LACKAWANNA

city, Erie county, western New York, U.S., on Lake Erie, adjoining Buffalo (north). Originally part of an Indian reservation, it was settled in the 1850s as part of West Seneca and was known as Limestone Hill. It was primarily a nursery and truck-farm area until 1899, when it was chosen as the site of the Lackawanna Steel Company (later acquired by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation). The steel-production facilities there, once among the largest in the United States, were extensively reduced in 1977 and largely closed in the early 1980s; in the late 1990s a bar mill was still in operation. The city's economy is based on services. Inc. city, 1909. Pop. (1990) 20,585; (1998 est.) 19,220. county, northeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., bordered by Choke Creek to the southwest and the Lehigh River to the southeast. Its terrain is topographically complex. The Lackawanna River, bordered on the southeast by the Moosic Mountains, bisects the county northeast-southwest. Recreational areas include Archbald Pothole State Park and Lackawanna State Park and State Forest. Lackawanna county was created from part of Luzerne county in 1878. Its name is derived from a Delaware Indian word meaning the stream that forks. Scranton, the county seat, developed as a centre of the anthracite coal, iron and steel, and textile industrieswhich drew their workforce from waves of immigrants from Ireland and later from eastern Europe. The industrial history of the county is detailed at the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum and at the Scranton Iron Furnaces, which are remnants of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company. The economy is now based on services (health care and education), manufacturing (textiles and electronic equipment), and retail trade. Area 459 square miles (1,188 square km). Pop. (1990) 219,097; (1996 est.) 213,323.