60 Fun Facts About Buffalo, New York

Buffalo sits on the eastern shore of which body of water?

The city lies at the head of the Niagara River on the Canada–United States border.

Buffalo is the seat of government for which New York county?

Buffalo was part of Niagara County until the two were separated by the legislature in 1861.

Which NFL team plays its home games just outside the city in Orchard Park?

The Sabres play hockey, the Bandits play lacrosse and the Bisons play Triple-A baseball.

Buffalo wings are traditionally served with celery and which dressing?

Ranch is the other common dip; the sauce itself is cayenne hot sauce and melted butter.

Which Buffalo bar is usually credited with inventing Buffalo wings in 1964?

Teressa Bellissimo, who owned the bar with her husband Frank, first prepared them there.

Buffalo was selected in 1825 as the western terminus of which waterway?

The canal link led to the city's incorporation in 1832 and made it the primary inland port between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic.

Which U.S. president was shot at Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition in 1901?

He was shot twice in the abdomen while shaking hands in the Temple of Music and died eight days later.

Buffalo's NHL team, founded in 1970, is known by what name?

The franchise entered the league alongside the Vancouver Canucks when the NHL expanded to 14 teams.

Buffalo is the second-most populous city in which U.S. state?

Its 2020 census population was 278,349, behind only New York City in the state.

The Peace Bridge links Buffalo with which Canadian town?

The bridge crosses the Niagara River just north of where the river leaves Lake Erie.

Roughly how much snow does Buffalo receive in an average year, according to Fox Weather?

Fox Weather ranks it among the five snowiest large cities in the country.

Which sport do the Buffalo Bandits play?

The Bandits are the city's National Lacrosse League franchise and its most decorated pro team, with seven championships.

The Buffalo Bills lost how many consecutive Super Bowls from 1990 to 1993?

The Bills won four straight AFC Championships and lost every Super Bowl that followed, an NFL record.

Which alternative rock band from Buffalo had the 1998 hit "Iris"?

The band formed in 1985 around vocalist John Rzeznik and bassist Robby Takac.

A beef on weck sandwich uses a roll topped with caraway seeds and what else?

The kummelweck roll is topped with kosher salt and caraway seeds; the rare roast beef gets horseradish and a dip in jus.

Which Buffalo firm, founded in 1875, grew from a soap factory into a mail-order conglomerate?

By 1920 it employed 2,000 people and had annual sales of $28.6 million.

Which Prairie-style residence in Buffalo's Parkside neighborhood did Frank Lloyd Wright design?

Wright called the design his "opus" for some 50 years; a $50 million restoration finished in 2019.

Which future president was sworn in at the Wilcox Mansion in Buffalo on September 14, 1901?

He took the oath after McKinley died of his wounds; the house on Delaware Avenue is now a National Historic Site.

Which 13th US president was a Buffalo attorney and first chancellor of its university?

He was the last Whig president and held the chancellorship until 1874.

Which president served as mayor of Buffalo from 1882 to 1883?

He went on to become the 22nd and 24th president and won the popular vote three times.

Who shot President McKinley at the Temple of Music?

The anarchist bought his .32 Iver Johnson revolver at a hardware store on Buffalo's Main Street three days earlier.

What was the centerpiece structure of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition?

It was lit by more than two million light bulbs powered by Niagara hydroelectricity.

Buffalo inventor Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar created which device in 1843?

Dart's Elevator initially processed a thousand bushels an hour, making Buffalo the world's largest grain port.

What was Buffalo's original name when Joseph Ellicott laid out the village?

Ellicott surveyed the land at the mouth of Buffalo Creek after the 1797 Treaty of Big Tree.

On December 31, 1813, most of Buffalo was burned by which army?

The War of 1812 attack was retaliation for the American destruction of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The 1993 playoff game in which the Bills erased a 35-3 deficit to beat Houston is known as what?

Backup Frank Reich led the 32-point rally, still the largest in NFL postseason history.

Which Bills kicker missed wide right at the end of Super Bowl XXV?

Tyler Bass's miss against the Chiefs in the 2023 playoffs revived memories of the play.

Buffalo's 1970s hockey line of Perreault, Martin and Robert was nicknamed after which movie?

Rick Martin broke Perreault's rookie goal record with 44 goals in his first season.

Whose triple-overtime goal ended the 1999 Stanley Cup Final in a game Buffalo fans still call "No Goal"?

The dispute was over whether his skate was in the crease before the puck.

Which Buffalo-born funk star recorded "Super Freak", later sampled by MC Hammer?

Born James Ambrose Johnson Jr. in 1948, he formed his Stone City Band in the city.

Ani DiFranco releases her albums on which Buffalo-based label she founded?

She and her manager restored a downtown church that reopened in 2006 as the venue Babeville.

