We hear that "Sacandaga" is an "Indian" word meaning "drowned lands." Today, the term most often identifies a large but man-made lake situated north of the city of Amsterdam and in the southern Adirondacks. During the eighteenth century, it identified the Sacandaga River which ran through what became the "Sacandaga Patent" on its way east into the upper Hudson River. The initial partition of the Sacandaga "valley" by the province of New York is related to the real estate ambitions of a number of early Albany people.

On November 4, 1741, the petition to the royal governor's council of Leendert Gansevort, Henry Holland, Corns, ten Broeck, Jacob Wendell, Abr'm H. Wendell, Johannes II. Wendell, Johs. Hun, Abr'm Dow, Peter Winne, Garrit Corns, van den Bergh, Dow Fonda, John Lindesay, Anna widow of Johs. Everts Wendell and Edw'd Holland was granted.

The patent comprised 28,000 acres and was located in the Fulton and Hamilton County towns of Johnstown, Mayfield, Broadalbin, and Perth. Perhaps the first survey/map was drawn by Edward Collins in 1740.

Numbered lots located with these lands remained in the families of some of the Albany patentees for many years. The "single woman" Geesie Wendell was one of them.

Until the 1930s, late winter runoff created flood conditions in the upper Hudson Valley. After construction of the Conklingville Dam (closed in March 1930) created the Sacandaga Reservoir, the almost annual overflow and flooding along the Albany waterfront was mostly alleviated while not completely controlled.