| Little Falls Dam | |
|---|---|
 Located just downriver from the Memorial Bridge in Little Falls | |
| Location | Little Falls, Minnesota, Minnesota, USA |
| Coordinates | 45°58′30″N94°22′07″W / 45.97500°N 94.36861°W Coordinates: 45°58′30″N94°22′07″W / 45.97500°N 94.36861°W |
| Construction began | 1887 |
| Opening date | 1888 |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Mississippi River |
| Height | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Length | 830 ft |
Little Falls Dam is a hydroelectric dam across the Mississippi River in the city of Little Falls, Minnesota, United States.
The Little Falls Mill and Land Company was formed in 1849 to build a dam and a sawmill to supply lumber for buildings at Fort Ripley; but when settlers showed up in the area there were other markets for the lumber. James Green, along with a group of co-partners, was the owner of the first dam, a wing dam built on the east channel of the falls. Green died in 1850 and the dam, mill and land were sold. [1]
William Sturgis bought the dam and, with Calvin Tuttle and James Fergus, formed the Little Falls Company, later called Little Falls Manufacturing Company. The company built a larger dam, sawmill, cabinet shop and bridge and owned about 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of land. The new dam replaced the original wing dam, but was built on sand and portions of it were washed out by flood waters in the summer of 1859. The dam was repaired, but washed out again the following summer. [2] The Little Falls Manufacturing Company faltered due to a number of factors, including "the ill effects of the economic depression that swept the frontier and ultimately the nation in the late 1850s." [3] William Sturgis and James Fergus left their Little Falls business interests in the hands of their wives while they went west in search of gold. The story of this chapter in Little Falls history is told through letters written between James and his wife Pamelia in the book "The Gold Rush Widows of Little Falls" by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith. [4]
In 1887, a group of investors from Louisville, Kentucky formed the Little Falls Water Power Company. A new dam was completed in 1888 as a means to redevelop Little Falls, and this created jobs and attracted immigrants to the town. "Prior to the construction of the third dam, the 1880 census showed a population of 508 people in Little Falls. By 1890, the population more than quadrupled, reaching 2,354 people. By 1895, it had grown again, more than doubling to a total of 5,116. The dam, and the industries it attracted, was a major factor in that growth." [5]
Construction of the fourth Little Falls dam, this one made of concrete, started with the east wing in 1914. Construction on the west wing was underway by 1918. The dam, including a new power house, was completed by 1921. [6] The larger additional power house was built to house two additional generators, with a third generator being added during the 1980s. Further improvements were made from 2005 to 2010.
The new dam raised the water level an additional four and half feet. This submerged the water power mill at the mouth of the Little Elk River, about one mile upstream. Excavations below the power house increased the total water head to twenty-four feet. The original natural falls had a drop of only about five feet. The impounded water now reaches to the Belle Prairie Rapids, west of the Belle Prairie Church, about 3.5 miles upstream.
Along with the Blanchard Dam ten miles downstream, Little Falls Dam was purchased by Minnesota Power during the 1920s.
In 1978, automation for Blanchard, along with the Sylvan and Pillager dams on the Crow Wing River, were centralized in Little Falls; this allowed a staff of four to do work that had previously required sixteen operators. The operation has since been remotely controlled by Minnesota Power's central dispatchers in Riverton, and the dam is now staffed only by maintenance personnel.
Because generating electricity by water power has little overhead and no fuel costs, this relatively small 4.5 megawatt dam remains economically profitable.
Morrison County is a county in the East Central part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 33,198. Its county seat is Little Falls.
Little Falls is a city in Morrison County, Minnesota, United States, near the geographic center of the state. Established in 1848, Little Falls is one of the oldest European-American cities in Minnesota. It is the county seat of Morrison County. The population was 8,343 at the 2010 census. Little Falls was the boyhood home of noted aviator Charles Lindbergh. Just across from his former home is Charles A. Lindbergh State Park, named after Lindbergh's father, prominent Minnesota lawyer and U.S. Congressman Charles August Lindbergh.
Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony northeast of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota was the only natural major waterfall on the Upper Mississippi River. The natural falls were replaced by a concrete overflow spillway after it partially collapsed in 1869. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, a series of locks and dams were constructed to extend navigation to points upstream.
The Cannon River a tributary of the Mississippi River flows 112 miles (180 km) from Lake Tetonka near Waterville to Red Wing in the U.S. state of Minnesota, where it joins the Mississippi River. It drains a watershed approximately 1460 square miles (3,780 km²) in size. The river flows through the counties of Le Sueur, Rice, Dakota, and Goodhue.
The history of the U.S. state of Minnesota is shaped by its original Native American residents, European exploration and settlement, and the emergence of industries made possible by the state's natural resources. Minnesota achieved prominence through fur trading, logging, and farming, and later through railroads, and iron mining. While those industries remain important, the state's economy is now driven by banking, computers, and health care.
