In 1929 Augustus Hoffman found a Norse spearhead on Sodus Bay at Charles Point. It is believed that Norsemen or Vikings may have been the first Europeans to explore the area along Lake Ontario, over one thousand years ago. The Norse spearhead found by Mr. Hoffman can be seen at the Wayne County Museum in Lyons.

    In 1789 the first pioneers looking for new places to settle in Wayne County were Nicholas Stansell, William Stansell and John Featherly. They settled where Lyons is now located. People continued to come to Western New York. The early settlers cleared the land to plant crops and build a home. In clearing the land the settlers burned the unused logs and stumps and made potash from the ashes. Potash was the first “cash crop” of the early settlers since it was sold to be used to make soap.

    After a long disagreement between New York and Massachusetts about who owned the western part of New York, they found a solution by dividing the land at the 82nd milestone on the northern border of Pennsylvania and north to Lake Ontario. This line was called the Pre-emption Line and the agreement was the Treaty of Hartford. New York was to get the land to the east, and Massachusetts to the land to the west, but in 1789 Massachusetts sold the land, six million acres, to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham for three cents an acre. Some of this land was later sold to Sir William Pultney who hired Charles Williamson to survey the land, make maps, and plan towns and roads.

    In 1823 our county was named for General "Mad Anthony" Wayne. He was a Revolutionary War hero who got his name, "Mad Anthony," because of his brave actions at the Battle of Stony Point on the Hudson River.

    Wayne County is made up of fifteen towns as shown on the map below.  Each town has a supervisor who is elected every two years. The Wayne County Board of Supervisors meets twice each month in Lyons, which is the county seat for Wayne County.  It is the job of the supervisor to represent the people of his or her town at these meetings.