Little Valley is the county seat of Cattaraugus County and was a station on the original main line of the Erie Railroad between Salamanca and Dunkirk. This line was operated by the New York and Erie Rail Road (1851 – 1861), the Erie Railway (1861 – 1878), the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company (1878 – 1895), the Erie Railroad (1895 – 1960), the Erie Lackawanna Railroad (1960 – 1976), the Consolidated Rail Company (Conrail) (1976 – 1978) and the New York and Lake Erie Railroad (1978 – 1990).

The section from Cattaraugus to Salamanca, which included Little Valley, was abandoned in 1990 and is now part of the 12-mile Pat McGee Trail that was opened in 2005 for hiking, biking, and snowmobiling.

History

After the New York and Erie Railroad chose a route that did not include Jamestown, city leaders quickly formed the Erie and New York City Railroad to build from a connection with the New York and Erie through Jamestown to Erie, Pennsylvania and points west. The original route of the line was from a “junction with New-York and Erie R. R., near the mouth of Little Valley Creek to New-York and Pennsylvania State line.” A distance of 63.16 miles.  An 1851 guidebook of the New York and Erie assumed that connection would happen when it wrote:

Little Valley (from New York 422 miles, from Dunkirk 38 miles). At this place the business of Randolph, Jamestown, and other neighborhoods will concentrate.

In the end, the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, which succeeded the never-built Erie and New York City Railroad, chose Salamanca as it junction point with the New York and Erie, not Little Valley.

Erie Railroad

Based on different maps, it looks like the Erie Railroad served three main industries in Little Valley: The Merrell-Soule (sometimes spelled “Merrill-Soule”) Powdered Milk factory, the Whitesides & Johns Wooden Roller (washing machine) factory, and the Cattaraugus Cutlery Company (later Case Cutlery). The map below shows the locations of these industries in relation to the station.

More Erie Railroad Photographs

Western New York and Pennsylvania Traction

Little Valley was also served by the Western New York and Pennsylvania (WNY&P) Traction company whose line paralleled the Erie between Little Valley and Salamanca. The first cars served Little Valley on October 16, 1908 and lasted until 1925 when service on the line was abandoned.

More WNY&P Traction Photographs

Clippings

Timetables

Learn More

• Canadian Public Transit Discussion Board wiki. “Western New York and Pennsylvania Traction Company“
• Miller, Rick. “A look at Little Valley: Spawned by the railroad, village would aspire to become county seat“, Olean [NY] Times Herald, 21 July 2009.
• Village of Little Valley, NY. “History“