Upstate New York is the region of New York State north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.

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Definition

(in red)]]

There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York. Latitude is generally a consideration in whether or not a place is "upstate", as well as elevation and being away from sea level (hence the prefix "up", meaning both to the north and having a greater altitude). Distance from New York City is also a consideration. Complicating any definition is the usage of the word "upstate" (in lowercase) as a direction, rather than as the name of a region.

One usage of the term "Upstate" excludes only New York City and Long Island. Another usage locates the Upstate/Downstate boundary further north at the point at which New York City's suburbs segue into its exurbs. This line would place most, but not all, of Westchester and Rockland counties south of the boundary, putting the northwestern edge of Rockland as well as the northernmost quarter of Westchester (such as Peekskill) in Upstate New York. Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties are the northernmost counties of the state of New York that are within the New York metropolitan area, with Putnam being the northernmost of all.

One traditional, political definition of Upstate is "north of Bear Mountain," hence the "Bear Mountain Compact" describing where "open secrets stay secret." Bear Mountain is in Orange County, New York.

Another view places the boundary even further north. Orange, Dutchess, and Ulster counties, even further "upstate" (lower case) are part of the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, New York-New Jersey-Connecticut-Pennsylvania Combined Statistical Area (CSA), and also sometimes not identified as being part of Upstate (uppercase). Because most New York City bedroom communities in Dutchess and Orange counties are situated in the southern part of those counties and the New York City's suburban public transportation system extends some distance north, the Upstate/Downstate boundary can be defined roughly by a border extended from Wassaic (in Dutchess County, where Metro-North's Harlem Line ends) across to Poughkeepsie, down to Newburgh and then across to Middletown and Port Jervis in Orange County. This definition of Upstate New York roughly corresponds with the area north of Interstate 84. This imaginary line also demarcates the northernmost reach of high housing prices associated with the Downstate region in contrast to the relatively low housing costs found further Upstate.

Particularly within Upstate New York, the demarcation of "Upstate" is often much further north. For instance, many communities clearly beyond the New York City commuter orbit are part of New York City's media market, which includes Dutchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties, and thus do not get local television (via cable) from Albany or Binghamton TV stations. Many upstate residents note that the state capital of Albany, being mostly dominated by New York City-area politicians, has more in common with downstate than upstate, and imply that everything in between, including the Hudson Valley region and occasionally the Catskill Mountains, can be considered downstate; columnist Liz Benjamin is quoted as saying "I know there’s considerable disagreement over where, exactly, the upstate/downstate divide is located. Some would say it starts at the Capital Region and what’s to the south is more in line with NYC than Western New York and the North Country." For example, Buffalo News columnist Donn Esmonde (in defending Caroline Kennedy's abortive Senate run) criticized Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's upstate credentials by saying "In the end... [w]e get a [so-called] 'upstate' senator whose Hudson Valley base is equidistant from New York City and Albany, the state’s power centers." Charles Schumer once famously stated "To me, the West begins across the Hudson River." Politics aside, the term "Upstate" is occasionally used (somewhat ambiguously) to refer to Northern New York, including the Adirondack Mountains, as opposed to other areas of traditional Upstate such as Western New York and Central New York. In this sense, anything north of the Mohawk River can be considered "Upstate".

In some parts of the New York metropolitan area the term "Upperstate New York" is used to differentiate the close-in suburbs from the northern and western parts of the state. In some regions the term "Upperstate" refers to the suburbs and "Upstate" refers to the northern and western regions, and in other regions the terms are reversed.

Residents of Upstate New York often prefer to identify with a more specific region, such as "Western New York" or "Central New York". Some residents of Western New York object to their area being called "Upstate", though a number of businesses and institutions in the area have "Upstate" as part of their name.

New York City is dependent on upstate for a variety of services; it is the source of the city's water supply via the Delaware Aqueduct and the Catskill Aqueduct; much of the city's electric power supply comes from state owned hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls and the St. Lawrence River such as the Robert Moses power station; and most of the state's prisons are upstate; hence the popular term "being sent up the river" (however, the term originally referred to Sing Sing, which is "up the Hudson River" from New York City, but being in Ossining in Westchester County is still in the "downstate" region). Conversely, the operation of state facilities providing these services is an important part of the upstate economy.

Long Island is never considered upstate, as each of its four counties extends further south than Manhattan.

