Hamilton County, New York
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Hamilton County is a
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,107, making it the least populous county of New York, and the only county with fewer than 10,000 residents. With a land area nearly the size of
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
, it is the least densely populated county east of the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
. Its
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
is Lake Pleasant. The county was created in 1816 and organized in 1847. The county is part of the North Country region of the state. Hamilton County is one of only two counties that lie entirely within the
Adirondack Park The Adirondack Park is a park in northeastern New York (state), New York protecting the Adirondack Mountains. The park was established in 1892 for "the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure", and for watershed protection. At , ...
(
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
being the other). There are no permanent traffic lights in the county, and much of the county has no cell phone service.


Etymology

The county is named after
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...
, the only member of the New York State delegation who signed the
United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...
in 1787, and was later the first
United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
.


History

On April 12, 1816, Hamilton County was created by partitioning from Montgomery County, but due to low population it remained unorganized and administered from Montgomery County until it was recognized as sufficiently prepared for self-government on January 1, 1838. The organization process was completed by summer 1847. On April 6, 1860, Fulton County, which had been partitioned April 18, 1838, had of land in Sacandaga Park transferred to Hamilton County. On May 24, 1915, land was swapped between Hamilton and Essex counties, with Hamilton ceding Fishing Brook Mountain for Indian Lake. Hamilton gained an additional , whereas Essex County lost . This left Hamilton with its present size of . The former town of Gilman was dissolved in 1860. The original county seat was Sageville, now part of Lake Pleasant.


Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (5.0%) is water. It is New York's third-largest county by land area and fifth-largest by total area. Hamilton County is in the state's north central section, northwest of Albany. It lies entirely within
Adirondack Park The Adirondack Park is a park in northeastern New York (state), New York protecting the Adirondack Mountains. The park was established in 1892 for "the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure", and for watershed protection. At , ...
and consists mostly of publicly owned parkland. The county is very mountainous, broken up by rivers and lakes. The county is famous for its lakes. Indian Lake, and Long Lake are both famous for their long length, small width, and erratic shape, similar to the Finger Lakes. Other notable lakes include Piseco Lake, Lewey Lake,
Raquette Lake Raquette Lake is the Source (river or stream), source of the Raquette River in the Adirondack Mountains of New York (state), New York U.S. state, State. It is near the community of Raquette Lake, New York. The lake has of shoreline with pines ...
, Sacandaga Lake, and Lake Pleasant. While notable mountains include: Snowy Mountain, Panther Mountain, and Buell Mountain.


Adjacent counties

* Franklin County - north * Essex County - northeast * Warren County - east * Saratoga County - southeast * Fulton County - south * Herkimer County - west * St. Lawrence County - northwest


Demographics

As of the 2020 census, among the 5,107 residents the racial makeup of the county was 93.69%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.61%
Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
or
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.27% Native American, 0.23% Asian, 0.02%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.43% from other races, and 4.74% from two or more races. 1.96% of the population were
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race. Additional demographics are based on older data. As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 5,379 people, 2,362 households, and 1,558 families residing in the county. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was ; both the total population and population density rank lowest in the state of New York. There were 7,965 housing units at an average density of . 16.9% were of Irish, 15.7% German, 15.2% English, 10.9% French, 7.3% American and 5.7% Italian ancestry. 97.5% spoke English and 1.7% French as their first language. There were 2,362 households, out of which 23.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.70% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 6.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.00% were non-families. 29.60% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.74. In the county, the population was spread out, with 19.70% under the age of 18, 5.20% from 18 to 24, 24.20% from 25 to 44, 30.90% from 45 to 64, and 20.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females there were 100.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.40 males. The median income for a household in the county was $32,287, and the median income for a family was $39,676. Males had a median income of $29,177 versus $21,849 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the county was $18,643. About 6.00% of families and 10.40% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 10.50% of those under age 18 and 8.70% of those age 65 or over. Research published in 2016 found that Hamilton County had by far the highest suicide rate in the state of New York; at 28 per 100,000 people. This meant that Hamilton County had a suicide rate more than double the national average and more than triple the state average of 13 and 8.4 per 100,000 people respectively. Though the report found instances of suicide to be significantly higher in Upstate generally, the rate in Hamilton County was disproportionate regardless of region; being 22.1, high though still significantly lower, in Lewis County, which was found to have the second highest rate in New York.


2020 census


Government and politics

Hamilton County has long been one of the most consistently Republican counties in New York. Since
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
carried the county in 1916, the Republican candidate has lost only once, when
Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...
in 1964 failed to win a single county in the state. The county was Goldwater's third strongest in the state however. In the 2008 U.S. presidential election,
John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...
carried Hamilton County by a 26.9% margin over
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
, with Obama winning statewide by a virtually equal margin over McCain; Republican nominee
Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...
won the county over President Obama in the 2012 election, too. Hamilton gave McCain the highest margin of victory in the state. It was the only county won by Howard Mills over incumbent
Chuck Schumer Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from New York (state), New York, a seat he has held since 1999. ...
in the 2004 U.S. Senate election. It also voted for John Faso over Eliot Spitzer for governor in 2006, and for John Spencer 55.5%-42.1% over incumbent
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
for the U.S. Senate in 2006, despite Faso and Spencer both losing in landslides statewide. It was one of only a handful of counties outside
Western New York Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all so ...
to have voted for Carl Paladino over eventual winner Andrew Cuomo for
Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
in
2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
. Democrat
Kirsten Gillibrand Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand (; ; born December 9, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from New York (state), New York since 2009 ...
, however, won the county in her bid to be elected for a full term to the U.S. Senate in
2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
.


Transportation


Airports

The following public use airports are located in the county: * Piseco Airport (K09) – Piseco * Long Lake Helms Seaplane Base (NY9) – Long Lake * Long Lake Sagamore Seaplane Base (K03) – Long Lake


Ground

* NY-8 * NY-10 *
NY-28 New York’s 28th congressional district is an obsolete congressional district for the United States House of Representatives. Before becoming obsolete in 2013, the district was based in Rochester, New York, Rochester, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
* NY-28N * NY-30


Communities


Larger settlements


Towns

* Arietta * Benson *
Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...
* Indian Lake *
Inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...
* Lake Pleasant * Long Lake * Morehouse * Wells


Villages

* Speculator


Other hamlets

* Arietta * Benson * Blue Mountain Lake * Higgins Bay * Hoffmeister *
Hope Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's own life, or the world at large. As a verb, Merriam-Webster defines ''hope'' as "to expect with confid ...
* Hope Falls * Indian Lake *
Inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...
* Lake Pleasant (county seat) * Piseco *
Raquette Lake Raquette Lake is the Source (river or stream), source of the Raquette River in the Adirondack Mountains of New York (state), New York U.S. state, State. It is near the community of Raquette Lake, New York. The lake has of shoreline with pines ...
* Upper Benson


Former hamlet

* Sabattis (formerly Long Lake West)


Education

School districts include:
Text list
/ref> * Dolgeville Central School District * Indian Lake Central School District * Inlet Common School District * Lake Pleasant Central School District * Long Lake Central School District * Northville Central School District * Piseco Common School District * Poland Central School District * Raquette Lake Union Free School District * Wells Central School District


See also

*
List of counties in New York There are 62 county (United States), counties in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The first 12 counties were created in 1683 soon after the British took over the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam; two of these counties were later a ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Hamilton County, New York


References


Further reading

*


External links


Hamilton County Information

Adirondack Experience
- Official tourism website for Hamilton County, NY


Speculator Region Chamber of Commerce


{{authority control Adirondacks 1847 establishments in New York (state) Populated places established in 1847 Adirondack Park