Zoar Valley on Cattaraugus Creek east of Gowanda features over 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of wilderness, hiking trails and waterfalls.

The New York & Lake Erie Railroad has a depot in Gowanda, from which it runs both freight and occasional passenger rail service.

[8] An Algonquian earthwork mound from the first or second Stone Age is located on a farm in the area of Rosenberg along Zoar Valley near Gowanda.

Artifacts including spearheads, copper heads, and stone implements of a crude nature have been excavated from the site.

The powerful nations of the Iroquois Confederacy defeated the Erie people (also an Iroquoian-speaking tribe), driving them out of the area or assimilating captives by adoption in certain clans.

[8] After the Revolutionary War, the American government secured land treaties with the Iroquois nations in western New York in 1784 and 1788.

[8][9] He and his family of three sons and three daughters traveled up Cattaraugus Creek from Connecticut, taking 707 acres (286 ha) of land, comprising a large portion of what is Gowanda today.

Records of farmers coming from a 30-mile (48 km) radius for their grain to be ground are held by the historical society.

[8] At that time, farmers and pioneers traveled along American Indian trails through the dense forest, with their wagons being pulled by oxen.

[8] Jacob Taylor, a Quaker missionary from the Friends Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia, was sent in 1809 to serve the American Indians in the area.

[9] The same book also identifies six men who had been Gowanda residents, but who enlisted and fought in the Civil War with regiments from Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

[9] In June 1856, the institution opened and was immediately at capacity in housing 50 orphaned American Indian children.

[9] The Thomas Asylum housed and schooled orphaned American Indian children for decades, until the latter part of the twentieth century.

[9] Erie County purchased 500 acres (200 ha) of land for the hospital site, known as the "Taylor tract".

[9] Important industries that flourished in Gowanda during the twentieth century, but which also polluted the adjoining Cattaraugus Creek, included the Peter Cooper Corporation Glue Factory and the Moench Tannery.

[8] Other tanneries in operation in Gowanda were by the Benton Brothers; K. Webster (which was purchased by Agle & Sons in 1860); and Albert Gaensslen.

[8] In 1879, the Gaensslen Brothers tannery "included 250 liquor vats and shipped 20,000 sides of sole leather to Cleveland each year.

"[8] Additionally, the Agle & Sons tannery was expanded, containing 40 liquor vats and annually finishing 700 sides of leather by 1879.

[8] A glue factory was originally started in association with the Gaensslen Brothers Tannery in 1874 in order to utilize the tanning waste.

[8] In 1898, tanning factory waste from the now-reorganized Gaensslen, Fisher & Company tannery produced 300,000 to 400,000 pounds (140,000 to 180,000 kg) of glue.

[13] Main Street of Gowanda is shut down for the event,[13] which provides parking for numerous motorcycles and beer tents.

Beginning about 2000, the Harvest Heritage Festival has been held every year in the fall, with many local businesses and private home owners opening up their residences for historical garden tours.

Locally brewed Chuck Barlow's Millhouse Cider sponsors the event, and offers refreshments during the festivities.

[14] The New York and Lake Erie Railroad, a short rail line serving northwestern Cattaraugus County, is headquartered in Gowanda and offers freight and occasional passenger service.

[16][17] In January 2014, it was announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo that Gowanda would be compensated with $700,000 in monies from FEMA for expenses paid in rebuilding the village after the 2009 flood.

The proposal came under fire from residents of towns to the southeast, such as Cattaraugus and Little Valley, who noted that Gowanda is located less than 15 miles (24 km) from hospitals in either direction (Dunkirk and Springville), while residents of Cattaraugus and Little Valley must travel 25 miles (40 km) or more to the nearest hospital (which, until the flood, was Tri-County).

[18] The hospital's closure had a significant negative impact on the village, leading to declines at several local businesses.

[19] Residents pumped flood waters from their basements, and semi-truck loads of mud were hauled away as part of clean-up efforts.

[20][21] Officials used a system called "Code Red" to notify residents to take precautions due to the rains.

[22][23] It featured one of the largest sex offender counseling programs of the New York State prison system.