Phelps Mill is a flour mill in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, United States, on the Otter Tail River. The mill was built in 1888–1889 by William E. Thomas, a local entrepreneur who owned a flour and feed business in Fergus Falls. During that time, wheat was a high-demand crop, and nearly one thousand flour mills were in operation throughout Minnesota. Thomas began constructing a wooden dam on the river in the spring of 1888, although the dam was prone to leakage and had to be shored up with sandbags, dirt, gravel, and other materials. The mill itself was built by Royal Powers, who built and framed the mill without using blueprints. He was able to keep the entire plan within his head and did not even have to mark out the lumber he was cutting.
Ear Falls is a township located in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, on the banks of the English River, Lac Seul, Pakwash Lake and Wenesaga Lake. It is located along Highway 105, 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Highway 17 and Vermilion Bay, about halfway between Highway 17 and Red Lake, or about 480 kilometres (300 mi) northwest of Thunder Bay.
Minneapolis is the largest city by population in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The origin and growth of the city was spurred by the proximity of Fort Snelling, the first major United States military presence in the area, and by its location on Saint Anthony Falls, which provided power for sawmills and flour mills.
Franklin Steele was an early settler of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, of Scottish descent, Steele worked in the Lancaster post office as a young man, where he once met James Buchanan.
The Marine Mill, established in 1839, was the first commercial sawmill in what became the U.S. state of Minnesota. Now in ruins, it is currently a historic site managed by the city of Marine on St. Croix in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Marine Mill Site in 1970 for having state-level significance in the themes of exploration/settlement, industry, and transportation. It was nominated for being the birthplace of the region's seminal industry—lumbering—and a major landing on its crucial transportation route, the St. Croix River. The site is also a contributing property to the Marine on St. Croix Historic District.
The Pleasant River is a 13.1-mile-long (21.1 km) tributary of the Presumpscot River in the U.S. state of Maine.
James Fergus was a miner, rancher, businessman and politician in Minnesota and Montana. He immigrated as a young man from Scotland and became a naturalized United States citizen. He helped develop the frontier in both territories, founding cities and counties.
Elizabeth Hickok Robbins Stone was an American pioneer woman who was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1988. Born in Connecticut and raised in New York, Elizabeth Hickok was married and widowed twice and had 8 children from her first marriage to Dr. Ezekiel Robbins. Most of her adulthood was spent as a pioneer, building homes and businesses with her husbands in Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado. Both of her husbands participated in developing statehoods: Ezekiel Robbins in Illinois and Lewis Stone in Minnesota.
Hannah Jensen Kempfer was a Minnesota schoolteacher, farmer and politician. She was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1923 to 1930 and from 1933 to 1942, representing District 50 and Otter Tail County. Kempfer was one of the four women first elected to the Minnesota legislature in 1922 after women's suffrage.
Broken Down Dam was a concrete hydroelectric gravity dam on the Otter Tail River in Otter Tail County, Minnesota in the United States. Constructed in 1908 to supply power to the nearby town of Fergus Falls, the dam suddenly failed on September 24, 1909. Collapse of the dam caused the failure of four others downstream as well as significant property damage. No lives were lost. City officials left the damaged structure in place and today its ruins lie along the recreational Otter Tail River State Water Trail at Broken Down Dam Park. The only flood recorded in the history of Fergus Falls was due to this disaster.
St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the only natural falls on the Mississippi River. Since almost the beginning of settlement in the area by European descendants, the St. Anthony Falls have been used for waterpower. The first allowed settlers were at Ft. Snelling, where construction began in 1820. A sawmill was operating 1821 and a flour mill in 1823. As soon as the land at the sides of the falls became available it was purchased with the intent of using the waterpower of the falls. First lumber mills covered the falls, cutting lumber floated down the Mississippi. After 1870 flour mills started to dominate the area. From 1880 to 1930 the area was the number one flour producer in the US. In later years, some of the power came from steam, but in 1923 half of the waterpower used was for flour milling. Other industries have also used the waterpower.
In 1886, a log jam developed in the St. Croix River, close to Taylors Falls, Minnesota, and St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. It was described at the time by a local journalist as "the jammedest jam" he had encountered, and was very difficult to clear, with hundreds of men working for six weeks to clear it, eventually using steamboats and dynamite. The jam was also a major tourist attraction, with thousands of spectators every day.
William R. Sturgis (1817–1901) was a Canadian-American farmer, lumberman, and politician who served in the Minnesota Territorial Council from 1849 until 1852 and in the Minnesota Territorial House of Representatives for the 1856 session. He was among the first white men to settle in Montana and was influential in developing the area.
Media related to Little Falls Dam at Wikimedia Commons| Next dam upstream | Mississippi River | Next dam downstream |
| Brainerd Dam | Little Falls Dam | Blanchard Dam |