Franklin County, New York

Franklin County is a county in New York, United States, on the Canadian border across the St. Lawrence River lowlands from Quebec and Ontario. It had a population of 47,555 at the 2020 census and covers 1,697 square miles (4,395 km2), of which 1,629 square miles are land and 68 square miles are water, centred near 44°36′N 74°19′W.

Malone is the county seat and its postal code is 12953. The county holds 6 incorporated villages, 19 towns and several census-designated places and hamlets, spread across the Adirondack Park to the south and the flatter St. Lawrence Valley farm country to the north. Franklin County sits in the Eastern time zone.

Towns & Villages in Franklin County

The table below lists the county’s 19 towns (New York’s term for civil townships), its incorporated villages, its census-designated places, and named hamlets carried over from the county’s community list. “Village · seat” marks Malone, the seat of government; “Village” marks the other five incorporated villages; “CDP” marks unincorporated census-designated places; “Unincorp.” marks hamlets with no separate census count. Township attribution is given where confirmed and left blank where not independently verified.

Three names span more than one civil division: Akwesasne (the Franklin County share of the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation) sits mainly in the town of Bombay but reaches into Fort Covington and Waverly; Chasm Falls straddles Malone and Chateaugay; Loon Lake straddles Franklin and Duane. Tupper Lake village lies mostly in the town of Altamont with the remainder in Harrietstown, and a small share of the county’s population lives in Harrietstown’s portion of Saranac Lake village, which is chiefly in Essex County.

Townships

New York calls its civil divisions “towns” rather than townships; Franklin County has 19 of them, listed above with the hamlets and villages each contains. Verified 2020 populations at the individual town level were not available from the sources checked for this page, so per-town totals are omitted rather than estimated.

ZIP Codes

• 12953 — Malone (also serves Malone Junction, Brainardsville, Skerry, Whippleville)
• 12983 — Saranac Lake
• 12986 — Tupper Lake
• 12920 — Chateaugay
• 12916 — Brushton
• 12917 — Burke
• 12937 — Fort Covington
• 12970 — Paul Smiths
• 12980 — Saint Regis Falls
• 13655 — Hogansburg (also serves the Akwesasne community)
• 12914 — Bombay
• 12926 — Constable
• 12957 — Moira
• 12930 — Dickinson Center
• 12989 — Vermontville
• 12969 — Owls Head
• 12939 — Gabriels
• 12976 — Rainbow Lake
• 12945 — Lake Clear

Most of the smaller hamlets listed above use their nearest town’s post office ZIP rather than one of their own; those pairings are not verified here and are left blank in the table.

Geography

Franklin County spans two distinct landscapes. Its northern half lies in the flat St. Lawrence Valley, drained by the Salmon and Trout rivers toward the St. Lawrence and the Canadian border. Its southern half rises into the Adirondack Mountains and lies within Adirondack Park, holding hundreds of lakes and ponds — Upper and Lower Saranac Lakes, Saint Regis Lake, Rainbow Lake and Meacham Lake among them — and includes part of the Saint Regis Canoe Area. Water covers about 4 percent of the county’s total area.

Franklin County borders Clinton County to the east, Essex County to the southeast, Hamilton County to the southwest, and Saint Lawrence County to the west (see the state’s Saint Lawrence County profile). The Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario lie across the international border to the north.

Demographics

Franklin County had 47,555 residents at the 2020 census. Its two largest communities are Malone (5,911) and Saranac Lake (5,406, most of which lies in Franklin County with a smaller share in Essex County). The county’s population density works out to roughly 29 people per square mile of land, reflecting large tracts of state forest preserve and private Adirondack timberland in the south. A meaningful share of county income and employment ties to state and federal institutions rather than private industry, and county-level median household income figures were not verified for this page; New York’s statewide 2023 ACS median household income was $82,095, and rural North Country counties like Franklin typically run below the state figure.

Economy & Local Life

Government agencies, both state and federal, are the county’s largest employers: two correctional facilities operate in the town of Malone (Franklin Correctional Facility and Bare Hill Correctional Facility), and the U.S. Border Patrol maintains a heavy presence along the international line, including a port of entry at Fort Covington/Trout River. Adirondack Health’s Saranac Lake hospital campus and the village of Saranac Lake’s tourism, arts and outdoor-recreation economy anchor the county’s south end, alongside Paul Smith’s College in the town of Brighton. Dairy farming and forestry remain active in the northern towns. Saranac Lake’s Winter Carnival, held every February since 1897, is the county’s best-known annual event.

History

Franklin County was organized in 1808 out of Clinton County and named for Benjamin Franklin. Much of its Adirondack interior was not settled until logging and, later, tuberculosis-cure sanatoriums drew people to Saranac Lake in the late 1800s and early 1900s; the village became a center of the national “cure cottage” movement. The county’s northern towns sit on the traditional territory of the Mohawk (Kanien’kehá:ka) Nation, and the Franklin County portion of the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation (Akwesasne) remains home to a substantial Mohawk community today.

Getting There

Interstate 87 (the Adirondack Northway) runs along the county’s eastern edge toward the Champlain valley, while State Routes 30, 3 and 11 cross the county east-west and north-south, with Route 30 leading north to the Trout River–Highway 138 border crossing into Quebec.

• Plattsburgh, NY — about 30 miles east
• Watertown, NY — about 75 miles southwest
• Montreal, Quebec — about 70 miles north
• Lake Placid, NY — about 30 miles south

The nearest commercial airport is Plattsburgh International Airport in neighboring Clinton County; Adirondack Regional Airport near Saranac Lake offers general-aviation service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Franklin County, New York?
It sits on New York’s northern border, across the St. Lawrence River lowlands from Quebec and Ontario, between the Adirondack High Peaks and the Canadian line.

What is the population of Franklin County?
47,555 people, per the 2020 census.

How big is Franklin County?
1,697 square miles (4,395 km2), of which 68 square miles are water.

What is the county seat of Franklin County?
Malone, a village of 5,911 people.

How many towns and villages are in Franklin County?
19 towns and 6 incorporated villages, plus several census-designated places and hamlets.

What ZIP codes are in Franklin County?
Malone uses 12953; other main ZIPs include 12983 (Saranac Lake), 12986 (Tupper Lake), 12920 (Chateaugay) and 13655 (Hogansburg/Akwesasne).

Is Franklin County in the Adirondacks?
Its southern towns lie inside Adirondack Park; its northern towns lie in the flatter St. Lawrence Valley farm country outside the park boundary.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in New York.