Boat Basin Park was once a turn-around basin for canal boats operating out of Hudson Falls on the Feeder Canal, which was built in 1824 to provide a steady supply of water from the Hudson River to the Champlain Canal. Because the original canal was only wide enough for one boat to pass at a time, basins were created so boats could pull over as others passed, and Martindale Boat Basin was one of six such basins. Canal boats were generally 90 feet long and 14 feet wide, and this stone-lined basin, originally 200 feet wide, could hold up to 6 boats. It also served as a place where boats loaded and unloaded cargo delivered in horse-drawn wagons to merchants. During the 1800’s, 80-100 canal boats passed through the canal each week. In 1867, Washington County had 41 gristmills and 130 sawmills using the canal system to produce and ship goods, farmers shipped 800,000 bushels of potatoes a year, and a sawmill in Sandy Hill sent 300 boatloads of lumber along the canal. A 1906 photo shows 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, the high bridge was lowered and the massive limestone blocks that had supported it were pushed into the abandoned basin. Recovered in 1990, these stones now form the three-tiered retaining wall and access to the boat dock. Because of deteriorated locks, paddlers can navigate only 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 in New York State that resembles an original canal.