Tag: Massena

Massena is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The town is on the northern border of the county and is nicknamed “The Gateway to the Fourth Coast”. The population was 13,121 at the 2000 census. The town of Massena contains a village also called Massena. The town and its village are named after a hero of the Napoleonic Wars.
Massena is home to an Alcoa plant, and a former Reynolds Metals Company plant, now called Alcoa East (temporarily idled in July 2009). Massena is also home to a former General Motors aluminum engine-casting plant that is one of the most polluted sites once owned by the company. The New York Power Authority also operates a hydroelectric power generating dam, the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project, on the St. Lawrence River adjacent to Massena.
The town was first settled circa 1792. The land was leased from native Mohawk who called the area, “Nikentsiake, “where the fish live.” Unlike much of northern New York, Massena was not completely in the Macomb…