Lecture 4 - Upstate New York

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Upstate New York

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New York State apart from New York City, Long Island, and the suburban counties immediately north of New York (Westchester and Rockland). Upstate New York accounts for 96% of the territory of New York State, but is home to only 37% of the population. The economy, people, and politics of upstate New York are different than those of the city, making the union of upstate and downstate far from happy.

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Perceptual Region

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A region that is perceived by ordinary people, normally because it is obviously different than neighboring regions. Examples of perceptual regions in Texas are: The Valley, The Hill Country, and East Texas. Different people will place the boundary* of a perceptual region in different places, depending on their point of view. Some people, for instance, would draw the boundary between upstate New York and downstate New York, as far north as Albany, whereas others would draw it as far south as Yonkers.

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Empire State

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The nickname of New York State. The state takes this nickname because (a) it was the primary battleground on which the French and British empires fought for control of North America, and (b) it was the Hudson-Mohawk Corridor† was the key to controlling the hinterland* of the interior of North America

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Entrepôt

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A city that serves as the “gateway” or principal entry point to a region, that region being the hinterland of that entrepôt. An ocean port is always an entrepôt, but there are also inland entrepôts on rivers, canals, railroads and major highways.

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Spillways

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As the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted, water was trapped between the receding ice and the Allegheny Plateau and Appalachian Mountains. This result was Lake Iroquois, the ancestor of today’s Lake Ontario. The channels through which Lake Iroquois drained to the sea are called spillways. The Mohawk and Hudson River Valleys are one such spillway, the Champlain Valley and Hudson River Valley are another.

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Manufacturing Belt

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A string of industrial cities such as was found along the Erie Canal Corridor between Albany and Buffalo.

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New England Extended

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The name given by cultural geographers to the region in upstate New York, northern Ohio, southern Michigan, and Southern Wisconsin, first settled primarily by migrants from New England. Until the late nineteenth century, most of the people in this region were descended from New Englanders and continued to express the cultural and religious attitudes of New England

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Bypassed Regions

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A region bypassed by migrants because they perceive it, rightly or wrongly, as unsuited to their needs. The Adirondack Mountains of New York State were such a region until they were developed as a tourist destination in the late nineteenth century.

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Great Lakes

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A set of five lakes (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior) that stretches over nearly 1,000 miles on the border between the United States and Canada. Particularly in the days before rapid overland transportation, the Great Lakes permitted unparalleled access to the continental interior. This is why control of the Great Lakes was understood to be the key (along with control of the Mississippi) to the control of North America.

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St. Lawrence River

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The river by which the Great Lakes now empty into the Atlantic Ocean. The St. Lawrence is the fourth and final spillway for the great lakes (which first emptied down the Mississippi, then through the Mohawk-Hudson Valley, and then through the Champlain-Hudson Valley. Montreal is the great entrepôt on the St. Lawrence

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Montreal

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The second largest city in Canada, and the seventh largest in North America. Montreal is located on the St. Lawrence River, and is situated at a strategic intersection of major transportation routes. From Montreal one has access to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the St. Lawrence, to the upper Great Lakes† (Huron, Michigan, and Superior) by way of the Ottawa River, to the lower Great Lakes (Ontario and Erie) by way of the St. Lawrence, and to upstate New York by way of the Champlain Valley. Because of its extraordinary situation, Montreal was the most serious rival to New York for control of the continental interior.

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Hudson-Mohawk Corridor

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The valley of the Hudson River, and of its tributary, the Mohawk, together cut through the Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Plateau, and form the only level connection between the eastern seaboard and the interior lowlands between Georgia and Canada. This break was formed when the valleys acted as spillways draining glacial Lake Iroquois.

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Albany, N.Y.

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The capital of New York State, located near the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers

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Appalachian Mountains

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A range of low mountains in the eastern United States, running parallel to the Atlantic coast from northern Alabama to the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Their average elevation is about 3,000 feet, with the highest peaks over 6,000 feet. The term Appalachian is sometimes applied to all the mountains of the eastern United States, and sometimes restricted to the so- called “folded” Appalachians. In New York State the folded Appalachians are known as the Hudson Highlands and the Taconic Mountains.