Institutions with "Upstate" as part of their name include the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, the Upstate New York Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation serving 31 of New York's 62 counties, and the VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York, which includes all of New York State northward and westward from Kingston, New York in Ulster County. Other organizations in New York with "Upstate" in their name include the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association, the Upstate Correctional Facility, the Upstate New York Club Hockey League, the Upstate New York Synod, and the Upstate Citizens for Equality.

Culture

The region is culturally and economically distinct from the New York City area, though the Hudson Valley counties of Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Ulster are increasingly peripheral sections of the New York City metro area. The northern upstate area consists of a handful of small and medium-sized cities, with surrounding suburbs, amidst vast rural areas. Dutchess, Ulster, and Putnam are in fact on the border of the New York Upstate. They are a part of the New York Metro area.

Western New York has many cultural and economic ties to the other Great Lakes states as well as Southern Ontario, while the Capital District, the Hudson Valley, the Mohawk Valley and the Plattsburgh area have ties to New England. The North Country, the extreme northern portion of the state, also has strong cultural, economic, linguistic and familial ties to Quebec and Eastern Ontario. Thus, Plattsburgh has close ties to its neighbors in the Montreal area as well as Vermont.

Linguistically, from Western New York to as far east as Utica is part of the Inland North region of American English dialectology, a region which includes Midwestern cities as far west as Chicago and Milwaukee. The Hudson and lower Mohawk Valley has more in common dialectologically with western New England and New York City. The boundary between the use of the words pop and soda to refer to soft drinks, however, falls further west than the edge of the Inland North, running just to the east of the city of Rochester: Buffalo and Rochester use pop, like the rest of the Inland North to the west, whereas Syracuse uses soda, like New England and New York City. In Ithaca and Elmira, the border is less clear, with some people having grown up with pop and some with soda, however current trends see Ithaca, at least, turning to mostly "soda".

Foodways indigenous to regions of Upstate New York include Plattsburgh's "Michigan" hot dog, a variety of Coney Island hot dog; the white hot dog of central and western New York that is known variously as the "White Hot" or "Coney" (pronounced alternately as either "coney" or "cooney"); the "Spiedie" of the Binghamton area, Central New York's salt potatoes, Utica's Tomato Pie, and Chicken riggies, Rochester's Garbage plate, Buffalo's kummelweck and perhaps most famously, Buffalo wings. Calvin Trillin chronicled the origin of Buffalo wings in the August 25, 1980 issue of The New Yorker. Although the potato chip was invented in Saratoga Springs, it has achieved such universal popularity that it is no longer identified with the region. Winemaking is a growing industry in the Finger Lakes. And in the center of that region Ithaca is known for the Bo Burger, a cheeseburger with a fried egg on top.

Two of the most important rock festivals of the 20th century were held in Upstate New York. In 1969 the Woodstock Festival was held in Bethel, New York, while in 1973 another multiday festival was held at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.

Some literary, documentary and cinematic depictions of upstate present a sense of small town, simple lifetyles, such as It's a Wonderful Life, set in a small upstate town in the 1940s. A Home Box Office miniseries is planned that will dramatize a New York magazine article on natural gas drillers coming to the region. Richard Russo, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is writing a script for the project.

Demographics

Racial and ancestral makeup

While residents of English ancestry have a strong presence, The Hudson Valley, the Capital District and the Syracuse region are heavily Irish American. The North Country is heavily French Canadian. Italian Americans are the largest ethnic group in Oneida County, Broome County, and Schenectady, while German ancestry is most common across western New York. Persons of Polish, Irish, German, and English ancestry are predominant in Buffalo and its close suburbs.

There is also a significant presence of the indigenous Haudenosaunee Native Americans in the region, who mostly congregate on several reservations: the Seneca nation and Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians in Western New York, the Onondaga nation south of Syracuse, the Oneida nation of Oneida County and the Mohawk nation in St. Lawrence County. Members of Haudenosaunee nations also live in the cities of Upstate New York.

Geography

The headwaters of the Delaware, Susquehanna, Hudson, and Allegheny rivers are located in the region. The region is characterized by the major mountain ranges, large lakes, and extensive forests.

The Allegheny Plateau extends into west and central New York from the south. The Catskill Mountains lie in the southeastern part of the state, closer to New York City. The Catskills and the Allegheny Plateau are both part of the Appalachian Mountains. The northernmost part of the state contains the Adirondack Mountains, which are sometimes considered part of the Appalachians but are geologically separate, a southern extension of the Canadian Shield.

