Herkimer County, New York

Herkimer County is a county in New York, United States, about 15 miles southeast of Utica.
It had a population of 60,139 at the 2020 census, an estimated 59,219 by 2025, and covers 1,458
square miles (3,776 km2) centred near 43°25′N 74°58′W.

Herkimer is the county seat; its postal code is 13350. The county holds 1 city, 10
incorporated villages and 7 census-designated places spread across its 19 towns, and it runs on
Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 36043.

Towns & Villages in Herkimer County

Herkimer County has 18 named places on record: the city of Little Falls, 10 incorporated
villages, and 7 census-designated places (CDPs) with no local government of their own. New York
divides every county into towns, which work like townships elsewhere — villages and CDPs
sit inside a town (or straddle two), and most of the county’s land is simply “the town of
X” with no incorporated village at all.

Little Falls the city and Little Falls the town are two separate governments — the city
was set off from the town in 1895 and the town today has no village of its own. Ilion’s
population figure is villagewide; the village sits mostly in German Flatts but a small edge
crosses into the town of Frankfort. Poland and Middleville each straddle a town line, Poland
between Newport and Russia and Middleville between Newport and Fairfield, so both appear in two
townships’ totals. Three further hamlets have no census population of their own: Jordanville
(town of Warren, ZIP 13361), Newville (town of Danube) and Beaver River, an off-the-grid
Adirondack settlement in the town of Webb reachable only by boat, rail speeder or snowmobile.

Townships

ZIP Codes

• 13350 — Herkimer (also covers East Herkimer, which has no ZIP of its own)
• 13357 — Ilion
• 13407 — Mohawk
• 13365 — Little Falls
• 13340 — Frankfort (also covers East Frankfort)
• 13329 — Dolgeville
• 13491 — West Winfield
• 13420 — Old Forge
• 13416 — Newport
• 13431 — Poland
• 13406 — Middleville
• 13454 — Salisbury Center
• 13324 — Cold Brook
• 13361 — Jordanville
• 13472 — Thendara (a post office box ZIP, no street delivery)
• 13331 — Eagle Bay
• 13475 — Van Hornesville

South Ilion has no ZIP of its own; mail there is delivered under Ilion’s 13357. Beaver
River has no ZIP or road access at all — residents collect mail by boat or snowmobile from
outside the hamlet.

Geography

Herkimer County spans two distinct landscapes. The southern third lies in the Mohawk Valley,
low and settled, where the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal run side by side through Herkimer,
Ilion, Mohawk and Frankfort. The northern two-thirds climbs into the Adirondack Park, forested
and thinly populated, centred on the Fulton Chain of Lakes around Old Forge. Of the county’s
1,458 square miles, 1,411 are land and 46 are water, about 3.2 percent — most of it in the
Adirondack lakes rather than the Mohawk Valley. The Mohawk River crosses the southern towns of
Little Falls, German Flatts, Herkimer and Frankfort; West Canada Creek runs south through the
county’s middle from the Adirondacks to join the Mohawk near Herkimer; and the Stillwater
Reservoir, formed on the Beaver River, covers much of the county’s remote northwest corner.

St. Lawrence County lies to the north, Hamilton County to the northeast, Fulton County to the
east, Montgomery County to the southeast, Otsego County to the south, Oneida County to the west,
and Lewis County to the northwest. St. Lawrence County,
Hamilton County,
Fulton County,
Montgomery County,
Otsego County,
Oneida County and
Lewis County all border
Herkimer directly.

