Colonie

The Crossings of Colonie has it all.

Situated in the heart of Colonie just a stone’s throw from the hustle and bustle of Wolf Road, the 130 acre parcel of land features a three-acre pond for fishing and ice skating.

It also includes many acres of meadows, marshy wetlands and extensive wooded and wildflower areas — all of which are connected by 6.5 miles of multiuse trails for walking, running, biking and in-line skating that wind across the natural landscape.

Colonie Town Park Bridge

This bridge is in the Town of Colonie Town Park. It is a single span steel stringer bridge with a span 37 feet, built in 1978. The bridge is on a road leading to a picnic area and boat launch. The bridge crossed a small pond which flows into the Mohawk River a short distance from the structure. This bridge was rededicated on July 27 1999 after a rehabilitation of the original structure.

Heritage Park

While the park was built only a few years after East Field, 45 miles up the road in Glens Falls, this facility is considerably better. Heritage Park includes a much larger, covered main grandstand behind the plate, with an elevated press box. The main concession area is nothing to write home about, but there is a grill under the grandstand that offers a greater variety.

Early History of the Town of Colonie

To a large degree the Town of Colonie was shaped by events that took place some ten to fifteen thousand years ago. This was a period when the last of the great continental glaciers began to recede. As the ice melted, it left behind the debris which the glacier had carried during the last advance. A prominent example, that is visible today, is a geological feature called an esker. It is a long and narrow accumulation of sediments, grading from boulders to course gravels to finer sands and clays. These sediments were laid down by melting water flowing under the edge of the ice sheet. The esker in Colonie runs from the Dunsbach Ferry area, through Latham and Loudonville, and finally disappears near Albany.

As the glaciers melted, the water that was set free was trapped by a barrier that must have existed well south of Albany. A large glacial lake was formed, that geologists call Lake Albany. Meltwater flowed from the "Glaciomohawk" River into Lake Albany, near the present site of Schenectady. The lake slowed the flow of the water entering from the river, and a large sand delta was created. Eventually the waters of Lake Albany drained, leaving this delta exposed to the elements. The westerly winds sweeping down the Mohawk Valley spread the delta sands over a wide area, including portions of the Town of Colonie. After the wind shaped the sand into dunes, plants stabilized their motion, forming a large in-land Pine Barrens. This area, known today as the "Pine Bush", at one time covered forty square miles between Schenectady and Albany. A quote from the Heritage of the Pine Bush follows:

Proudly,, patiently,, atop the lonely, dunes I have kept my silent vigil over the wind-swept plains of Colonie. I came with the sand, tossed from the desert left in the tomb of Lake Albany. Flourishing on the granite sand, washed from the Adirondacks into the Mohawk by glacial streams, I have nurtured the barriers which have become the symbol of the transcendental beauty of the Pine Bush. Written by the wind, I whisper to you now, a rhapsody.

When Lake Albany drained, most of Colonie was a moderately level area some two to three hundred feet above sea level. At first this plateau or upland area was drained by tiny rills, but eventually larger brooks were formed as the rain carried away the sand and finer gravels. All the principal drainage streams which originate in the Town of Colonie had developed from these small rills. These drainages include: Patroon's Creek, Sand Creek, Lisha Kill, Shaker Creek, Delphus Kill and the Salt Kill. While it seems strange to envision, the sizable ravines and gullies that were formed by these streams have been produced since Lake Albany drained, approximately 10,000 years ago.