It shares a border with the village of Fredonia to the south, and with the town of Dunkirk to the east and west.

They were pushed out by the Seneca people, one of the Five Nations of the powerful Iroquois League, based here and further east in New York.

Dunkirk served as a minor railroad hub and steamship port on Lake Erie into the early 1900s.

[10] A major employer in Dunkirk in the second half of the 19th century was Brooks Locomotive Works, founded in 1869 by Horatio G.

NRG Energy acquired the plant and proceeded with plans to convert it from coal-burning to run on natural gas.

It was a humanitarian assistance program for its namesake and sister city, Dunkerque, France, which had been devastated in World War II.

[20] Beginning in the 1980s, the city refocused its economic efforts on revitalizing its pier[21] and fishing, to improve the quality of life for residents and attract more tourists.

"[22] In 2016, Willie Rosas, a former law enforcement officer, became the first Hispanic to be elected mayor in the State of New York.

[23] Dunkirk lies on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie and is 45 miles (72 km) southwest of Buffalo.

The Chautauqua County/Dunkirk Airport, in the town of Dunkirk, provides training facilities and charter services.

The Lake Shore Limited daily Amtrak passenger train passes through the city but does not stop.

[30][31] As recently as 1968 the New York Central operated a Buffalo-Chicago daytime train, #51, the former Empire State Express, that made a stop westbound in Dunkirk.

[32] In the late 1990s Amtrak considered adding the city as a stop between Buffalo and Erie.