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-Corningmetropolitan areas. This region is adjacent to the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania, and both these regions together are known as the Twin Tiers.
Geographically, most of the Southern Tier resides in the Allegheny Plateau of the Appalachian Mountains, with the eastern areas of the region nestled in the western portion of the Catskill Mountains. A longtime home of the Iroquois Confederacy, European settlers moved to the region after the American Revolutionary War. The fertile yet hilly land, combined with sweeping river valleys, led the region to support a combination of manufacturing industries (including large companies such as IBM and Corning Inc.) and farming, but with less development compared to neighboring subregions of Upstate. Since the 1950s, the area is often considered to be a part of the Rust Belt, as manufacturing jobs have left the region.
Constituent counties
The Southern Tier is commonly considered to consist of 8 counties:
The Southern Tier is not a legally defined region. Due to this, various neighboring counties can be included in the region, while counties near other regions of New York State may be excluded. For example, some organizations consider Delaware County, Otsego County, Schoharie County and Cortland County to reside in the Southern Tier.[2][3]
The New York State Division of Local Government Services presently classifies the following fourteen counties as members of the Southern Tier: Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins.[5] This definition corresponds to the same 14 counties in New York State that are members of the Appalachian Regional Commission formed in 1963.
The Southern Tier is generally hilly without being mountainous (with the exception of the Catskill mountains). This can range from low rolling hills to more steep and rugged cliffs and valleys. The highest point in western New York is Alma Hill in Allegany County near the Steuben County line in the Southern Tier. Both the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers flow through the Southern Tier in their upper reaches, as does the Allegheny River in the western Southern Tier.
The Southern Tier makes up the northernmost portion of Appalachia and lies on the Allegheny Plateau. It is defined on its western boundary by the Chautauqua Ridge in Chautauqua County, and including this ridge and extending eastward across the northern bounds of the region, the continental divide between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watersheds exists. The Eastern Continental Divide runs directly through the region, in Steuben County.
The Southern Tier is more linked, geographically, with Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna River valley than it is with the remainder of New York State. Population of the Southern Tier came primarily from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and downstate New York ("Yorkers"). In contrast, the inhabitants of upper New York State came from New England ("Yankees").[6]:11
History
The Southern Tier has long been home to the people of the Iroquois Confederacy. There were major settlements along the Allegheny River in Cattaraugus County (which the Senecas acquired by defeating the Wenrohronon during the Beaver Wars in 1638) and at Painted Post in Steuben County, at what is today the northeast side of Corning, New York. The Seneca Nation has a reservation today along the Allegheny River and a headquarters at Salamanca. There are also Native lands (with no current Native residents) on Cuba Lake in Allegany County.
The colonies that eventually became the states of New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania all laid claim to the Southern Tier at various points in the 17th and 18th centuries, while not making any significant attempt to settle the territory.
The region was quickly settled by whites after the Revolutionary War, when settlers were again allowed west of the Appalachian divide. The Southern Tier shared in the economic growth of the early 19th century, but its hilly terrain made it less suitable to canal-building, and later, railroading, than the more-level corridor to the north between Albany and Buffalo. There was an attempt at a Genesee Valley Canal in the western half, and in the eastern half, the Chemung and Chenango Canals did connect the Erie Canal to Elmira and Binghamton respectively. Beset by financial and technical difficulties, the latter two canals nonetheless were important catalysts for economic growth, and indeed for the construction of the railroads that would supplant them. Plans to connect these canals to the Pennsylvania Canal system, thus making them much more than feeders to the Erie Canal, never came to fruition.
Railroads did arrive and the Erie Railroad, which followed the water-level of the Allegheny, Susquehanna and Delaware watersheds, accelerated industrial progress in the region about the time of the American Civil War. The railroad and available fuel from the region's dense forests attracted Corning Glass Works to Steuben County in 1868.
The region became home to prosperous farms and small factory towns (with the exception of larger Binghamton) during the first half of the 20th century. But declines in U.S. manufacturing hit the region hard and it suffered even more than other parts of upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania.
The region's addition to the Appalachian Regional Commission, often credited to the influence of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, provided economic stimulus over the last 40 years. Government funds built the Southern Tier Expressway, highway links to the New York State Thruway, encouraged the growth of state colleges at Wellsville, Alfred and Binghamton and sought with mixed success to attract business interests relocating from the New York Metropolitan Area and urban Western New York.
For two decades, the region has tried to remake itself as a tourist destination and relocation area for retirees from big Northeastern cities. Meanwhile, agriculture and manufacturing struggle to compete regionally and globally.
Bus service is provided along the entire I-86/NY 17 corridor by Coach USA's Shortline/Erie services from Jamestown to New York City and Buffalo, and Trailways connects the Southern Tier with Buffalo, Dubois (at the western end in Salamanca), Sunbury/Lock Haven (at Elmira), and Syracuse, Albany and Harrisburg (at Binghamton). A somewhat-unorganized network of municipally-operated public transportation services operate local and limited intercity bus services between Salamanca and Elmira.
