Wynants Kill

The Wynants Kill watershed is made up of the lands draining into the Wynants Kill and its tributaries. The Wynants Kill flows into the Hudson River in South Troy, and the watershed extends upstream to the area around Burden Lake, and to the scenic assemblage of lakes in Sand Lake that includes Crooked Lake, Crystal Lake, and Glass Lake.

Much of the watershed's surface is made up of sand and gravel deposited by the last retreating glacier, and now the source of the area's numerous gravel mines. The Wynants Kill was the most important stream for industrial power in Rensselaer County in the late 1800s. At Burden Falls along the Wynants Kill in South Troy, the Burden Iron Company built what was then the world's largest waterwheel, 60 feet in diameter. 

The Rensselaer Land Trust's only city preserve, the John B. Staalesen Vanderheyden Preserve, is along the shores of the Wynants Kill in South Troy.