Today's Boat Basin Park was once a turn-around basin for canal boats that operated out of Hudson Falls. The Feeder Canal was built in 1824 to provide a steady supply of water from the Hudson River to the Champlain Canal. The original canal was only wide enough to allow one boat to pass at a time, therefore boat basins were created to allow boats to pull over as others passed. The Martindale Boat Basin was one of six such basins in the canal. The boats were generally 90 feet long and 14 feet wide.

The Martindale Basin was also used as an area for boats to load and unload cargo that was delivered in horse-drawn wagons to merchants. This stone-lined basin was originally 200 feet wide and could hold up to 6 boats. During the 1800's, 80-100 canal boats would pass through the canal each week. In 1867 Washington County had 41 gristmills and 130 sawmills, all using the canal system for producing and shipping items. Farmers shipped 800,000 bushels of potatoes a year during this period, and a sawmill in Sandy Hill shipped 300 boatloads of lumber along the canal.

Inset
This is a 1906 photo of logs floating along the Feeder Canal and passing under the Martindale Avenue Bridge. The last boat passed through the canal in 1928. After the canal was abandoned, this high bridge was lowered and the massive limestone blocks



that supported the bridge were pushed into the abandoned basin.

These stones were recovered in 1990 and now form the three-tiered retaining wall and access to the boat dock. Due to the deteriorated locks in the canal, paddlers can only navigate the five miles between the Martindale Boat basin and the Feeder Dam in Queensbury. The Feeder Canal is the last original and the only canal that resembles an original canal in New York State.

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