Auriesville, New York

Auriesville, New York
Auriesville, New York is located in New York
Auriesville, New York
Auriesville, New York
Location within the state of New York
Coordinates: 42°55′46″N 74°18′59″W / 42.92944°N 74.31639°W / 42.92944; -74.31639
CountryUnited States
StateNew York
CountyMontgomery
TownGlen
Elevation
312 ft (95 m)
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code
12016
Area code518
GNIS feature ID942705[1]
The National Shrine of the North American Martyrs at Auriesville, New York; the Mohawk River is in the foreground.

Auriesville is a hamlet in the northern part of New York state and west of Albany. It was the site of Ossernenon, a Mohawk village where French Jesuits established a mission. This operated from 1667 until 1684, when the Mohawk destroyed it as part of continuing confrontations with French colonists. Auries is said to have been the name of the last Mohawk known to have lived there. Later settlers named the village after him.

Since the late 19th century, a Catholic tradition developed associating Auriesville with the site of the Mohawk village Ossernenon, where Jesuit missionaries were martyred in 1642 and 1646. The National Shrine of the North American Martyrs was built here in 1930 and has added to its grounds. But, according to Dean R. Snow and other late 20th-century archeologists specializing in Native American history, Ossernenon was located about 9 mi (14 km) west on a tributary on the south side of the Mohawk River. Archeologists who have excavated there refer to it as the Bauder site.[2] The association of Auriesville with Ossernenon has not been supported by archeological evidence.[3][2]

  1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Auriesville, New York
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference snow was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference intro was invoked but never defined (see the help page).