Greater Western New York Trivia Quiz #1 – Geography
What day is Greater Western New York’s birthday?
December 16, 1786 - Are you ready for a birthday party?
What was the name of the agreement that officially established the original boundaries of Greater Western New York.
The Treaty of Hartford set the official boundaries of Greater Western New York and solved the land rights dispute between New York and Massachusetts, which both had legitimate claims to Greater Western New York.
What is the name of the line that marked the original eastern extent of the Greater Western New York Region?
They had to draw it twice, but the Treaty off Hartford declared, although everything west of Preemption Line was part of the State of New York, the State of Massachusetts owned the "preemptive" economic rights. This meant, before any new land developers could negotiate to buy the land from the Iroquois, they must first buy the right to negotiate from Massachusetts.
What was the first official name of the Greater Western New York Region?
Although called "Genesee Country" early as 1803, on January 27, 1789, the New York State Assembly created a new county from the territory within Montgomery County west of Preemption Line and decided to name it "Ontario County" after the lake at it's northern border.
Today, how many counties make up the Greater Western New York Region?
Preemption Line ran from the eighty-second milestone on the New York-Pennsylvania border due north straight to the shore of Lake Ontario. Over the years, that line got a little jagged. Today, 17 counties now touch, contain, or are west of the original Preemption Line: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates.
What is the smallest county (by population) in Greater Western New York (per 2010 Census)?
C'mon, did you really think we'd ask you to name the biggest county (Erie)? That would be too easy. In the last official Census, Schuyler County had only 18,343 residents, making it the smallest of the 17 counties in Greater Western New York. By comparison, Yates, the next smallest county, had 25,348 residents.
What is the smallest town (by population) in Greater Western New York (per 2010 Census)?
Was the picture a hint? Although there may never have really been a "red house," the town of Red House, its land area shrunk by the creation of Allegany State Park, the building of the Kinzua Dam, the construction of the Southern Tier Expressway, and the existence of the Allegany Indian Reservation, remains the town with the fewest citizens. In the last two decennial census counts (2000 and 2010), the town had only 38 residents.
If the U.S. Census defined the 17-county Greater Western New York Region as a single Metropolitan Statistical Area, what would it rank in population (per 2010 census)?
The 17-county Greater Western New York Region clocks in at #18, just behind the 16-county St. Louis Metro Area but ahead of the tri-city area of Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. It's also a tad behind San Diego, so take that, Southern California.
If Greater Western New York were a state, what would in rank by population (per 2010 Census)?
With a 2010 population of 2,804,653 citizens, if Greater Western New York were a state, it would rank #34, between Kansas (2,853,118) and Utah (2,763,885). Now, again, remind us, how many senators do we have?
When was the only time all the citizens of the Greater Western New York Region had a chance to vote on seceding from New York State?
After failing to avert the Preemption Rights of Massachusetts as defined by the Treaty of Hartford (an effort supported by the British in an attempt to reclaim land lost in the Revolutionary War), John Livingston and Caleb Benton passed a petition to get the residents of Ontario County (i.e., Greater Western New York) to agree to form a new state. On November 8, 1793, at a "town hall" meeting in Canandaigua, the citizens of Ontario County passed a resolution rejecting the secession effort of Livingston and Benton.