In the more mountainous eastern part of Upstate New York, the valleys of the Hudson River and the Mohawk River were historically important travel corridors and remain so today. Western New York in the vicinity of Buffalo is very flat, as it was once the bottom of a glacial lake. The only "hills" in Niagara County are the Niagara Escarpment, which formed the Falls.

Upstate has a long shared border with Canadian province of Ontario divided by water; including the Lake Erie, Niagara River, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. It shares a land border with the province of Quebec in the northernmost part of the state.

The sizes of upstate counties and towns are generally larger in area and smaller in population, compared with the downstate region, although there are exceptions. The state's smallest county in population (Hamilton County) and largest county in area (St. Lawrence County on the state's northern border) are both in Upstate New York, while the largest in population (Kings County) and smallest in area (New York County) are both part of New York City.

Upstate New York is well known for its cold and snowy winters, particularly in comparison to the more temperate climate of downstate New York. The snowy reputation is especially true for the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Oswego and Syracuse, and is largely due to lake-effect snow from Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The village of Old Forge in the Adirondacks often vies on winter nights with places like International Falls, Minnesota and Fargo, North Dakota for the coldest spot in the nation.

Many of the features of the upstate landscape, such as the Finger Lakes and the drumlins that dot the region, are the result of glaciers during the Ice Age.

History

Early history

Before the arrival of European settlement, the area was inhabited by a mixture of Iroquois-speaking people (mainly west of the Hudson) and Algonquian-speaking people (mainly east of the Hudson). The conflict between the two peoples was an important historical force in the days of the early European colonization. The Haudenosaunee or Iroquois confederacy of the Five (later Six) Nations was a powerful force in its home territory, having successfully eliminated the tribes of Neutral Indians, Wenrohronon and the Erie Indians in Western New York during the Beaver Wars. (Survivors were mostly assimilated into the Seneca nation; others are believed to have escaped to South Carolina.) The Iroquois nations' territory extended from the Mohawk River Valley to the western part of the state. From this home base they also controlled at various times large swaths of additional territory throughout what is now the northeastern United States. The Guswhenta (Two Row Wampum Treaty), made with the Dutch government in 1613, codified relations between the Haudenosaunee and European colonizers, and formed the basis of subsequent treaties.

The region was important beginning in the very early days of both the French Colonization and Dutch colonization. Much of the fur trade of the New Netherland colony was located in the upper Hudson Valley. In the seventeenth century, the French established trading posts as far south as the shores of Onondaga Lake, although Samuel de Champlain had alienated the Haudenosaunee during military forays from Quebec. The area was the scene of much of the fighting in the French and Indian War, events which were depicted in the work of James Fenimore Cooper.

American Revolution

The region was strategically important in the American Revolution, and was the scene of several important battles, including the Battle of Saratoga, which is considered to have been a significant turning point in the war. While New York City remained in the hands of the British during most of the war, the upstate region was eventually dominated by the Colonial forces. In 1779, the Sullivan Expedition, a campaign ordered by Gen. George Washington, drove thousands of the Haudenosaunee from their villages, farms and lands in the region.

Post-Revolutionary Period

Following the American Revolution, the United States signed a federal treaty, the Treaty of Canandaigua, with the Haudenosaunee, affirming their land rights in what later became Central and Western New York. Nevertheless, State officials and private land agents continued to work to extinguish Indian title to these lands via non-Federally-sanctioned treaties, such as the Treaty of Big Tree, through the early 19th century.

Many of the settlers of Central and Western New York came from the New England States. The Central New York Military Tract, where many of the townships were given the names of classical military and literary figures by Robert Harpur, was established to grant land to Revolutionary War veterans.

Battles with British were fought during the war of 1812 (1812–1815), on land, including the Battle of Plattsburgh, and in the Great Lakes (Ontario and Erie) and St. Lawrence shorelines, including the Battle of Sackets Harbor.

Both before and after the Revolution, boundary disputes with Massachusetts, Vermont and Great Britain, and subsequent surveying errors, complicated American settlement. The Province of New York granted lands to settlers in what is now Vermont at the same time that New Hampshire made grants of the same lands. When Vermont declared independence in 1777, the new Republic of Vermont recognized the New Hampshire grants over those of New York. New Yorkers who lost land in Vermont came to be known as the "Vermont Sufferers" and were granted new lands in 1788 in the Town of Bainbridge, New York.

