Formerly a river settlement inhabited by the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, Utica attracted European-American settlers from New England during and after the American Revolution.

The downturn consisted of industrial decline due to offshoring and the closure of textile mills, population loss caused by the relocation of jobs and businesses to suburbs and to Syracuse, and poverty associated with socioeconomic stress and a depressed tax base.

With its low cost of living, the city has become a melting pot for refugees from war-torn countries around the world, encouraging growth for its colleges and universities, cultural institutions and economy.

Many central New York locations have the names of ancient cities or people (Rome, Syracuse, Ithaca, Troy, Homer, Cicero, Ovid, and a number of others).

The reuse of the name of ancient Utica for a modern village, then city, owes a great deal to classically trained surveyor Robert Harpur (1731–1825), for many years a professor in King's College (today Columbia University).

[12] However, another theory involves a 1798 meeting at Bagg's Tavern (a resting place for travelers passing through the village) where the name was picked from a hat holding 13 suggestions.

[3][16][17][18] Prior to construction of the fort, the Mohawk, Onondaga and Oneida nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy had controlled this area southeast of the Great Lakes region as early as 4000 BC.

The Iroquois nations' dominating presence in the region prevented the Province of New York from expanding past the middle of the Mohawk Valley until after the American victory in the Revolutionary War.

[19] The land housing Old Fort Schuyler was part of a 20,000-acre (81 km2) portion of marshland granted by King George II to New York governor William Cosby on January 2, 1734.

[33][34]) Utica's location on the Erie and Chenango canals encouraged industrial development, allowing the transport of anthracite coal from northeastern Pennsylvania for local manufacturing and distribution.

[45] Beriah Green organized the 1835 initial meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society in Utica, which was disrupted by an anti-abolitionist mob led by local congressman Samuel Beardsley and other "prominent citizens".

The early 20th century brought rail advances to Utica, with the New York Central electrifying 49 mi (79 km) of track from the city to Syracuse in 1907 for its West Shore interurban line.

[citation needed] Organized crime in Utica received national attention after three Utican mafiosos were reported to have attended the Apalachin meeting of American Mafia leaders in 1957.

Local business interests, as well as other media sources such as Look magazine, asserted that these reports were exaggerated, and corruption and crime in Utica were no worse than that in similar American cities.

[64] In 1959, the scandals culminated in criminal investigations of city employees and officials: many were arrested on charges related to prostitution, gambling, fraud, and conspiracy, and others were forced to resign.

[61][66][67] Strongly affected by the deindustrialization that took place in other Rust Belt cities, Utica suffered a major reduction in manufacturing activity during the second half of the 20th century.

[73] Eccentric populist mayor Ed Hanna, who served from 1974 to 1978 and from 1996 to 2000, brought himself national media attention but was unable to stem Utica's decline.

[87] Utica continues to struggle with a high rate of poverty and a shrunken tax base, adversely affecting schools and public services.

[92][93] After a decade of delays and false starts, plans to create a nanotechnology center in the area came to fruition when semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed opened a plant in Marcy just north of Utica in 2022.

[99] Utica and its suburbs are bound by the Allegheny Plateau in the south and the Adirondack Mountains in the north,[100] and the city is 456 ft (139 m) above sea level; this region is known as the Mohawk Valley.

[123][124][125] Utica is colder on average than other Great Lakes cities because of its location in a valley and susceptibility to north winds;[126] temperatures in the single digits or below zero Fahrenheit are not uncommon on winter nights.

[98] During the mid-19th century, Utica's canals and railroads supported industries producing furniture, locomotive headlights, steam gauges, firearms, textiles and lumber.

[36][107] World War I sparked the growth of Savage Arms, which produced the Lewis gun for the British Army,[145] and the city prospered as one of the wealthiest per capita in the United States.

During the late 1940s, air-conditioned mills opened in the southern United States, and jobs were lost as factories were moved south, where labor costs were lower because "right to work" laws weakened unions.

[147] New industries to rise in the city were electronics manufacturing (led by companies such as General Electric, which produced transistor radios),[148] machinery and equipment, and food processing.

Its melting pot of immigrant and refugee cuisines,[171] including Dutch, Italian, German, Irish and Bosnian,[78] have introduced dishes such as ćevapi and pasticciotti[d] to the community.

The family-owned Matt Brewing Company (Saranac Brewery) resisted the bankruptcies and plant closings that came with the industry consolidation under a few national brands.

[200] Olmsted also designed Memorial Parkway, a four mi (6.4 km) tree-lined boulevard connecting the district's parks and encircling the city's southern neighborhoods.

[231][232] Wynn is part of the Mohawk Valley Health System, a non-profit formed in 2014 by the merger of Faxton St. Luke's Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Medical Center.

Utica is served by three stations affiliated with major television networks: WKTV 2 (NBC; CBS on DT2),[260] WUTR 20 (ABC), and WFXV 33 (Fox; CW on DT2).