Demographics

Herkimer County had a population of 60,139 at the 2020 census, and the latest Census Bureau
estimate puts the county at 59,219 residents in 2025, a continuing decline from a 1970 peak near
67,600. Ilion and Herkimer are the two largest communities, together holding roughly a quarter of
the county’s population. Median household income runs about $68,515, well below New York’s statewide figure of
$82,095 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to 42.6 people per square
mile of land, low even for upstate New York, reflecting the empty Adirondack two-thirds of the
county.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, with about
5,038 workers, followed by retail trade at 3,231 and educational services at 2,877. Ilion was home
to the original Remington Arms factory, founded by gunsmith Eliphalet Remington in 1816 and
operating continuously until it closed in March 2024, ending more than two centuries of
gunmaking in the village. Herkimer County Community College and the Mohawk Valley Health
System’s Little Falls Hospital are the county’s major institutional employers.
Quartz crystals known as Herkimer diamonds, found in dolostone outcrops around Middleville and
Fairfield, draw rock-hunting tourists to several dig sites each summer. Old Forge, at the western
gateway to the Adirondack Park, runs a tourism economy of its own built on boating, hiking and
winter sports. The county’s biggest annual event is the Herkimer County Fair, held each
August at the fairgrounds in the town of Frankfort.

History

New York’s legislature formed Herkimer County in 1791 out of the portion of Montgomery
County lying north of the Mohawk River, one of three counties — with Otsego and Tioga
— split from Montgomery that year. It is named for General Nicholas Herkimer, a Tryon
County militia commander who died from wounds received at the 1777 Battle of Oriskany during the
Revolutionary War. The county was originally far larger than today; Onondaga, Chenango, Oneida
and St. Lawrence counties were all carved from Herkimer’s original territory between 1794
and 1802.

Rural farming gave way to dairying and a cheese industry by the mid-19th century, once the
Erie Canal let Mohawk Valley wheat farmers know they could not compete with grain grown farther
west. Eliphalet Remington began making rifle barrels by hand in Ilion in 1816, and the business
he founded grew into the Remington Arms Company, whose factory anchored the village’s
economy until it closed in 2024. In 1906, the trial of Chester Gillette for the drowning of Grace
Brown at Big Moose Lake was held at the Herkimer County Courthouse; the case became the basis for
Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy and the 1951 film A Place in the
Sun. In 2013, a shooting in the county left five people dead, one of the deadliest incidents
of gun violence in the region’s recent history.

Getting There

Interstate 90, the New York State Thruway, crosses the county’s southern edge near
Herkimer and Ilion. New York State Route 5 runs alongside it through the Mohawk Valley, and
State Route 28 runs north-south through the length of the county, from Herkimer up through Old
Forge into the Adirondack Park.

• Utica — about 15 miles west
• Rome — about 25 miles northwest
• Albany — about 65 miles east
• Syracuse — about 50 miles west

Syracuse Hancock International Airport, about 50 miles west of Herkimer, is the nearest major
commercial airport; Griffiss International Airport in Rome handles general aviation closer to
home. Amtrak’s Empire Service, Lake Shore Limited and Maple Leaf trains stop at Utica
Union Station, about 15 miles west of the county seat. The Adirondack Railroad also runs seasonal
tourist trains from Utica to Thendara and Old Forge.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Herkimer County located?
It sits in central New York’s Mohawk Valley and Adirondack Park, about 15 miles southeast
of Utica, bordered by St. Lawrence, Hamilton, Fulton, Montgomery, Otsego, Oneida and Lewis
counties.

What is the population of Herkimer County?
60,139 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 59,219.

How big is Herkimer County?
1,458 square miles (3,776 km2), of which 1,411 square miles are land and 46 square miles are
water.

What is the county seat of Herkimer County?
The village of Herkimer, one of only two places in New York where a village, its town and the
county share the same name.

How many towns and villages are in Herkimer County?
The county has 19 towns and 10 incorporated villages — Ilion, Herkimer, Mohawk, Frankfort,
Dolgeville, West Winfield, Newport, Poland, Middleville and Cold Brook — plus the city of
Little Falls and 7 census-designated places.

What ZIP codes does Herkimer County use?
13350 for Herkimer, 13357 for Ilion, 13407 for Mohawk, 13365 for Little Falls, 13340 for
Frankfort, and separate codes for Dolgeville, West Winfield, Old Forge, Newport, Poland,
Middleville, Salisbury Center, Cold Brook, Jordanville, Thendara, Eagle Bay and Van Hornesville.

What is Herkimer County known for?
Herkimer diamond quartz crystals, the Adirondack Park gateway town of Old Forge, and Ilion’s
Remington Arms factory, which made firearms there for more than two centuries before closing in
2024.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in New York.