The dispute with Massachusetts over lands to the west of Massachusetts was settled in the 1786 Treaty of Hartford by dividing the rights to the land. The treaty granted sovereignty to the State of New York, but granted to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the "pre-emptive" right to seek title to the land from the Haudenosaunee. The eastern boundary of the Massachusetts lands was thus known as the Preemption Line. This line runs from the Pennsylvania line due north to Lake Ontario, passing through Seneca Lake. The line was surveyed a second time due to initial errors. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts sold this land in large tracts, including the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and the Holland Purchase.

The Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution established the 45th Parallel as the border with Quebec. This line was surveyed and after the War of 1812, the US Government began to construct Fort Montgomery just south of the border at Rouses Point on Lake Champlain. Subsequently it was discovered that at that point, the actual 45th parallel was three-quarters of a mile south of the surveyed line, putting the Fort, which became known as "Fort Blunder," in Canada. This was not resolved until 1842 with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, in which Great Britain and the United States decided to leave the border on the meandering line as surveyed.

Slavery existed in New Netherland and the Province of New York. New York was in the 1690s the largest importer of slaves among the American colonies. Slavery did not end with the American Revolution, although John Jay introduced an emancipation bill in to the State Assembly as early as 1777. Sojourner Truth was held as a slave in the Hudson Valley from the time she was born in 1797 until she escaped in 1826. Through efforts of the New York Manumission Society and others, New York began to adopt a policy of gradual emancipation in 1799. The law passed in 1817 that would finally emancipate slaves did not take effect for ten years, giving slaveowners an entire decade to sell their slaves away to other states. When the law finally took effect, the last 2,800 slaves in New York State were emancipated on July 4, 1827.

19th century

By 1825, the Erie Canal opened, allowing the area to become an important component of the 19th century industrial expansion in the United States. The canal also promoted trade with British North America and settlement of newer states in western territories. Later in the century the New York Central Railroad followed the "water-level route" from New York City to the Great Lakes, contributing to the industrialization of cities along its route.

Several times in the nineteenth century, Upstate New York served as a staging area and refuge for Canadian rebels against Great Britain, as well as Irish-American invaders of Canada, straining British-American relations. In 1837 and 1838, in the aftermath of the Lower Canada Rebellion, some Québécois rebels escaped south to the North Country, while on the Niagara Frontier, events of the Upper Canada Rebellion, also known as the Patriot War, took place. In the late 1860s, some of the Fenian Raids were launched across the Niagara Frontier; Fenians also assembled in Malone.

Although now largely discredited, the report of the 1905-1907 Mills Commission, charged with investigating the origins of baseball, named Cooperstown as the place where baseball was invented in the 1830s or 1840s by Abner Doubleday. Cooperstown is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

In the pre-Civil War era, Upstate New York became a major center of radical abolitionist activity and was an important nexus of the Underground Railroad. Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act was particularly heated in the region, as evidenced by such events as the Jerry Rescue. The American women's rights movement was also born in Upstate New York at this time; the first women's rights convention was held at Seneca Falls in 1848.

Through the nineteenth century, Upstate New York was a hotbed of religious revivalism. A number of sects, such as the Shakers and the Oneida Community, established themselves in Upstate New York during that time. This led evangelist Charles Grandison Finney to coin the term the "Burned-Over District" for the region. Because of the comparative isolation of the region, many of the sects were non-conformist, and because of their non-traditional tenets they had numerous difficulties with government and other local people. The region is considered to be the cradle of Mormonism, as well as the Women's Suffrage movement. The Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists and Spiritualists are the only 21st century survivors of the hundreds of sects created during this time.

In the 19th century, extractive industries changed the landscape. Potash was manufactured as the land was cleared for farming. Iron was mined in the Adirondacks and the North Country. By the 1870s, business leaders, concerned about the effect of deforestation on the water supply necessary to the Erie Canal, advocated for the creation of forest preserves in the Adirondacks and the Catskills. The Adirondack Park and Catskill Park were created and strengthened by a series of legislation between 1885 and 1894, when the "Forever wild" provision of the New York State Constitution was added.

20th Century

During the era immediately following World War II, Upstate reached what was probably its peak influence in the national economy. Major local corporations such as IBM, General Electric, Kodak, Xerox and Carrier produced cutting edge products for business, government and consumers. The opening of the New York State Thruway in the mid 1950s gave the region superior access to other eastern markets. This regional advantage faded as many local firms relocated operations to other states, or downsized in the face of foreign competition, similar to other areas in the American Rust Belt.