Until the demise of long-distance passenger rail service in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, the Erie Railroad operated passenger trains in the region, with Chicago, Illinois as the western terminus and Jersey City, New Jersey as the eastern terminus, with ferry connections to New York City. The last Erie Lackawanna passenger train, the "Lake Cities", ran on January 6, 1970.
Amtrak currently does not serve the area. Proposals for high-speed rail in New York have included a route from Binghamton to New York City through Scranton, Pennsylvania: a route that could at least partially be upgraded for high-speed rail. As of 2011, the highest priority for high-speed rail projects in New York is in the Empire Corridor, of which no part crosses the Southern Tier. The hilly terrain of the Southern Tier's I-86 corridor is not ideal for high-speed rail service, especially compared to the relatively flat and straight land in the Empire Corridor.
Economy
Government services are the largest employer in the area. Of second and declining importance is manufacturing. The region's manufacturing economy has suffered for decades, but factories are found in the region's larger communities. Fortune 500 materials maker Corning Inc. is headquartered in Steuben County. Broome County has a large high-tech industry and is the birthplace of IBM and flight simulation. In addition, other factories in the region make military aircraft, televisions, furniture, metal forgings and machine tools.
The area includes the northern extent of the Marcellus Formation and natural gas. Crude oil and oil sands continue to be extracted from Southern Tier wells as they have for over a century.[7][8] There is significant debate about allowing hydraulic fracturing of the Marcellus Shale in the Southern Tier, which is currently banned in New York.
Cummins engine company has a large production facility located in Jamestown, NY. The Jamestown Engine Plant, established in 1974, is one of the top five heavy-duty diesel engine producers worldwide with production in recent years typically exceeding 100,000 engines annually. The JEP also remains one of the company's largest manufacturing facilities, as it accounts for 12 percent of Cummins' total engine production in 2012.[9]
Agriculture is also a major part of the economy. Leading products are dairy, vegetables, orchard fruit and wine grapes (the last of which typically grows only on the fringes of the Southern Tier, as the inland areas tend to not have a long enough growing season to support it). In addition, two prominent microbreweries, the Southern Tier Brewing Company in Lakewood, New York and the Ellicottville Brewing Company in Ellicottville, operate in the western Southern Tier.
The western and northern edges of the Southern Tier are known as ski country, and the hilly terrain (that forms a continental divide known as the Chautauqua Ridge) is notorious for frequent and heavy lake effect snow. As a result, Ellicottville has become a "ski town" with both the Holimont and Holiday Valley resorts in the vicinity; the two resorts draw numerous tourists, particularly from Canada, for which U.S. Route 219 provides easy access. At its peak in the 1960s, over a dozen ski resorts resided in the Southern Tier, many in Cattaraugus County, before most of them closed due to various assorted causes by the 1980s.
Culture
The Southern Tier is home to two professional symphony orchestras: the Binghamton Philharmonic in Binghamton and the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes in Corning. Binghamton also has the Binghamton Youth Symphony and the Binghamton Community Orchestra.
Most of the Southern Tier is either served by the Elmira-Corning television market or the Binghamton television market. Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties are out of these stations' ranges, however, and are instead served by the Buffalo and Erie television markets. Two stations (more-or-less independent WVTT-CD and Retro Television Network owned-and-operated translator WBUO-LD) are licensed to Olean but serve Buffalo in practice.
The Olean, Elmira-Corning, and Binghamton radio markets directly serve the Southern Tier, and the Ithaca market indirectly serves some of the area. Seven Mountains Media is the dominant broadcaster in Olean and Elmira-Corning. iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media own station clusters only in Binghamton.
From 2000 to 2017, Elmira had a professional ice hockey team in the Elmira Jackals. They played in the United Hockey League from 2000 to 2007 and the ECHL for the franchise's remaining years. The Jackals were replaced by a new Federal Hockey League franchise called the Elmira Enforcers from 2018 to 2021.[11] The last minor league baseball team in the Southern Tier west of Binghamton, the Jamestown Jammers, relocated out of the area in 2016, ending an era in which the New York–Penn League featured pro teams in Jamestown, Olean, Wellsville, Hornell, Corning, Elmira and Oneonta over the course of its history; collegiate summer baseball still thrives in the region in the form of the New York Collegiate Baseball League and Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, both with multiple teams in the region, and Town Team Baseball also operated in the form of the Southwestern New York Men's Baseball League from 2014 to 2016. Only one major league franchise has ever resided in the Southern Tier: the professional basketball team Elmira Colonels, which played from 1952 to 1953.
↑ Eisenstadt, Peter, ed. (2005). " Southern Tier". The Encyclopedia of New York State. Syracuse University Press. p.1437. ISBN0-8156-0808-X.
↑ "Appalachian Regional Commission Overview". State of New York. Division of Local Government Services. Retrieved May 16, 2009. The Appalachian portion of New York State ("Appalachian New York"), contains the following fourteen counties: Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga and Tompkins. This region is most commonly known as New York's "Southern Tier."
