Willsboro, the earliest European settlement north of Crown Point and south of Canada, began when settlers arrived with William Gilliland in 1765 at the waterpower site at the falls of the Boquet. Once described as a howling wilderness more than 100 miles from any Christian settlement, it was abandoned when the first settlers fled the advancing British Army in 1777, then reoccupied as they returned to build a prospering mill town that processed iron, flour, and paper pulp. While the hamlet centered on milling at Willsboro Falls, farms prospered south of town and on Willsboro Point, and farming together with a bluestone quarry supported a thriving local economy. Shoreline cottages on Willsboro Point also made the area a favored summer resort, and Willsboro remains a mill town today, with wollastonite mined from nearby hills for use in cosmetics, plastics, and fillers for other products.