In recent decades, with the decline of manufacturing, the area has generally suffered a net population loss. In contrast, many Amish and Mennonite families are recent arrivals to the area. Beginning in 1974, many Mennonite families moved to the Penn Yan area of Yates County from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, seeking cheaper farmland. Recently-established Amish communities are in St. Lawrence, Montgomery, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties.

Five of the six Iroquois nations have filed land claims against New York State (or have sought settlement of pending claims), based on late 18th-century treaties with the State of New York and the United States.

Politics

Main Article: Politics of Upstate New York

Often attributed to the region's semi-rural character, there is more conservatism in culture and politics than found in the more urban downstate area, and is the power base of the state's Republican Party. Upstate New York does however have several Democratic counties including Erie County (Buffalo), Monroe County (Rochester), Onondaga County (Syracuse), Tompkins County (Ithaca), Albany County (Albany), Broome County (Binghamton), Clinton (Plattsburgh), Franklin County (Malone), St. Lawrence County (Massena, Potsdam, Ogdensburg) and Ulster County (Kingston, Woodstock, New Paltz).

As a whole, Upstate New York is roughly equally divided in Federal elections between Democrats and Republicans. In 2004, John Kerry defeated George W. Bush by less than 1,500 votes (1,553,246 votes to 1,551,971) in the Upstate Region.

People, events and ideas

Environment

Flora and fauna

Seneca White Deer

Diseases

White nose syndrome (WNS) is a poorly understood malady associated with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of bats. The condition was first identified in several caves near Albany in February 2006.

Endangered species

the Karner Blue butterfly, identified by the novelist and lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov near the former Pine Bush region hamlet of Karner, New York, between Albany and Schenectady.

the Chittenango ovate amber snail is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Succineidae, the amber snails. It is endemic to the Chittenango area. The only verified extant colony of the snail is at Chittenango Falls State Park.

Extinctions

Labrador Duck

Invasive species

The Emerald Ash Borer

The Lamprey

The zebra mussel

Issues

Acid rain, caused in Upstate New York by Midwestern coal-fired power plants

Proposed natural gas exploration in the Marcellus Shale formation

Superfund sites

Upstate New York has many Superfund sites.

the Hudson River, contaminated with PCBs at Hudson Falls and Fort Edward

Love Canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York which became the subject of national attention and controversy following the discovery of toxic waste buried beneath the neighborhood

Onondaga Lake, one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world

Historic events

Hurricane Agnes, 1972

The first execution via the electric chair, in Auburn Prison in 1890

The Jerry Rescue

The 1901 assassination of President William McKinley in Buffalo, prompting his Vice-President Teddy Roosevelt to travel to Buffalo twice: first, after learning of McKinley's shooting, from Isle La Motte, Vermont in Lake Champlain; then, having left Buffalo as McKinley was appearing to recover, from an Adirondack hunting trip upon learning of McKinley's death, to be sworn in as McKinley's successor. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz, McKinley's assassin, was subsequently electrocuted in Auburn Prison.

The Northeast Blackout of 1965

The Northeast Blackout of 2003

The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention held in the United States

The Battle of Saratoga, turning point of the American Revolutionary War.

The Binghamton shootings

Continental Airlines Flight 3407

the Angola Horror train wreck, 1867

the Cherry Valley massacre, 1778

The collapse of the New York State Thruway Bridge over Schoharie Creek, 1987

the Split Rock Explosion, 1918

the Sullivan Campaign, 1779

The Morgan Affair

Journalists

Gordon Ackerman

Samuel Hopkins Adams, muckraker, born in Dunkirk

Amy Dickinson, Chicago Tribune advice columnist, who grew up on a dairy farm in Freeville

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), editor and publisher of abolitionist newspapers: The North Star, published in Rochester, Frederick Douglass Weekly, Frederick Douglass' Paper, Douglass' Monthly and New National Era.

Ira Joe Fisher, author and weatherman, who was born and raised in Little Valley

Verlyn Klinkenborg, member of the New York Times editorial board; writer and farmer

Francis Mallison of Rome. Journalist, editor and public servant. Editor of the Rome Sentinel, reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle. He and editor Joseph Howard, Jr. organized the "Great Civil War Gold Hoax", for which he was held as a prisoner of war.

Henry Jarvis Raymond, born in Lima, was the founder of the New York Times. He was the newspaper's editor until his death.

Andy Rooney

Tim Russert, late host of NBC's Meet the Press, born and raised in Buffalo

Dorothy Thompson, born in Lancaster

James Watson Webb, born in Claverack and raised in Cooperstown, was the publisher of the New York newspapers the Morning Courier and the New York Enquirer, which he consolidated as the Courier and Enquirer. He also became a United States diplomat and a New York politician in the Whig and Republican parties.

