Shortsville, NY

Shortsville is an Ontario County village on the Canandaigua Outlet, where Theophilus Short built a flour mill and sawmill in 1804. The waterway powered a string of later mills, including grist, woolen, carding, and paper mills, and the settlement first went by Short Mill. Rail arrived in 1844, giving the mill town another line of movement, and Shortsville incorporated in 1889. Main Street follows County Road 13, while the outlet still cuts through the village. Shortsville is the sort of upstate New York place whose history runs directly through its creek.