Frankfort, NY

At the 2020 census, Frankfort was a Herkimer County village of 2,320 people on the south side of the Erie Canal, east of Utica. The village was incorporated in 1863, but the site was already busy with Mohawk Valley settlement, mills, and roads. Lawrence Frank, an early settler, gave the town its name; Moyer Creek runs through the village before reaching the Mohawk River. The canal and West Shore Railroad later turned that water-and-road corridor into a serious manufacturing district.

Frankfort's industrial past is unusually long for a village its size. The town's history lists woolen and grist mills, a saw mill, tannery, iron furnace, cowbell factory, paper mill, and a match plant. That list still matters. The harbor and marina sit on a canal extension, Moyer Creek goes through Hilltop Park, and the Mohawk River forms the northern edge. Frankfort is a canal village where the creek, the river, and the old factory list all meet in a few blocks.