John Zogby of Utica, pollster and blogger

Social, political and religious movements

Abolitionism

Anti-Masonic Party

The Anti-Rent War

Ararat, City of Refuge

Brothertown

The Chautauqua Institution

the Frankean Synod

Ganienkeh Territory

The Inspirationalists

Kanatsiohareke

Latter Day Saint movement

Lily Dale

The Millerites

Modern Spiritualism

The Oneida Community

the Second Great Awakening

The Shakers

Women's Suffrage

Spiritual and religious figures

Jehudi Ashmun, religious leader and social reformer born in Champlain, New York. He was an agent of the American Colonization Society which promoted the settlement of blacks at Monrovia, Liberia and was effectively governor of the colony from 1824 to 1828.

Antoinette Brown, minister, abolitionist and suffragist. Born in Henrietta, she was the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the United States. She served a congregation in South Butler.

Avery Dulles, S.J., born in Auburn

Charles Grandison Finney

Harry Emerson Fosdick, clergyman. He was born in Buffalo, and graduated from Colgate University.

David Marks

George Washington Gale

Handsome Lake

Mother Ann Lee

Oren Lyons

William Miller (preacher)

Mordecai Manuel Noah

John Humphrey Noyes

Walter Rauschenbusch, a Christian theologian, Baptist minister and a key figure in the Social Gospel movement in the United States, was born in Rochester. His father was a preacher who taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary.

Joseph Smith

Kateri Tekakwitha

Jemima Wilkinson

Places

Major cities

Albany (the state capital)

Auburn

Binghamton

Buffalo (the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City)

Cortland

Elmira

Glens Falls

Ithaca

Jamestown

Kingston

Middletown

Newburgh

Niagara Falls

Plattsburgh

Poughkeepsie

Rochester

Rome

Saratoga Springs

Schenectady

Syracuse

Troy

Utica

Watertown

Major highways

The New York State Thruway

The Adirondack Northway

The Taconic State Parkway

Interstate 81

Interstate 84

Interstate 86, incorporating the Southern Tier Expressway and the Quickway

Interstate 87

Interstate 88

Interstate 90

Major tourist attractions and destinations

Adirondack Mountains

Ausable Chasm

Baseball Hall of Fame (in Cooperstown)

Catskill Mountains

Corning Museum of Glass

Darien Lake

Erie Canal

Farmers' Museum (in Cooperstown)

Finger Lakes

Fort Niagara

Fort Ontario

Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Stanwix

The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom

Howe Caverns

International Boxing Hall of Fame (in Canastota)

Lake George

Lake Placid, NY

Letchworth State Park

Niagara Falls

Saratoga Race Course

Seabreeze Amusement Park

Soccer Hall of Fame (in Oneonta)

Sylvan Beach

Syracuse

Thousand Islands

Turning Stone Resort & Casino (in Verona)

Major universities and colleges

Public

*State University of New York (SUNY)

**SUNY Alfred

**SUNY Albany

**SUNY Binghamton

**SUNY Brockport

**SUNY University at Buffalo

**SUNY College at Buffalo

**SUNY Cobleskill

**SUNY Cortland

**Empire State College

**SUNY ESF

**SUNY Fredonia

**SUNY Geneseo

**SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica/Rome

**SUNY New Paltz

**SUNY Oneonta

**SUNY Oswego

**SUNY Plattsburgh

**SUNY Potsdam

**SUNY Upstate Medical University

*United States Military Academy at West Point

Private

*Alfred University

*Bard College

*Canisius College

*Clarkson University

*The College of Saint Rose

*Colgate University

*Cornell University

*D'Youville College

*Elmira College

*Hamilton College

*Hartwick College

*Hobart and William Smith Colleges

*Houghton College

*Ithaca College

*Keuka College

*Le Moyne College

*Marist College

*Mount Saint Mary College

*Nazareth College

*Niagara University

*Paul Smith's College

*Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

*Roberts Wesleyan College

*University of Rochester

*Rochester Institute of Technology

*Russell Sage College

*St. Bonaventure University

*St John Fisher College

*St. Lawrence University

*Skidmore College

*Siena College

*Syracuse University

*Union College

*Utica College

*Vassar College

*Wells College

Subregions

Adirondack Mountains

Capital District (Albany and the surrounding area)

