Once we departed the Great Lakes, I mapped a course along the Erie Canal and drove through many villages and towns.  The Village of Fonda was one such place.  We drove right down Main Street.  But of course! In most of these places, Main Street was the only thoroughfare and presented the best chance of passing without detours due to low clearance overpasses, weight restrictions, etc..

The village is located near the former Mohawk village of Caughnawaga. This was the 17th-century home of Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk girl who converted to Catholicism and became renowned for her piety. It has a national shrine devoted to her; she is the first Native American saint. After a French attack on the village in the 17th century, Kateri and many other Mohawk moved to a Jesuit mission village of Kahnawake, established opposite Montreal in Quebec, Canada on the south side of the St. Lawrence River.

European settlers, mostly German and English, officially organized the present-day village in 1751 at the site of Caughnawaga. Fonda was later named for an ethnic Dutch settler who was scalped in an Indian raid during the Revolutionary War.

After the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, Fonda thrived with the growth in trade and traffic that accompanied it. The canal provided transportation and commercial links to communities around the Great Lakes. Fonda became a center of cheesemaking which was part of the regional dairy industry. The area was devoted to agriculture. As the county seat, it also did well with the arrival of the railroad in 1835, which increased cross-state transportation and shipping of goods. The village was incorporated in 1850.

Population is declining, currently estimated to be 759.  The village consists of .6 sq mi, with .1 sq mi being water.  I saw many fine homes, some in perfect condition and others in varying states of disrepair.  All were evidence of a time when Fonda Thrived.