C Colton History
Wooded Colton, New York landscape

St. Lawrence County | 13625

Colton, New York

A town shaped by the Raquette River, Adirondack foothills, early mills, civic pride, and the stories kept alive along Main Street, South Colton, Stone Valley, and Sunday Rock.

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A Foothills Town

Where water, forest, and settlement met.

Colton sits in southeastern St. Lawrence County, south of Potsdam, where the Raquette River runs north toward the St. Lawrence. Long before modern recreation maps, the river corridor tied the area to Adirondack travel, timber work, mills, dams, and the small-town institutions that still define Colton.

Timeline

Colton Through Time

Early Land Patents

The first land patents in the area were issued before permanent town settlement, setting the legal groundwork for later development in what became Colton.

First Settlement

Abel Brown and his son James Brown settled near what became Colton village in March 1824, close to the river and its practical power.

Town of Colton Organized

The town was formed from part of Parishville. It had earlier been known as Matildaville and was later named for early settler Jesse Colton Higley.

Mills and Starch

Sawmills on the Raquette River and a starch factory helped connect Colton’s farms, forests, and river power to the wider North Country economy.

Town Boundaries Grow

Colton expanded with additional land from Parishville in 1851 and territory from Hopkinton in 1876, becoming one of the region’s largest towns by area.

Power, Parks, and Memory

Dams along the Raquette created flows and reservoirs, while Stone Valley, Higley Flow, Sunday Rock, the library, and the museum keep local history visible.

Historic Places

Landmarks That Tell the Story

Hepburn Library of Colton, New York

Hepburn Library of Colton

A Main Street civic landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, connected to the legacy of banker, public official, and philanthropist A. Barton Hepburn.

Stone Valley

A dramatic Raquette River corridor shared by Colton and Parishville, known for trails, falls, river history, and remnants of industrial and hydroelectric activity.

Sunday Rock

A South Colton landmark interpreted through the Sunday Rock Legacy Project, which researches and celebrates local history through public programs and markers.

Zion Episcopal Church and Rectory

A historic religious property in Colton recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Colton Museum and Historical Society

Home to local collections, including photographs and postcards documenting roughly 150 years of people and places associated with Colton.

The Raquette River

Colton’s working waterway.

The Raquette River runs through the western part of town and has long been central to Colton’s identity. Early settlers used its power for sawmills. Later dams created reservoirs and hydroelectric infrastructure. Today the same corridor draws hikers, paddlers, anglers, skiers, and visitors into the Adirondack edge of the North Country.

146 miRaquette River length
7 lakesformed by dams in Colton’s river corridor, according to the town
Stone Valleytrail, falls, geology, and hydropower history

Higley Flow

A reservoir, a power project, and a public landscape.

Higley Flow, also known as Higley Falls Reservoir, is a man-made lake on the Raquette River between Colton and South Colton. Its story belongs to the larger transformation of the Raquette from a mill stream and timber corridor into a chain of hydroelectric impoundments, recreation waters, and shoreline communities.

Local accounts connect the major hydroelectric development to Bertrand H. Snell, who built the Higley Dam and Powerhouse around 1913 to harness the river’s power. The dam changed the river valley by backing water into a broad flow, covering earlier lowlands and creating new waterfront patterns for camps, boating, fishing, and later park use.

How It Developed

  1. River power: The Raquette had already supported sawmills, gristmills, tanneries, pulp work, and other North Country industry.
  2. Hydroelectric dam: Higley Dam and Powerhouse turned a river reach into a managed reservoir for electric generation.
  3. Public recreation: Higley Flow State Park was created in 1936 and now occupies more than 1,100 acres along Higley Flow and Warm Creek Flow.
  4. Four-season use: The former working-water landscape is now known for campsites, a beach, boating, fishing, trails, skiing, snowshoeing, and community volunteer stewardship.

People

Names in the Record

Abel and James Brown

Recognized as the first settlers near Colton village in 1824.

Jesse Colton Higley

An early settler whose middle name became the town’s name after the earlier Matildaville period.

A. Barton Hepburn

Colton-born banker, public official, and philanthropist remembered locally through the Hepburn Library.

Bertrand H. Snell

A longtime U.S. congressman associated with Colton and the North Country’s political history.

Sources

Where This History Comes From