The Port of Rouses Point is located in the State of New York at the far north of Lake Champlain about 1.7 kilometers (one mile) south of the United States' border with Canada. The Port of Rouses Point is about 60 kilometers (36 miles) south-southeast of the Port of Montreal. The Port of Rouses Point is some 264 kilometers (164 miles) north-northeast of the Port of Albany. The 2010 US Census reported that just over 2200 people called the Port of Rouses Point home.

In the early 1780s, refugees from Canada and Nova Scotia were given land in what would become the Port of Rouses Point as a reward for their participation in the American Revolution.

The Port of Rouses Point area of Lake Champlain saw a busy steamboat business. In fact, the second commercial steamboat navigated Lake Champlain, and the Port of Rouses Point was its first port-of-call. Until displaced by railroads, steamboat traffic on Lake Champlain and in the Port of Rouses Point flourished for a century.

Some say that President James Monroe stayed at the first frame house in the Port of Rouses Point built by Edward Thurber in 1818. By 1860, the Port of Rouses Point was home to many shops and a variety of tradespeople that included bakers, tailors, hatters, carpenters, blacksmiths, loggers, and prostitutes. So near the Canadian border, the Port of Rouses Point was also an important stop on the Civil War era Underground Railroad.

In 1877, the Port of Rouses Point was incorporated as a village. By 1892, more than two thousand people lived in the Port of Rouses Point.

The Port of Rouses Point was a popular point for smuggling alcohol across the border during the United States' Prohibition from 1923 until 1933. Rum-running was common, and there were three speakeasies in the Port of Rouses Point with the attendant organized crime.

During World War II, the Port of Rouses Point was a busy center for the shipment of war materials by both rail and water.

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