Niagara County

Niagara County, New York
Niagara County Clerks Office
Location in the U.S. state of New York
New York's location in the U.S.
Founded	March 11, 1808
Seat	Lockport
Largest city	Niagara Falls
Area
• Total	1,140 sq mi (2,953 km2)
• Land	522 sq mi (1,352 km2)
• Water	617 sq mi (1,598 km2), 54%
Population (est.)
• (2013)	214,249
• Density	414/sq mi (160/km²)
Congressional districts	26th, 27th
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.niagaracounty.com

Niagara County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 216,469. The county seat is Lockport. The county name is from the Iroquois word Onguiaahra; meaning the strait or thunder of waters.\

Niagara County is part of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area, and across the Canada–US border is the province of Ontario.

It is the location of Niagara Falls and Fort Niagara, and has many parks and lake shore recreation communities. In the summer of 2008, Niagara County celebrated its 200birthday with the first town of the county, Town of Cambria.

When counties were established in the New York colony in 1683, the present Niagara County was part of Albany County. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present State of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3, 1766 by the creation of Cumberland County, and further on March 16, 1770 by the creation of Gloucester County, both containing territory now in Vermont.

On March 12, 1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces, Tryon County, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city of Schenectady, and the county included the western part of the Adirondack Mountains and the area west of the West Branch of the Delaware River. The area then designated as Tryon County now includes 37 counties of New York State. The county was named for William Tryon, colonial governor of New York.