Dairy farmer preserves rural lifestyle in historic N.Y. area, even as suburbia knocks on the door

Along Interstate 87, which spans 333 miles of New York, drivers speed along, unaware that just a few miles away "73-year-old Tom Hicks (right) is the last man standing. He’s protecting rich agricultural land and preserving a rural a lifestyle that’s all too rare in densely populated, mostly suburban Clifton Park," Paul Post reports for The Saratogian.

Hicks, whose grandfather established the farm in 1902, owns 330 acres and leases another 400. He told Post, "The hard thing in this part of town is finding enough land. Cows take so many acres. There’s not much land around here.” He said his two daughters help on the farm and his wife has a non-farming job to help supplement their income.

Wikipedia Map: Clifton Park is
in the southern part of Saratoga County

The Vischer Ferry Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, was settled in 1735 by Nicholas Vischer "at a time when the Iroquois League claimed the Mohawk Valley. After the Revolutionary War, Vischer’s son, Eldert, opened a rope ferry across the river in 1790, and a tavern and store were located there," Post writes. (Read more)