Allegany County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,456. Its county seat is Belmont. Its name derives from a Lenape word, applied by European-American settlers of Western New York State to a trail that followed the Allegheny River; they also named the county after this. The county is part of the Western New York region of the state.
Cattaraugus County is a county in Western New York, with one side bordering Pennsylvania. As of the United States 2020 census, the population was 77,042. The county seat is Little Valley. The county was created in 1808 and later organized in 1817. The county is part of the Western New York region of the state.
The New York–Penn League (NYPL) was a Minor League Baseball league that operated in the northeastern United States from 1939 to 2020. Classified as a Class A Short Season league, its season started in June, after major-league teams signed their amateur draft picks to professional contracts, and ended in early September.
Scouting in New York has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live. The first National Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Headquarters was in New York City, and the Girl Scouts of the USA National Headquarters is currently located at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
Olean is a city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County and serves as its financial, business, transportation and entertainment center. It is one of the principal cities of the Southern Tier region of Western New York.
New York State Route 17 (NY 17) is a major state highway that extends for 397 miles (638.91 km) through the Southern Tier and Downstate regions of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in Mina and follows the Southern Tier Expressway east through Corning to Binghamton and the Quickway from Binghamton east to Woodbury, where it turns south to follow the Orange Turnpike to the New Jersey state line near Suffern, where it connects to New Jersey Route 17. From the Pennsylvania border to the village of Waverly and from Binghamton to Windsor, NY 17 is concurrent with Interstate 86 (I-86). Eventually, the entire east–west portion of NY 17 from the Pennsylvania border to Woodbury will become I-86 as projects to upgrade the route to Interstate Highway standards are completed.
Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all sources agree WNY includes the cities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Jamestown, and the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of Niagara Frontier, and Chautauqua-Alleghany. Many would also place Rochester and the Genesee Valley in the region, although those legally belong in the Finger Lakes Region and are separate from Western New York Region.
Interstate 86 (I-86) is an Interstate Highway that extends for 253.96 miles (408.71 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 at New York State Route 26 in Vestal, New York in Broome County, while the second extends from I-81 east of Binghamton to 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.
New York's 29th congressional district is an obsolete congressional district for the United States House of Representatives which most recently included a portion of the Appalachian mountains in New York known as the "Southern Tier." It was most recently represented by Republican Tom Reed. This district number became obsolete for the 113th Congress in 2013 as a result of the 2010 census. Most of the former 29th district remained intact and was to be renumbered as the 23rd district.
Area code 607 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for the U.S. state of New York. It serves parts of its Southern Tier. It was created in 1954 by combining the southern portion of 315 and the eastern portion of 716. Initially, in the late 1940s, area codes with a middle digit of "0" (x0x-xxx-xxxx) were assigned only to jurisdictions covering an entire state. Along with 507 in Minnesota and 606 in Kentucky, 607 was among the first such area codes to be added to a jurisdiction.
New York's 23rd congressional district is located in Upstate New York, and covers part of Buffalo's Northtowns, all of the Southtowns, and much of the Southern Tier. The district includes two of the eleven Finger Lakes: Keuka Lake and Seneca Lake.
New York's 38th congressional district was a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in New York. It was created in 1913 as a result of the 1910 U.S. census and eliminated in 1983 as a result of the redistricting cycle after the 1980 census. It was last represented by Republican Jack Kemp who was redistricted into the 31st congressional district.
New York State Route 417 (NY 417) is an east–west state highway located in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It begins at exit 20 of the Southern Tier Expressway in the city of Salamanca and ends at a junction with NY 415 in Painted Post, west of the city of Corning. At 105.25 miles (169.38 km) in length, NY 417 is the longest of the state highways that were formerly part of NY 17 before the construction of the Southern Tier Expressway. It also diverges the most from the current NY 17, coming within 100 feet (30 m) of the Pennsylvania state line at one intersection.
The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad is a short-line railroad that operates freight trains in Western New York and Northwest Pennsylvania. The company is controlled by the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad, with which it does not connect. It started operations in 2001 on the Southern Tier Extension, a former Erie Railroad line between Hornell, New York and Corry, Pennsylvania, owned by the public Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Steuben Southern Tier Extension Railroad Authority (STERA).
The 2004 United States Senate election in New York took place on November 2, 2004, along with elections to the United States Senate in other states, as well as the presidential election, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. Incumbent Senator Chuck Schumer won re-election to a second term with 71.2% of the vote, at the time the highest margin of victory for any statewide candidate in New York's history, and winning every county except Hamilton.
The 45th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 2 to April 17, 1822, during the fifth year of DeWitt Clinton's governorship, in Albany.
The Liberty Highway was an auto trail in the United States linking New York City with Cleveland, Ohio. It passed through Binghamton, New York; Elmira, New York; Jamestown, New York; and Erie, Pennsylvania. First signed in 1918, it was named after the village of Liberty, New York.
Quaker Lake is located south of Coldspring, New York. Fish species present in the lake are rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, and black bullhead. There is a state owned carry down launch located in Allegany State Park off NY-280. The state park also offers a swimming area and facilities on the lake.
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