This article possibly contains original research .(May 2023) |
Erie Triangle | |
---|---|
Nickname: The Triangle Lands | |
Country | United States |
State | Pennsylvania |
County | Erie |
Largest city | Erie, Pennsylvania |
Purchased | 1792 |
Area | |
• Total | 202,187 acres (81,822 ha) |
Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
The Erie Triangle is a roughly 300-square-mile (780-square-kilometre) tract of American land that was the subject of several competing colonial-era claims. It was eventually acquired by the U.S. federal government and sold to Pennsylvania so that the state would have access to a freshwater port on Lake Erie. The Erie Triangle land makes up a large portion of present-day Erie County, Pennsylvania.
Most of northwestern Pennsylvania came under American control following the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Iroquois Confederacy. The following year, a boundary dispute between New York and Pennsylvania erupted. Following a surveying effort by Andrew Ellicott representing the Pennsylvanians and James Clinton and Simeon DeWitt representing the New Yorkers, the western edge of New York was set at 20 miles (32 km) east of Pennsylvania's Presque Isle, a small peninsula off the coast of Erie, Pennsylvania. However, this left an unclaimed area, which came to be known as the Triangle Lands.[ citation needed ]
The Triangle Lands problematically fell under neither New York's nor Pennsylvania's charter, while both Connecticut and Massachusetts also spoke up with claims derived from their original colonial "sea to shining sea" grants.[ citation needed ]
Of the three competing claimants (Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts), only Pennsylvania was landlocked, except for a very tiny strip of coastline 3.75 miles (6.04 km) in length. Following some pressure from the new federal government, all four states surrendered their claims to that entity, which then, in 1792, sold the final rights to the 202,187 acres (81,822 ha) of land to Pennsylvania for $151,640.25 (75¢/acre). [lower-alpha 1] [2] The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy released the land to Pennsylvania in January 1789 for payments of $2,000 from Pennsylvania [lower-alpha 2] and $1,200 from the federal government. [lower-alpha 3] [3] The Seneca Nation separately settled land claims against Pennsylvania in February 1791 for $800. [4] [3] [lower-alpha 4] This was accomplished without the approval of the federal government and in violation of the Contract Clause [5] of the United States Constitution which reserved the right to make treaties to the federal government. [6] With this access to the Great Lakes, Pennsylvania was persuaded to accept the western boundary established by the Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory following passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787.[ citation needed ]
The Erie Triangle is often described as a "tab" or "chimney" attached to the Keystone State. The water off the coast of the Erie Triangle is known as the Graveyard of Lake Erie because of the large number of shipwrecks that occurred in the area's stormy waters in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was also the site of a preliminary battle between forces that participated in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The battle itself took place in the Lake Erie Islands, at the western end of the lake, off the coast of Ohio.[ citation needed ]
Erie County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the northernmost county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,876. Its county seat is Erie. The county was created in 1800 and later organized in 1803. The county is part of the Northwest Pennsylvania region of the state.
The Tonawanda Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation located in western New York, United States. The band is a federally recognized tribe and, in the 2010 census, had 693 people living on the reservation. The reservation lies mostly in Genesee County, extending into Erie and Niagara counties. It is bordered by the Towns of Alabama, Pembroke, Newstead, and Royalton.
Oil Springs Reservation or Oil Spring Reservation is an Indian reservation of the federally recognized Seneca Nation that is located in southwestern New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the Indian reservation had one resident; in 2005 no tribal members had lived on the property. The reservation covers about one square mile (2.6 km2), divided between the present-day counties of Allegany and Cattaraugus. The reservation is northwest of the village of Cuba. It is bordered by the Town of Cuba and the Town of Ischua.
The Beaver Wars, also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars, were a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America throughout the Saint Lawrence River valley in Canada and the Great Lakes region which pitted the Iroquois against the Hurons, northern Algonquians and their French allies. As a result of this conflict, the Iroquois destroyed several confederacies and tribes through warfare: the Hurons or Wendat, Erie, Neutral, Wenro, Petun, Susquehannock, Mohican and northern Algonquins whom they defeated and dispersed, some fleeing to neighbouring peoples and others assimilated, routed, or killed.
The Seneca are a group of Indigenous Iroquoian-speaking people who historically lived south of Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes in North America. Their nation was the farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League (Haudenosaunee) in New York before the American Revolution. For this reason, they are called “The Keepers of the Western Door.”
The Southern Tier is a geographic subregion of the broader Upstate region of New York State, geographically situated along or very near the state border with Pennsylvania. Definitions of the region vary widely, but generally encompass counties surrounding the Binghamton and Elmira-Corning metropolitan areas. This region is adjacent to the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania, and both these regions together are known as the Twin Tiers.
