Little Falls Dam

Infobox_Dam
dam_name= Little Falls Dam


caption=Located just downriver from the Memorial Bridge in Little Falls
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crosses= Mississippi River
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locale=Little Falls, Minnesota, Minnesota, USA
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length=830 ft
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began= 1887
open= 1888
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Little Falls Dam is a hydroelectric dam across the Mississippi River in the city of Little Falls, Minnesota, United States.

History

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 the owner of the first dam died in 1850 and everything the dam the mill and the land was sold.The second dam was built by Little Falls Manufacturing Company. William Sturgis bought the old dam and got together with Calvin Tuttle and James Fergus and formed the Little Falls Manufacturing Company.The purpose of the dam and the company was making lumber, grinding grain, cutting logs, selling goods, and making a town.The company built a larger dam, sawmill, a large two and a half story cabinet shop, and a bridge. The company owned about convert|2000|acre|km2 of land and hired S. M. Putman for survey the land and divide it into lots. The owners sold stock of the company and also began to sell lots to people who wanted to start businesses or come to this new town to live.Little Falls started to boom thanks to the dam and the available land but the dam being of poor construction was washed away in a flood. The company rebuilt the dam but it was washed out again.Farmers didn't have money to spend because the gasshoppers had eaten their crops. This was a general depression through the entire country. The lots stopped selling and the company went broke and went out of business.

A new group of very wealthy people from from Louisville, Kentucky decided they wanted to build a new dam in Little Falls. A new dam would restart the growth of Little Falls after the crashing of its economy from the loss fo the Little Falls Manufacturing Company.When the dam was built the town started growning again, immigrants who heard of the jobs moved into Little Falls and the rest of Morrison County.In 1887 the Little Falls Water Power Company as formed and the dam was finished in 1888.