About Town of Milton  

Welcome to the Town of Milton.  We are centrally located in Saratoga County with the Kayaderossera Creek as our defining feature.  It runs through the middle of the town and is a NYS designated prime trout stream. 

We are also home to many outdoor recreation facilities including the walking park of Woods Hollow Nature Preserve on Rowland Street.  We have 2 playground areas for the family to play in Town Center.  The Suzanne Lyall Park, on Wood Thrush Court, has special equipment for those residents with special needs and is totally fenced.  The Burgess-Kimball Park on Rowland Street has tennis courts and basketball courts as well as baseball and softball fields.  The playground is fenced all the way around and there are 2 pavilions that can be rented for family gatherings.

We also have a walking trail along the Kayaderosseras Creek known as the Creekside Park trail and it is located off Rock City Road.  It meanders along side the creek for about 1.5 miles with parking areas at both ends.  If you want to get a bit of fishing in, try the Cottrell-Harrington Park on Route 29, in Rock City Falls, as it provides a deck area for fishing right on the Kayaderosseras.

A portion of the Village of Ballston Spa lies within the Town of Milton and is a great spot for walking, shopping or just stopping for a bite to eat.  Visit the Old Iron Springs on Front Street for a taste of history.  Town Center at the corners of Rowland Street and Geyser Road also host shopping and eating as well as the sidewalk link to the Saratoga Springs State Park.

     
                                      History of Town of Milton

The Town of Milton, along with much of Saratoga County, was a part of the Kayaderosseras Patent, granted by the English in 1708 to Samson S. Broughton, Attorney General of NY and 12 associates.  Earlier, all of these lands had been a part of Albany County, established in the mid-1600’s and extending all the way to the Canadian border.  It was in the 1770’s that the area of Albany County was divided into Districts of Saratoga, Halfmoon and Balls Town.  These areas, plus Stillwater, became Towns of Albany County in 1788.  Finally, in 1791, Saratoga County was created by the NYS Legislature by setting off the Towns of Saratoga, Halfmoon, Ballston and Stillwater from Albany County.  Then, in 1792 the Towns of Milton, Charlton and Galway were established from portions of Ballston.  The Town of Milton was established by Act of the NYS Legislature on March 7, 1792.  By 1828 other division of lands within Saratoga County resulted in the towns as they exist today.

The boundaries of the Town of Milton’s 22,000+ acres form nearly a perfect square just to the southwest of the geographic center of Saratoga County.  Along with the Kayaderosseras Creek intersecting Milton from the northwest to southeast, the Town was also crossed by Native American trails use by these people to hunt and fish in the rich lands of the “Crooked Stream”.  These trails became the footpaths and horse/oxen wagon trails that brought settlers to the area.  It is generally agreed that the first settlers in what is now the Town of Milton were the David Wood family, coming about 1772, about 20 years prior to the establishment of the Town.  Most probably the Wood family came by way of the north-south native trail that was to become Middle Line Road, homesteading just a bit to the west of the trail and the area that became know as Milton Hill, a designation still referred to today.

Settlement continued with homesteads, communities, saw and grist mills, and blacksmith shops established in this area of fertile lands, abundant forests and plentiful water supplies with water-power alone the Kayaderosseras, Glowgee, Gordon and Rowland’s Hollow Creeks.  These pioneers were largely self-sufficient farming families who quickly established their churches and erected housed of worship.  Old Stone Church is one of the earliest.  The whole area became known as Mill Town and in 1792 was established as Milton.  Soon thereafter Milton Hill supported two churches and a store and was considered the center of the Town.  It is believed that early town meetings were held in one of the churches here.

In the early 1800.’s, Milton was establishing a system of district grade schools as required by law and in 1812 the Milton Union School, including higher grades, was located in Ballston Spa.  About 1870 the Union Free School District #1 of Milton was incorporated by Legislative Act.  Nearly a hundred years later, in 1952 the schools became part of the Ballston Spa Central School District, encompassing much of the towns of Milton, Malta, Ballston and the Village of Ballston Spa.

           
By the mid-1800’s, industrial entrepreneurs had established mills along the Kayaderosseras Creek and its tributaries all the way through Milton and the Village.  Chief among these were the paper mills; but there were also cotton mills, foundries, tanneries and leather factories, wheel shops, lumber and cabinetry mills, and limestone quarries and kilns in addition to the saw mills, grist mills and blacksmith shops established when the first settlers first came,  Communities, including Rock City Falls, West Milton, Milton Center, Craneville, Factory Village, Bloodville and Rowlands Hollow were clustered in the mill areas where churches, schools, stores, hotels and boarding houses were established.  Family dairy farms and orchards dotted the landscape surrounding the settlements.  Transportation continued to be by foot, horseback and carriage or wagon over dirt toads until 1896 when the mills and communities along the Kayaderosseras were joined by an electric railway running from Ballston Spa to Middle Grove to provide both freight and passenger service that connected to other rail lines in the Village of Ballston Spa.

           
During the first quarter of the 20^th century, mills were closing and/or moving for various reasons.  Likewise, the electric railway, the PP&J” or Push, Pull and Jerk as it was called by the school children riding from the country to attend high school in the Village, had to close operations in 1928.  In this same time period, auto and truck production was advanced and improved roads and highways were developing.  Thus, we first began to see the transformation of early settlements to predominately residential areas with workers able to commute to employment, especially the industries of Schenectady where factory skills could be utilized.  As we enter the 21^st century, only the Cottrell Paper Company in Rock City Falls is a manufacturing enterprise operating at an early mill site.

           
In 1948 major changes happened in West Milton when the Site for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program know as Kesselring Site was established to test nuclear propulsion plans and train Navy personnel as operators of nuclear-powered vessels.  While this necessitated the relocation of the farm families that had long been on those 1433 acres of Milton.  The Site has been a major employer of local as well as out-of-town personnel.  Changes throughout the world are leading to changes at the Site and the Town of Milton maintains an active and continuing concern regarding changes there.

           
Throughout the last part of the 1900’s, residential development and small to moderate size retail, professional and service business has taken place in the eastern areas of the Town.  Many residents now commute to employment throughout the Capital District.  Saratoga County government offices and services are also a major employer of Milton residents.

           
Milton is concerned with continuing to provide services to its residents, examples being well-maintained roads, an enlarged Town Park, Summer Youth Recreation Program and a Community Center.  The Town also looks to continue cooperative efforts with the Village of Ballston Spa through shared services and programs such as Woods Hollow Nature Preserve, Senior Housing and Family Fun Day.

           
An approved Comprehensive Master Plan from 2012 brought Milton into the 21^st century with a vision that provided for planned growth while preserving the rural and recreation areas throughout the Town and along our historically significant Kayaderosseras “Old Mill Stream”