In the fall of 1977, the New York State Department of Transportation and the Town of Clifton Park began a unique partnership that established the 600-acre Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve, a historically and ecologically significant area within the National Vischer Ferry Historic District beside the Mohawk River. The preserve includes a wetland ecosystem, the remains of the Erie Canal, and the site of Clifton Park's first settlement. Before European settlers, Mohawk Indians farmed this area, known as Canastigione, meaning "corn flats." Clifton Park's first white settlers had arrived by 1672 and established a community on the Mohawk that became known as Fort's Ferry after the ferry established by Nicholas Fort about 1727. The area was part of the Canastigione Land Patent of 1708, granted by Queen Anne of England to speculators. In 1822, local residents began working on the Erie Canal, which opened between Albany and Buffalo in 1825 and proved so successful that this section was enlarged in 1841 and 1842. Clute's Dry Dock settlement stood in the eastern section of the preserve, while Lock 19 and its support buildings stood in the western section. In 1907, the Mohawk River was dammed to create the locks of the Barge Canal, making the river navigable but raising the water level enough that annual spring floods inundated the area and forced the abandonment of Fort's Ferry and Clute's Dry Dock. The Erie Canal was abandoned when the Barge Canal became operational in 1917.
