Trains whistling, roosters crowing, birds singing, frogs croaking, wind blowing— enjoy a unique soundtrack on the the Ballston Veterans Bike Path in the town of Ballston in Saratoga County. Once a trade route for Native Americans, the Ballston Veterans Bike Path was later the route of the Schenectady-Saratoga Trolley line.

The first known white settlers in the area, the McDonald Brothers, inhabited the area in 1763 and served as guides after establishing amicable trade relations with the local Native Americans. According to folklore, Reverand Eliphalet Ball, a Presbyterian Minister who settled in the area nearly a decade after the McDonald Brothers, offered the brothers a quantity of rum in exchange for the rights to call the area “Mr. Ball’s Town,” which evolved into “Ballston.”