Catskill Mountains

Central-Leatherstocking Region (includes Cooperstown)

Central New York (Syracuse and the surrounding area)

Finger Lakes (between Rochester and Syracuse)

The Holland Purchase

Hudson Valley (except Rockland County and Westchester County, though in general increasingly part of the New York metro area culturally)

'''

Mohawk Valley (includes Utica and Schenectady)

North Country (extreme Northern frontier of New York, north of the Adirondacks, often refers to itself as the "true" upstate)

Shawangunk Ridge

Ski country (the northern boundary of the Southern Tier, includes Cortland, Clymer and Ellicottville

Southern Tier (just north of Pennsylvania, excluding the Catskills; includes Binghamton, Corning and Elmira)

Western New York (the westernmost tip; includes Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Jamestown, and sometimes Rochester)

See also

New York City secession

List of New York-related topics

External links

Old Abandoned Buildings of Northern NY The urban decay of upstate NY, in pictures from the area.

New York History Net

References

Eisenstadt, Peter (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of New York State. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8156-0808-X

Beauchamp, William M. Indian Names in New York. Fayetteville, NY: Recorder Office, 1893.

Category:Regions of New York

Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
Name	Natasha Richardson
Caption	Richardson at the UK premiere of in 2008
Birth name	Natasha Jane Richardson
Birth date	May 11, 1963
Birth place	London, England,
Death date	March 18, 2009
Death place	New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Actress
Spouse	Robert Fox (1990–1992)Liam Neeson (1994–2009)
Years active	1984–2009

Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. Early in her career, she portrayed Mary Shelley and Patty Hearst in feature films, and she received critical acclaim and a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 1993 revival of Anna Christie. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret. Some of her notable films included Patty Hearst (1988), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Nell (1994), The Parent Trap (1998) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).

Her first marriage to filmmaker Robert Fox ended in divorce in 1992. In 1994, she married Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson, whom she had met when the two appeared in Anna Christie. The couple had two sons, Micheál and Daniel. Richardson's father died of AIDS-related causes in 1991. She helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS through the charity amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Richardson died in 2009 following a head injury sustained when she fell during a skiing lesson in Quebec.

Early life

Richardson was born and raised in London, a member of the Redgrave family, known as a theatrical and film acting dynasty. She was the daughter of director and producer Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave, granddaughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, sister of Joely Richardson, half sister of Carlo Gabriel Nero and Katharine Grimond Hess, niece of actress Lynn Redgrave and actor Corin Redgrave, The following year, she made her film debut at the age of four in an uncredited role in The Charge of the Light Brigade, directed by her father. before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Career

Theatre

Richardson began her career in regional theatre at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Her first professional work in London's West End was in a revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in 1985. Soon after, she starred in a London stage production of High Society, adapted from the acclaimed Cole Porter film. In 1998, she played the role of Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes' acclaimed revival of Cabaret on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The following year she returned to Broadway in Closer, for which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, and in 2005, she appeared again with the Roundabout, this time as Blanche DuBois in their revival of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire,

Television

Richardson made her American television debut in a small role in the 1984 CBS miniseries Ellis Island. That same year she made her British television debut in an episode of the BBC series Oxbridge Blues. The following year she appeared as Violet Hunter alongside Jeremy Brett and David Burke in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in the episode entitled "The Copper Beeches". She starred with Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, and Kenneth Branagh in a 1987 BBC adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play Ghosts; with Maggie Smith and Rob Lowe in a 1993 BBC adaptation of Suddenly, Last Summer by Tennessee Williams; portrayed Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1993 television movie Zelda; and starred in Haven (2001) on CBS and The Mastersons of Manhattan (2007) on NBC.

Personal life

Richardson's first marriage to filmmaker Robert Fox lasted from 1990 to 1992. She married Irish actor Liam Neeson in the summer of 1994 at the home they shared near Millbrook, New York; she had taken American citizenship. Richardson and Neeson have two sons: Micheál (born 1995) and Daniel (born 1996). Richardson helped raise millions of dollars in the fight against AIDS; her father, director Tony Richardson, died of AIDS-related causes in 1991.

Richardson was actively involved in amfAR, becoming a board of trustees member in 2006, and participated in many other AIDS charities including Bailey House, God's Love We Deliver, Mothers' Voices, AIDS Crisis Trust and National AIDS Trust, for which she was an ambassador. Richardson received amfAR's Award of Courage in November 2000.

