Montgomery County, New York the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.8%) is water. Montgomery County is located in the central part of the state, west of the city of Schenectady and northwest of Albany. The Erie Canal runs through Montgomery County parallel to the Mohawk River, connecting to the Wood River to the west, which leads to Lake Ontario. Overall, the canal connected Great Lakes shipping with the Hudson River and the port of New York on the Atlantic Ocean. Several towns and villages developed along the canal, as it carried much trade and passenger traffic during
Great Lakes Chemical Corporation oil and gas, instead focusing on the research and production of bromine-based chemicals. At about this time, the company assumed its current name (Great Lakes Chemical Corporation) and built the world's largest bromine plant in southern Arkansas. Great Lakes grew through the following decades, acquiring several smaller companies in its market and establishing its world headquarters in West Lafayette, Indiana. Among those acquired by Great Lakes was BioLab in 1996, a producer of pool and spa products. The ticker symbol for Great Lakes on the New York Stock Exchange was GLK. On May 22, 1998, Great Lakes spun off their