Visitors of Little Falls have plenty of ways to get to the city of roughly 4,500 people. They can drive on the Thruway, kayak or boat into Canal Harbor, or bike along the Erie Canalway Trail.
Nestled in the Mohawk Valley about 75 miles east of Syracuse, the Mohawk River and Erie Canal flow through the state’s second smallest city.
Little Falls has long depended on these waterways for its economic viability. In the years after the Industrial Revolution, the river provided hydropower to the city’s textile mills, while the Canal moved the goods to market, according to the Little Falls Historical Society. The industry brought workers and population growth to the small city, according to Patricia Stock, historian for the city of Little Falls.
Stock said that in 1892, a woman named Anna Mocko sought to lead a group of immigrants from Myjava, Slovakia, to Little Falls, New Jersey. But they mistakenly got on a train that took them to Little Falls, New York.
Despite the confusion, Mocko stayed, found a job working in a mill and wrote home to her family about the work opportunities in Little Falls, Stock said. Immigrants flocked to Little Falls to work at the mills, pushing the city’s population to its peak in 1924, estimated at 13,200, according to the Little Falls Historical Society Museum.
The economic success of the textile mills made Little Falls one of the many booming industrial towns in upstate New York. In 1912, the city was a key location in a series of strikes across the northeast. In Little Falls, the strikers were mostly women who worked in the mills. After the strikes, many of the workers left for the south.
But Little Falls soon boomed again with a focus on cotton and wool knitting mills. At the same time, paper production started to become an important part of Little Falls’ economic stability, and it still is today. The Canal and river also supported the surrounding agriculture, especially dairy production.
According to the Historical Society, from 1864 to 1870, Little Falls was known as the largest interior cheese market in the world, which has an exhibit on cheese. In 1861, the first cheese market in the United States was established in Little Falls. Local farmers, brokers and company representatives all gathered from April to December to negotiate prices and sample cheeses.
Today, nearly all the mills are gone, and the population has dwindled to a third of what it was during the city’s boom. In 2023, New York State’s Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, gave Little Falls the “significant fiscal stress” designation — the highest level, indicating that the city has trouble covering expenses. The Canal’s industrial capabilities have declined, and its rise as a spot for boating and other outdoor recreation has not replaced those lost revenues.
But some of the industry remains.
“Presently, our biggest employers are Feldmeier Equipment (and) Twin Rivers Paper Company, which is a paper mill,” said Jeffrey Gressler, the director of the Little Falls Historical Society Museum. “Feldmeier produces the finest stainless steel tanks in the world. They make anything stainless steel, but their specialty is stainless steel tanks for dairy (and) beer.”
Feldmeier has two facilities in Little Falls on the bank of the Canal. They stand near Lock E17, which at 40-feet high remains the Canal’s steepest lift lock. It features a 150-ton door that controls water flow and out of the lock.
“Originally, all of the manufacturing operations in Little Falls were water-powered because of the river,” said Gressler. “They were all located riverside. There were textile mills and such. At Canal Place, several of those old mills have been converted into commercial.”
