Schoharie County is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and thus the Capital District of New York.

The large territory of the county was long occupied by the Mohawk Nation and, to the west, the other four tribes of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy (increased to six with the migration of the Tuscarora).

Some Palatine Germans, who worked in camps on the Hudson to pay off their passage in 1710, later settled in this county in the 1720s and 30s.

In addition, Scots-Irish immigrants settled in the present Schoharie County area before the American Revolutionary War, especially near Cherry Creek.

After Great Britain defeated the Dutch in the Second Anglo-Dutch War and received New Netherland via the Treaty of Breda, they began to establish counties in the New York territory in 1683.

In theory, it extended westward to the Pacific Ocean, as the colonists wanted to keep their options open.

In the years preceding 1776, as social and political tensions rose in the colony, most of the Loyalists in Tryon County, then on the frontier, fled to Canada.

In 1784, after the peace treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and the establishment of states, the new government changed Tryon County's name to Montgomery County to honor United States General Richard Montgomery, who had captured several places in Canada and died trying to capture the city of Quebec.

[4] Schoharie County is in central New York State, west of Albany and southeast of Utica.

More than 75% of the county's population lives in the north, closer to the Mohawk River, the historic transportation route east and west through the state.

The Gilboa Dam and the Schoharie Reservoir are part of the New York City Water Supply System.

The highest point is at the summit of Huntersfield Mountain on the southern boundary with Greene County, at 3,423 feet (1,043 m) above sea level.

The lowest point is where the Montgomery County line meets Schoharie Creek, 520 feet (160 m) above sea level.

The most prominent geological feature is Vroman's Nose, near the village of Middleburgh in the town of Fulton.

A growing tourist industry attracts visitors for recreation, the landscape and historic destinations.

Visitors come to Howe Caverns, Vroman's Nose, the Old Stone Fort, and the Iroquois Indian Museum among other locales.

The sheriff of Schoharie County, Tony Desmond, received national attention for publicly stating during the 2013 election that he would not enforce the NY SAFE Act.

A prominent site in the county is the Old Stone Fort, used for defense against British and allied Indian attacks during the Revolution.