Canajoharie takes its name from an ancient Mohawk village once located in this area, a name associated with the distinctive circular hole in the rock bed of Canajoharie Creek and translated as "The Pot That Washes Itself," "The Clean Pot," or "the Boiling Pot." More than ten feet deep and fifteen feet in diameter, this hole was formed by stones swirling in a whirlpool at the base of a prehistoric waterfall, and over centuries the creek also carved the black shale cliff into the distinct shapes of Canajoharie Gorge at Wintergreen Park. The Mohawk Valley is the only direct water-level route through the 1,300-mile Appalachian Mountain chain, and through this corridor passed Native trails along the Mohawk River, the 1825 Erie Canal and its towpath, the modern Barge Canal, railroad lines, highways, the New York State Thruway, and even aircraft following the river across New York State. Just east of Canajoharie, the mountains force the Mohawk River into a sweeping southern detour between Big Nose and Little Nose, where roads, railways, and canals crowd into a narrow passage. The bicycle trail here follows the route of the New York West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, whose Mohawk Division opened in 1883 on the south side of the river to compete with the New York Central Railroad on the north shore, was built at staggering cost through miles of rock, and was taken over by the New York Central three years later; today the right-of-way is owned by New York State. Canajoharie's hills also contain high-quality limestone: Charles Shaper opened the town's first limestone quarry in 1849, and its stone was used in early Erie Canal locks, on the New York Central Railroad, in many village buildings, and in the abutments of the Brooklyn Bridge, with large cut slabs first hauled by horse-drawn wagons and later shipped by canal barges and railroad cars.