Note 14 — Buttrick’s Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries 1812–1819

A small settlement was begun at Olean Point in 1804. For some time its projectors expected it to become an important place on the route of Western immigration; on one occasion two thousand people are said to have collected there, while waiting for navigation to open. But with the construction of the Erie Canal, the Allegheny route to the West was abandoned and Olean lay dormant, until the development of the oil interests in south-western New-York gave it new life.—Ed.