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Albany, Schenctady, Troy

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These three cities are clustered together at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century they were an important manufacturing center, part of a manufacturing belt that stretched west along the Erie Canal Corridor to Buffalo. They were able to make use of iron ore mined just to the north, in the Adirondack Mountains, and transported south on the Champlain Canal (1825)

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Adirondack Mountains

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A mountain range of northern New York. Apart from iron mining and forestry, the Adirondacks were, until the late 19th century, a bypassed region. The sandy soils and steep slopes of the Adirondacks were not attractive to migrants from New Englander, who swept round the mountains and on to more attractive land farther west. In the late nineteenth century the Adirondacks was developed as a tourist destination, and it is today the largest park in the lower 48 states.

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Erie Canal Corridor

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A band of industrial cities stretching from Albany-Schenectady-Troy in the east to Buffalo in the west. The other main cities are Syracuse† and Rochester†. For over two hundred years, it has been a major route through the Appalachian Mountains to the west. It follows the spillway of the Mohawk Valley between the Allegheny Plateau and the Adirondack Mountains, and then runs along the foot of the Allegheny Plateau to Lake Erie. Turnpikes were built along this route in the 1790s. These were followed by the Erie Canal (1825), railroads, and the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90).

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Erie Canal

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Completed in 1825, this was the first major transportation improvement in the Erie Canal Corridor. It gave birth to the cities of Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo.

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Buffalo, N.Y.

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The western terminus of the Erie Canal† on Lake Erie. Buffalo was the entrepôt to the Great Lakes. It later became a major center for flour milling. In the twentieth century it was home to the largest steel mill in the U.S. When this closed in the 1980s, Buffalo underwent painful deindustrialization.

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Allegheny Plateau

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An large area of low to intermediate sized hills in western New York and Pennsylvania. The Allegheny Plateau lies west of the Folded Appalachians and south of Lake Ontario. In Pennsylvania the Alleghenies are quite rugged, although they produce coal, oil, and natural gas. In western New York the hills are lower, and were a very attractive destination for farmers migrating west out of New England. These people were particularly attracted to the Finger Lakes and the Genesee Country.

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Finger Lakes

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These long, narrow lakes were formed when the Laurentide Ice Sheet pushed its way over the northern edge of the Allegheny Plateau. The Finger Lakes region was an attractive destination for farmers migrating out of New England. The low hills that divide the lakes had good soil, and the lakes provided transportation routes north to the Erie Canal Corridor.

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Genesee River/Country

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The Genesee River rises in the Allegheny Plateau, in Pennsylvania. It is one of the very few rivers in the United States that flows north! Owing to the Pleistocene Glaciation, the Genesee passes through two deep gorges with many high waterfalls. One of these, near the river’s mouth at Lake Ontario, is the site of Rochester, a city that grew up around the great falls of the Genesee to take advantage of water power. The river valley outside the gorges, and the country for many miles to either side, was called the Genesee Country, and in the 1830s and 1840s it was the principal wheat producing region of the United States.

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Syracuse, N.Y.

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A city on the Erie Canal in central New York State. Syracuse is situated at the crossroads of New York State, as today indicated by the intersection of Interstates 90 (east-west) and 85 (north-south). It was at first noteworthy for the production of salt, which was used as a meat preservative. It also served as the entrepot to central New York and the eastern Finger Lakes Region. By the twentieth century its major industry was the Solvay Process Plant, which produced soda ash, an important industrial chemical. After this closed in the 1980s, Syracuse underwent painful deindustrialization.

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Rochester, N.Y.

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A city on the Erie Canal in western New York State. Rochester was located at the site of the great falls of the Genesee River, and was at first a great center of flour milling. Wheat from the western Finger Lakes and surrounding Genesee Country was milled into flower in Rochester, and then shipped east on the Eire Canal†, which ran through the center of the city. In the twentieth century the major employer in Rochester was the Eastman Kodak company, producer of photographic supplies. When this industry was transformed by digital photography in the 1990s, Rochester underwent painful deindustrialization.