Attica, town in Wyoming County, New York, United States
Attica is a town in Wyoming County in western New York State, sitting on flat farmland crossed by the Tonawanda Creek. The town has a small downtown area along a main street and is home to two correctional facilities that sit on the edge of the community.
The town was formally established in 1811 and grew steadily as a farming community through the 1800s. It became widely known after a major uprising at the state prison in 1971, an event that drew national attention and led to lasting changes in how prisons operate across the country.
The name Attica comes from a region in ancient Greece, a common naming pattern in western New York where many towns were named after classical places in the early 1800s. Today the town center has a modest main street where local residents go about daily life, with a hardware store, a diner, and a few small businesses that serve the surrounding farmland.
Attica sits along Route 98 and is most easily reached by car, as it lies close to Interstate 490 in western New York. The small downtown is easy to walk around, and most services and local businesses are within a short distance of each other.
Attica hosts one of the few annual rodeos held in New York State, drawing crowds from across the region every summer. It is an unexpected sight in an area better known for dairy farms than for Western-style competitions.
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