Canton is an incorporated town in St. Lawrence County, New York. The population was 11,638 at the time of the 2020 census. The town contains two villages: one afterward named Canton, the extra named Rensselaer Falls. The town is named after the great port of Canton (now named Guangzhou) in China. Canton is the home of St. Lawrence University and the State University of New York at Canton. The Canton Central School District is based in the village of Canton.

Humans have been gift in this region of New York before the Paleo-Indian epoch which is from approximately 15,000-7,000 BC. Iroquoian peoples arrived along with 1,200 and 4,000 years ago, and both the Mohawk and the Oneida decide the Adirondacks to be share of their territory. When white settlers began to arrive, the Place was allocation of the Mohawk Nation, which was allowance of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Mohawks are known as Kanienkehaka, or “the people of the flint,” and they were considered the keepers of the Eastern admittance for this edge of Haudenosaunee territory. The first settler arrived in 1800. The town was organized/incorporated on May 14, 1805, from ration of the town of Lisbon. The reveal Canton was supposedly chosen due to contemporary interests in the China trade. Canton was one of the indigenous ten towns of the county. In 1845, the community of Canton was incorporated as a village. The Brick Chapel Church and Cemetery was listed upon the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

After the War of 1812, the sovereign territory known as Akwesasne was bisected in two similar to the United States and Great Britain drew a line upon a map, creating today’s northern connect between New York give access and Canada. Now the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation sits in both countries, with borders of its own.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 105.9square miles, of which 104.8 square miles (27are estate and 1.1 are water.