Old Mentz Heritage Center

The Old Mentz Heritage Center is the historical society for the towns of Mentz and Montezuma, and the village of Port Byron, NY

The November Citizen Column

Recently my wife and I were on a canal tour in Chemung, NY, and the local historian was explaining how the area was once known as Buckville, named for the local family of Buck’s. If you recall your local history, you might know that members of this family helped to...

The Donation Party, December 1844

Lock 52 Historical Society has added more papers to it’s digital resources. The Port Byron Herald was printed in the 1844 to 1846 period and like most papers of it’s time, the pages are filled with ads for magical potions touted to cure everything from the cough to...

Haydenville

This month I will finish out our tour of little settlements around the town by visiting Haydenville. This very small settlement was two miles upstream of Port Byron on what is today Route 38. It is marked by the intersection with Hayden Road and a small group of...

Our New Digital Collection

I am so pleased to announce that the Lock 52 Historical Society has completed the first phase of the digitization of the Port Byron newspapers. Last December I wrote in my monthly column that I thought that the available digital copies of the Port Byron papers began...