Which longtime Meet the Press moderator was born in Buffalo in 1950?

His father, "Big Russ," was a Buffalo sanitation worker; the whiteboard from his "Florida, Florida, Florida" 2000 election night is in the Smithsonian.

Kleinhans Music Hall, home of the Buffalo Philharmonic, was designed by which father-and-son team?

It opened on October 12, 1940 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

Which luxury automaker, based in Buffalo from 1901 to 1938, supplied the White House's first official cars?

President Taft ordered two of its cars for state occasions in 1909; the firm began as a maker of gilded birdcages.

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed Buffalo's park system beginning in which year?

Developed through 1876, it is regarded as the oldest urban parks system in the United States.

Buffalo's 17-story Art Deco train station, opened in 1929, was built for which company?

The 17-story station closed in 1979 and is one of the city's two most prominent Art Deco buildings along with City Hall.

The Buffalo Bisons are the Triple-A affiliate of which MLB club?

The Herd play at Sahlen Field, the highest-capacity Triple-A ballpark in the United States.

Buffalo's NBA team of the 1970s, the Braves, became which current franchise?

After a 1978 owner swap the team moved to San Diego, then to Los Angeles in 1984.

Which Buffalo restaurant received a James Beard Foundation America's Classics award in 2003?

It has a crosstown rivalry with Duff's, which began selling wings in 1969.

The Blizzard of 1977 was the first snowstorm ever declared what by the U.S. government?

Winds gusted to 69 mph and drifts reached 30 to 40 feet; 23 people died in Western New York.

What insect-themed name did the NWS give the October 2006 snowfall that shredded Buffalo's trees?

The 2006 naming scheme used insects; locals just call it the October Surprise.

The grammatical sentence made only of 'buffalo' repeated eight times appears in which 1994 book?

Steven Pinker credited his student Ann Senghas; William Rapaport had devised similar versions in 1972.

Which Buffalo center killed a bat with his stick in a foggy 1975 Stanley Cup Final game?

Heat and no air conditioning at the Aud produced the fog; the Sabres won that game in overtime.

Who threw the lateral to Kevin Dyson in the Music City Miracle that eliminated the Bills in January 2000?

Dyson ran 75 yards for the winning score after Buffalo had led 16-15 with 16 seconds left.

The University at Buffalo, founded in 1846, began as what kind of institution?

It merged into the SUNY system in 1962 and is now the largest public university in New York State.

Shea's Buffalo, the 1926 movie palace, had its interior designed by which famous decorative artist?

The 3,019-seat theater by Rapp and Rapp still uses one of the few theater organs operating in the hall it was built for.

The Peace Bridge officially opened in 1927 with a ceremony that was notable as the first what?

About 20,000 people attended the August 7, 1927 ceremony; the first car crossed that March.

The Bellissimo family history dates the first Buffalo wings to what specific day?

Dominic Bellissimo was tending bar when friends arrived late; his mother Teressa fried the wings.

Buffalo's new NHL club won the first pick in the 1970 draft, and thus Gilbert Perreault, by what method?

The Canucks held numbers 1-10 and the Sabres 11-20; league president Clarence Campbell first misread the pointer.

Which Buffalo-born death metal band is described as the most commercially successful in its genre?

The band later relocated to Tampa, Florida.

Which Buffalo-based hip-hop label is home to Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher?

The trio frequently reference Buffalo culture in their lyrics.

Which financial institution was Buffalo's only Fortune 500 company on the 2025 list?

Other Buffalo-based headquarters include Rich Products, Delaware North and New Era Cap Company.

Buffalo's earliest recorded name appears in whose 1764 journal referring to "Buffalo Creek"?

The British military engineer's entry is the first known appearance of the name.

Buffalo's Japanese Garden in Delaware Park was created in 1970 with which sister city?

Cherry blossoms bloom there each spring beside Hoyt Lake.

Which architect designed Buffalo's Guaranty Building, an early skyscraper?

Other downtown landmarks include the Ellicott Square Building and the Art Deco City Hall.

What was the Richardson Olmsted Complex, built in 1881, until it closed in the 1970s?

The city's tallest building is Seneca One Tower, a product of 1950s–70s urban renewal.

Roughly how many works are in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum's collection, of which only two per cent are displayed?

Formerly the Albright-Knox, it opened a three-storey OMA-designed addition in June 2023 funded by Jeffrey Gundlach.

How long is Buffalo's Metro Rail light-rail line?

It runs from Canalside to University Heights, and the downtown surface section is free to ride.

In which suburb is Buffalo Niagara International Airport located?

It handled nearly five million passengers in 2019 and won a J.D. Power award for mid-sized airports in 2018.

How many sister cities does Buffalo have?

One of them, Kanazawa in Japan, helped create the Japanese Garden in Delaware Park.