New Albion's Roads Once Led to Cheese

New Albion is one of those places where the road story and the food story sit close together. Cattaraugus County places the town near the northwest corner of the county and notes that New Albion is often called Cattaraugus because of the village inside it.

Historic Path gives the older town shape: New Albion was erected from Little Valley in 1830 and named for Albion in Orleans County, where some early settlers had lived. The land is hilly, tied to tributaries of Conewango and Cattaraugus Creek, and part of the Dividing Ridge. From Tug Hill Road, the account says, you can get a broad countryside view and even a distant look toward Lake Erie.

Then the old travel line appears. Old Chautauqua Road had taverns in 1818, 1820, and at Guys Place in 1822. The railroad reached Cattaraugus in 1851. Dairying followed the hills and roads into cheese factories and creameries: Bigelow Creamery in 1867, Cattaraugus Cheese Factory in 1870, and more after that. New Albion’s color is not one monument. It is taverns, ridges, rail, milk, cheese boxes, and a village name that tends to swallow the town name in everyday speech.