Oswego

History

The British established a trading post in the area in 1722 and fortified it with a log palisade later called Fort Oswego, named after the native Iroquois place name "os-we-go" meaning "pouring out place" ( ). The first fortification on the site of the current Fort Ontario was built by the British in 1755 and called the "Fort of the Six Nations". Fort Ontario was destroyed by the French upon capturing it in the Battle of Fort Ontario, during the French and Indian War. Construction of a second British fort began on the same site in 1759, but Fort Ontario was only used as a cannon emplacement. During the American Revolution, the British abandoned the Fort, and in 1778, American troops destroyed it. In 1782, the British reoccupied Fort Ontario, and didn't forfeit it to the U.S. until 1796, thirteen years after the cessation of hostilities in the Revolution. During the War of 1812, a weaker American garrison at Fort Ontario was overwhelmed by superior British forces in order to stem the flow of supplies from the interior of New York state, but were later defeated near Oswego later that month. Throughout the 19th Century, the U.S. military maintained a presence at Fort Ontario. Oswego was incorporated as a village on March 14, 1828, and the Oswego Canal, a branch of the Erie Canal, reached the area in 1829. The city was incorporated in 1848. When the city incorporated, its area and population were removed from the figures reported for the towns. In the 1850s, at the height of a popular water-cure movement occurring in the United States, in turn stimulating growth, Oswego was the home of the Oswego Water Cure establishment, which Stonewall Jackson reportedly visited in August 1850. Oswego is home to the Port of Oswego and once was a hub for several major railroads: the…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (31.76%) is water. Oswego is located on the southeastern shore of Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Oswego River, approximately 35 miles north of Syracuse and 69 miles east of Rochester. The elevation is 298 feet above sea level. The nearest city is Fulton, located south of Oswego and north of Syracuse. As Oswego is located on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, in the center of the Snowbelt, the region often sees prodigious lake effect snow accumulations. Oswego is one of the snowiest towns in America, with some winters totaling over 300 inches. In 2007, Oswego gained national attention when approximately 130″ (slightly less than 11 feet) of snow fell in a two-week timespan. This broke the record of the Blizzard of 1966, which blanketed the city with 102″ of snow. As a result of this storm, the school district closed all facilities for a week, effectively shifting the planned winter holiday. * Oswego: the town of Oswego * Minetto: the town of Minetto south of the city * Scriba: the town of Scriba east of the city * Southwest Oswego: a hamlet located west of the city * Fruit Valley: a hamlet located west of the city Oswego has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) bordering on a hot-summer climate (Köppen Dfa) characterized by cold, snowy winters and warm, often humid summers, typical of the Interior Northeast; it experiences four distinct seasons, and is located in USDA hardiness zone 6a (average extreme annual minimum temperature of . The city is known for typically experiencing exceptionally snowy winters, with an average seasonal snowfall of ; this is owed primarily to its prolific lake-effect snowfall. Lake-effect precipitation, which begins…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,816
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  5,490
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  5,407
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,300
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  4,980
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,626
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  4,479
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,429

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2026-04-26
  6 km SE of Lowville, New York
• M 2.8 — 2026-03-21
  28 km WSW of Henderson, New York
• M 3.3 — 2024-06-29
  14 km W of Ellisburg, New York
• M 3.6 — 2023-04-23
  New York
• M 2.6 — 2023-04-14
  1 km W of Adams Center, New York
• M 2.64 — 2007-08-11
  4 km N of Kingston, Canada