Olean Town Still Carries the Old County Shape

The Town of Olean makes more sense when you picture an older, much larger map. The town history says Olean was formed in 1808 and originally covered all the territory of today’s Cattaraugus County. That is a big origin story for a place that now sits beside the City of Olean in the southeast part of the county.

The borders kept changing. Olean was split in 1812 to create Ischua, and later splits carved the old town down. The town and city shape people know now came in 1837.

The land helps explain the feel of the place. Olean’s history page describes hilly upland separated by the valley of the Allegheny River. That gives the town a different feel from a flat crossroads village. Roads, neighborhoods, farms, and the city edge all have to work around the valley.

So the local story has two scales at once. Olean Town is a modern municipality with its own roads and boards, but it also carries the memory of a much wider Cattaraugus County beginning. That makes the name feel older than the boundary lines around it.