Chateaugay, NY

Chateaugay is a town in northeastern Franklin County, New York, reaching the Canadian border to the north and Clinton County to the east. The 2020 census counted 1,743 town residents, and a separate village named Chateaugay sits within the town. U.S. Route 11 crosses the central part of the town, while the Chateaugay River helps define the local landscape. The Chateaugay River and nearby Marble River helped guide the first homesteads, while the border keeps the town tied to Quebec.

Benjamin Roberts and Nathan Beman settled the area in 1796 after surveying it the year before. By 1799 it was a township within Clinton County, and the early town once encompassed what became all of present Franklin County. The name came from a French place applied to a local land grant. The Chateaugay Historical Society keeps that frontier, border, and river story close to the town hall, where its archival center and heritage trail connect the present community to its first surveys.