History

Ten to fifteen thousand years ago the continental glaciers began to recede from the area leaving an esker. This covered Shaker Bay with a variety of sediments from the gravels mined in the pits behind it to the fine sands in the front part mined during the eighteen hundreds by the White Company for moulding sand.

As the climate warmed, forests grew, Mastodons roamed and Indians came north. Shaker creek which runs under River Road 1/10 mile west of Shaker Bay was the site of an early Indian settlement. It took advantage of the river for fishing and transportation and of the rich alluvial flats for crops. During the French and Indian Wars it was the site of the "Mohawk Niskayuna Fort". In the eighteen hundreds it was the site of the Shaker Saw and Grist Mill. (pictured below - left)

The Fort family lived in the house opposite the Southwest corner of Shaker Bay (above - lower right), and operated the ferry, (above - right) it attached to a cable by pulleys and used the current to drive it across. The Ferry ran from the present Fire Dept. launch site to the road through the Nature and Historic Preserve that crosses the Erie Canal bed over the truss bridge.

In 1840 the City of Troy, not to be outdone by Albany, built the Troy-Schenectady railroad line, now the bicycle path. The picture above shows the Onderdonks loading ice from the river onto the railway cars (around 1900). Their two homes and the Shaker Bay land are seen behind.

In 1986 Arline Littman and David Germer formed an investor partnership mostly of R.P.I. people and purchased the main portion of the land from the Onderdonks. As the story goes the Onderdonks bought the land from a Shaker Elder on a handshake during a chance meeting along Forts Ferry Road. Thus the land formerly known as "Mohawk View" was named "Shaker Bay". The name of the third phase road "Takken Kill" is Dutch for "tributary" in recognition of the early settlement of the area by the Dutch under the Patroonship of Kilean Van Rensselaer.

Pictures courtesy of Kevin Franklin, Town Historian.

Information from "The Town of Colonie: A Pictorial History"