Now that we’ve marked the boundaries of Greater Western New York, the fun really begins. First, we can delineate the counties included. Greater Western 
New York contains 17 counties. These represent all the counties west of or touching the correct Pre-Emption Line. Those counties are:
● Allegany ● Chautauqua
● Cattaraugus ● Chemung
● Erie ● Genesee
● Livingston ● Monroe
● Niagara ● Ontario
● Orleans ● Seneca
● Schuyler ● Steuben ● Wayne ● Wyoming ● Yates
We should note that Pre-Emption Line marks the western border of both Seneca County (maybe, depending on who owns Seneca Lake) and Chemung County. The Line slices through the counties of Wayne, Yates and Schuyler. As it stands, the eastern borders of Wayne, Seneca, Schuyler and Chemung form a fairly straight line from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania line. OK, maybe it’s not quite straight enough to convince an officer you’re not unduly influenced, but it’s close enough.
What exactly does this constellation of the 17 western-most counties of New York State tell us? I discovered this particular hidden gem while preparing for a January 2004 Continue Reading “A Whole Greater than the Sum of Its Parts”
