.
