[3] Located along the Seneca River, the Town is at the western border of Cayuga County and is northwest of Auburn.

This was part of the large territory occupied and controlled by the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy as well established before any European colonization.

Most Europeans during the colonial period did not penetrate this far west but had relations with the Mohawk nation to the East for trading.

During the American Revolutionary War, there was extensive warfare on the frontier; Joseph Brant, a Mohawk chief, led Iroquois and some Loyalist forces against patriot villages.

[4] In retaliation, General George Washington assigned the Sullivan Expedition to punish the Iroquois; they attacked the Seneca and Cayuga villages in the western part of New York, destroying more than 50, plus their winter stores and crops.

After the war, the area of the town was part of a reservation set aside for the members of the Cayuga tribe when the Central New York Military Tract was established.

It was so popular with passengers and commercial traffic that the state quickly made plans to enlarge it.

[8] Montezuma Heritage Park was established in the early 21st century to preserve natural and cultural resources in the canal and river area.

The northwest town line is the border of Wayne County, also marked by the Seneca River along with the Erie Canal.

Although 70 percent of the swamp's original 40,000 acres were drained for agricultural cultivation in the 19th and 20th centuries, the remaining portions are critical habitat to migratory birds and many animals.