Not to be mistaken with Cheektowaga or Masapeequa, Lackawanna is located in the heart of Erie County – you can see this wonderland past all the smoke from the burning barns along upstate New York’s finest interstates.

Home to the state’s second largest basilica – Our Lady of Victory – Lackawanna has drawn visitors from as far off as Buffalo and the greater Niagara region!

When Erie County was first settled, the area we not refer to as the City of Lackawanna, was still in the possession of the Seneca Indians. Being the strongest of the six Iroquois nations, they eliminated by conquest, all other Indian groups from this area by 1655. the Senecas used the district only for trapping and hunting during the summer months. Around 1780, the British helped the Senecas establish log cabin villages on Buffalo Creek and supplied them with clothing, agricultural equipment and seeds.

With the growth of the steel plant, at one time the fourth largest in the world, came the continued growth of the city and its institutions. It attracted people from many lands to settle here and make their homes. In the diversity of national origin of its people, it is second to no city in the nation. It is truly one of the great "melting pots" of America.