Deposit, NY

Deposit is a village split between Broome and Delaware counties, in the valley of the West Branch of the Delaware River near the Pennsylvania line. The 2020 census counted 1,387 residents. The village sits where the river valley, Catskill foothills, and Southern Tier Expressway come together, about 30 miles east of Binghamton. Its county-line arrangement is part of everyday local geography: the village is in the towns of Sanford and Deposit, and its charter has long had to account for both counties.

Deposit got its name from the lumber economy that once ran through the valley. Pine logs were hauled in during winter and stacked along the river until spring water carried rafts toward Philadelphia. John Hulce settled here in 1789, and the village incorporated with twelve dwellings in 1811. Today Front Street, village offices, the historical society museum, and the State Theatre sit within that older valley pattern. Deposit is a small river village whose name still remembers the place where timber was held before the next high water.