Blenheim was first settled by European Dutch and German Palatines sometime before 1761, took its name from the 40,000-acre Blenheim Patent granted to forty men by King George III in 1769, and was officially formed in 1797. Many early settlers served in the American Revolution, including Fregift Patchin and Captain Jacob Hager. Hager commanded the Upper Fort, one of three in Schoharie County, when a thousand British regulars, royalists, and Indians entered the Schoharie Valley, and his warning shots to alert the other forts helped deter an attack on the fort. Patchin was captured by Joseph Brant in 1780 and imprisoned for more than two years, then returned to Blenheim, established a successful mill, and later served in the New York State Legislature. The town is also known for the 226-foot Blenheim Covered Bridge, the world's longest single-span, single-arch two-lane wooden bridge, as well as the Blenheim Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project, historic Lansing Manor, and Minekill State Park. Although much of Blenheim consists of hilly upland cut by deep stream ravines, a wide flat along Schoharie Creek provides rich farmland, and farming has long centered on crops such as wheat, hops, broom corn, and tobacco, with timothy, alfalfa, and silage corn predominating today.