The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the sale, in 1788, of a portion of a large tract of land in western New York State owned by the Seneca nation of the Iroquois Confederacy to a syndicate of land developers led by Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham. The larger tract of land is generally known as the "Genesee tract" and roughly encompasses all that portion of New York State west of Seneca Lake, consisting of about 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km2).
The Ohio Country was a name used for a loosely defined region of colonial North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie.
The Connecticut Western Reserve was a portion of land claimed by the Colony of Connecticut and later by the state of Connecticut in what is now mostly the northeastern region of Ohio. The Reserve had been granted to the Colony under the terms of its charter by King Charles II.
The Cayuga are one of the five original constituents of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), a confederacy of Native Americans in New York. The Cayuga homeland lies in the Finger Lakes region along Cayuga Lake, between their league neighbors, the Onondaga to the east and the Seneca to the west. Today, Cayuga people belong to the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation in Ontario, and the federally recognized Cayuga Nation of New York and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma.
The Buffalo River drains a 447-square-mile (1,160 km2) watershed in Western New York state, emptying into the eastern end of Lake Erie at the City of Buffalo. The river has three tributaries: Cayuga Creek, Buffalo Creek, and Cazenovia Creek.
The Land Act of 1820, enacted April 24, 1820, is the United States federal law that ended the ability to purchase the United States' public domain lands on a credit or installment system over four years, as previously established. The new law became effective July 1, 1820 and required full payment at the time of purchase and registration. But to encourage more sales and make them more affordable, Congress also reduced both the minimum price and the minimum size of a standard tract. The minimum full payment now amounted to $100, rather than $320. At the time, these lands were located on the frontier within the Congress Lands of Ohio and elsewhere in the Northwest Territory and Missouri Territory, in what was then "The West".
Interstate 86 (I-86) is an Interstate Highway that extends for 223.39 miles (359.51 km) through northwestern Pennsylvania and the Southern Tier region of New York, in the United States. The highway has two segments: the longer of the two begins at an interchange with I-90 east of Erie, Pennsylvania, and ends just beyond the Chemung-Tioga county line at the Pennsylvania border, while the second extends from I-81 east of Binghamton to New York State Route 79 (NY 79) in Windsor. When projects to upgrade the existing NY 17 to Interstate Highway standards are completed, I-86 will extend from I-90 near Erie to the New York State Thruway (I-87) in Woodbury. The portion in Erie County, Pennsylvania, is known as the Hopkins-Bowser Highway and is signed as such at each end. In New York, the current and future alignment of I-86 is known as the Southern Tier Expressway west of I-81 in Binghamton and the Quickway east of I-81.
UPMC Park, formerly known as Jerry Uht Park, is a baseball park located in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is the home of the Double-A Erie SeaWolves of the Eastern League, the city's Minor League Baseball (MiLB) franchise. The SeaWolves are affiliated with the Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball team. It hosted its first regular season game on June 20, 1995, in which major league veteran José Guillén hit a home run to ensure a SeaWolves victory over the Jamestown Jammers.
The Seneca–Cayuga Nation is one of three federally recognized tribes of Seneca people in the United States. It includes the Cayuga people and is based in Oklahoma, United States. The tribe had more than 5,000 people in 2011. They have a tribal jurisdictional area in the northeast corner of Oklahoma and are headquartered in Grove. They are descended from Iroquoian peoples who had relocated to Ohio from New York state in the mid-18th century.
The Bicentennial Tower is an American observation tower that is located in Erie, Pennsylvania and features panoramic views of Lake Erie, Presque Isle State Park, and downtown Erie.
Erie, Pennsylvania, has had a long history as a major city in the Great Lakes region of the United States.
The Iroquois, also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the endonym Haudenosaunee are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of Native Americans and First Nations peoples in northeast North America. They were known by the French during the colonial years as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, while the English simply called them the "Five Nations". The peoples of the Iroquois included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora people from the southeast were accepted into the confederacy, from which point it was known as the "Six Nations".
The Seneca Road Company was formed to improve the main road running west from Utica, New York, the Genesee Road, from Utica to Canandaigua and operate it as a toll road or turnpike. The road was originally laid out in 1794 from Baggs Square in downtown Utica at the ford of the Mohawk River and followed the Indian trail past Syracuse to Canandaigua. Some accounts say it went to Geneva and Avon originally. There was no City of Syracuse then. The road became known as the Seneca Turnpike, which was 157 miles (253 km) long and, at the time, the longest toll road in the state.
Lake Shore Seminary was an American educational institution in North East, Pennsylvania. This coeducational high school and college opened in 1871 as a collaborative effort of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches. It included a campus of 84 acres (34 ha) and a newly constructed four-story building. Although it attracted 150 students, the opening debts of the school and the withdrawal of the Presbyterian church from the effort resulted in bankruptcy. Lake Shore Seminary closed in 1881. Later its campus was used for Saint Mary's College and Mercyhurst North East.