A long-time smoker, although she had reportedly quit smoking, Richardson was an outspoken opponent of the ban on smoking in New York City restaurants.

Injury and death

On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury when she fell while taking a skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec, about from Montreal. The injury was followed by a lucid interval, when Richardson seemed to be fine and was able to talk and act normally. Paramedics and an ambulance which initially responded to the accident were told they were not needed and left. Refusing medical attention, she returned to her hotel room and about three hours later was taken to a local hospital in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts after complaining of a headache. She was transferred from there by ambulance to Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur, Montreal, in critical condition and was admitted about seven hours after the fall. The following day she was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died on 18 March. The following day, a private wake was held at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan. On 22 March, a private funeral was held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church near Millbrook, New York, close to the family's upstate home, and Richardson was buried near her grandmother Rachel Kempson in the church cemetery. Richardson's aunt Lynn Redgrave was also buried in the same cemetery on 8 May 2010, near Richardson and Kempson.

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1968 | The Charge of the Light Brigade | Flower girl at wedding | Uncredited appearance |- | 1986 | Gothic | Mary Shelley | |- | 1987 | A Month in the Country | Alice Keach | |- | 1988 | Patty Hearst | Patty Hearst | |- | 1989 | Fat Man and Little Boy | Jean Tatlock | |- |rowspan="2"| 1990 | The Handmaid's Tale | Kate/Offred |rowspan=2| Evening Standard British Film Awards — Best Actress |- | The Comfort of Strangers | Mary |- | 1991 | The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish | Sybil | |- | 1992 | Past Midnight | Laura Mathews | |- |rowspan="2" | 1994 | Nell | Dr. Paula Olsen | |- | Widows' Peak | Mrs Edwina Broome | Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — Best Actress |- | 1998 | The Parent Trap | Elizabeth James | |- | rowspan="2" | 2001 | Blow Dry | Shelley Allen | |- | Chelsea Walls | Mary | |- |rowspan="2" | 2002 | Waking Up In Reno | Darlene Dodd | |- | Maid in Manhattan | Caroline Lane | |- |rowspan="2" | 2005 | The White Countess | Countess Sofia Belinskya | |- | Asylum | Stella Raphael | Executive producerEvening Standard British Film Awards — Best ActressNominated — British Independent Film Awards — Best Actress |- | 2007 | Evening | Constance Lord | |- | 2008 | Wild Child | Mrs. Kingsley | Final film appearance |- | 2009 | The Wildest Dream | Ruth Mallory (wife of George Mallory) | Voice only, final performance before death, Liam Neeson narrated. |}

Television

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1984 | Oxbridge Blues | Gabriella | |- | 1985 | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Violet Hunter | Episode — "The Copper Beeches" |- | 1987 | Ghosts | Regina | |- |rowspan=3| 1993 | Zelda | Zelda Fitzgerald | |- | Hostages | Jill Morrell | |- | Suddenly Last Summer | Catharine Holly | |- | 1996 | Tales from the Crypt | Fiona Havisham | |- | 2001 | Haven | Ruth Gruber | |- | 2007 | Mastersons of Manhattan | Victoria Masterson | |- | 2008 | Top Chef | Guest Judge | |}

Theatre

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Production ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- |rowspan="3" | 1983 | On the Razzle | | |- | Top Girls | | |- | Charley's Aunt | | |- |rowspan="3" | 1985 | The Seagull | Nina | Plays and Players - Most Promising Newcomer Award |- | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Helena | |- | Hamlet | Ophelia | |- | 1987 | High Society | Tracy | |- | 1993 | Anna Christie | Anna | London Drama Critics' Best Actress Award (London production)Outer Critics Circle Award — Outstanding Debut of an ActressTheatre World Award — Outstanding DebutNominated — Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play |- | 1998 | Cabaret | Sally Bowles | Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a MusicalOuter Critics Circle AwardTony Award for Best Actress in a Musical |- | 1999 | Closer | Anna | |- | 2003 | The Lady from the Sea | | |- | 2005 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois | |}

References

External links

Natasha Richardson - Daily Telegraph obituary

Category:AIDS activists Category:Alumni of the Central School of Speech and Drama Category:American film actors Category:American radio actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:American actors of English descent Category:English film actors Category:English immigrants to the United States Category:English musical theatre actors Category:English radio actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:Actors from London Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Old Paulinas Category:People from Dutchess County, New York Category:People from London Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Skiing deaths Category:Theatre World Award winners Category:Tony Award winners Category:1963 births Category:2009 deaths