Throughout its nearly 200-year history, the Observer-Dispatch has told countless stories about the fascinating people who once lived and now live in the Mohawk Valley. It is a region rich with layers of history, culture and traditions, but it is the people who have made the area what it is. The pioneers who first came here in large numbers beginning in the 1780s – and the people who followed them in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries – were strong, determined and ambitious and what they created, and continue to create, is a place worth celebrating. “Looking Back, A Photo Retrospective of the Mohawk Valley – Volume 2,” does just that.

This second pictorial view of the Mohawk Valley includes not only photos from the archives of the O-D and the Oneida County Historical Society, but also photos submitted by area residents – including pictures of horse-drawn trolleys before the 1890s, the first train on the electrified West Shore Railroad that sliced east and west through the Mohawk Valley, knitting mills in West Utica and along Broad Street in East Utica, and the many shops and restaurants that dotted just about every street corner in town.