Danby

History

The Cayuga people, one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee, occupied the land at the head of Cayuga Lake for centuries. Indigenous peoples were largely forced out of Upstate New York by the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition in 1779. The land that would become the Town of Danby was a part of the Watkins and Flint Purchase, a 336,380 acre patent granted by New York State to numerous eastern investors in 1794. Danby's first European-American settlers, including Isaac and John Dumond and Jacob and Joseph Yaple, arrived in 1795. The town of Danby was created from the town of Spencer on February 22, 1811. Danby was part of Tioga County until 1822 when it was annexed by Tompkins County. In 1839, a part of the town of Caroline was added to Danby, and part of Danby was lost to the town of Dryden in 1856. The Ithaca-Owego Turnpike was completed through Danby in 1811, connecting Cayuga Lake with the Susquehanna River. Today, Route 96B generally follows the same route and continues to provide an important connection between Ithaca and Binghamton and communities downstate.

Geography

Tompkins County is often included in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State, but is sometimes included in the Southern Tier Region. The physical geography of Danby mirrors this duality as the drainage divide between the Susquehanna River and Lake Ontario runs across the town. Generally, waters in the northern and western portions of the town flow north into Cayuga Lake, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River, while waters in the southeastern portion of the town flow south into the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay. Danby is situated along the northern edge of the Allegheny Plateau, part of the Appalachian Mountains. The town is characterized by three primary land forms: * The deep north-south valley of Cayuga Inlet in the western part of the town * The western slopes of the Sixmile Creek valley in the northeastern part of the town * A highland plateau in the central portion of the town rising in the north to Ithaca's South Hill and narrowing in the south into the valley of Willseyville Creek Elevations range from approximately 450 feet above sea level where Cayuga Inlet crosses the northern town line, to about 1230 feet at Town Hall in Danby Hamlet, to just over 1800 feet at Dawes Hill in the southwestern part of the town and Roundtop in the southeastern part of the town. The dramatic hill and valley lands of Danby have sometimes been referred to as the 'Danby Highlands'. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and (0.33%) is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  72,026
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  70,246
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  65,869
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  64,159
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  63,564
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  60,902
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  52,137
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  50,306

Most recent

• M 2.8 — 2025-06-10
  10 km NW of Forksville, Pennsylvania