Queensbury Facts
Fact 1: In April 2001, the Karner Blue Butterfly was officially designated as the Town of Queensbury's Official Butterfly. The Karner Blue is an endangered species native to just a few areas, including three regions in New York. It is dependent on the wild lupine plant, a wildflower whose local habitat is also protected and managed.
Fact 2: This region in the Adirondack Mountain foothills was a popular summer hunting and fishing area for the Iroquois.
Fact 3: Morgan's Ford in south Queensbury is where British General Burgoyne's troops crossed the Hudson River during a major campaign of the American Revolution. Burgoyne was later defeated at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777 in one of the most decisive battles in American history.
Fact 4: The Queensbury area is part of a large ecosystem known as the Glacial Lake Albany Sandbelt, characterized by sandy soil, pitch pines and oaks. This provides the home for a number of rare plants and animals, including the endangered Karner Blue and Frosted Elfin butterflies.
Fact 5: An ancient gneiss boulder, near the intersection of Route 9 and Montray Road, marked a boundary between British and French lands prior to the French and Indian War. Alongside the trails used by the natives, this location was also the site of numerous ambushes of the soldiers.
Fact 6: This region of upstate New York was central to many battles in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The Old Military Road from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry was traversed by thousands of soldiers and their equipment during both of these conflicts. Several fortifications were built along Halfway Brook, and General George Washington stopped by here on an inspection of the nearby forts.
Fact 7: Following the French and Indian War, Queensbury was established as a Quaker settlement in 1763 by a group of settlers led by Abraham Wing. Their meetinghouse, school and burial ground was near the modernday intersection of Bay and Quaker Roads. The cemetery, containing the graves of about 80 of the early pioneers, was used until about 1810.
Fact 8: In addition to various local sites significant to the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, Queensbury has established monuments to local soldiers involved in the Civil War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. A strong patriotic spirit is also evidenced in the community's participation in "America Supporting Americans" and their adoption of a unit of the American military.
Fact 9: Built in 1928 on Miller Hill, Queensbury's airfield, Floyd Bennett Field, was named in honor of a local pilot who flew Admiral Byrd to the North Pole.
Fact 10: As settlers migrated to Queensbury after 1763, a series of small hamlets began to form. These areas evolved to provide services to farmers and settlers in the larger towns and quickly became well-known as lively gathering places. Once agriculture began to decline in 1875, the hamlets eventually disappeared, but some locations carry their names still today. Oneida Corners was one of Queensbury's most prominent hamlets and some of its original structures are still standing.
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