Utica Area

Utica Area. Historic New York. , Situated on the important Mohawk Valley route between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes, Utica has long been a travel crossroads. Indian trails converged there, and Fort Schuyler was built on the site in 1758. The community which grew around the fort’s ruins became the village of Utica in 1798., During the American Revolution, patriot militia under General Nicholas Herkimer halted a British invasion at Oriskany, on August 6, 1777, but Tories and Indians raided Mohawk Valley communities until 1781. After the war land speculators reopened the area to settlement. New York State gratefully granted Baron Friedrich von Steuben 16,000 acres near Remsen for his services as “drillmaster of the Revolution.”, Governor De Witt Clinton at Rome in 1817 started construction of the Erie Canal, completed in 1825. The Erie Canal, its Chenango branch to Binghamton (1836) and railroad service (1837) increased Utica’s importance as a transportation center, and the area prospered. Industrial production started early with textile mills along Sauquoit and Oriskany Creeks. At Ilion, Eliphalet Remington pioneered in manufacturing firearms., Today, makers of electrical and electronics equipment have replaced textile factories, while fertile farmlands continue as sources of dairy products.