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Anson Brown saw even more potential in the Huron River when he bought and developed water rights along it in what was to become Lower Town in 1829-30. Earlier entrepreneurs had begun the Ann Arbor milling industry on North Main Street, harnessing the power of Allen's Creek; Andrew Nowland built the first saw mill here in 1825 and George W. Noyes followed him by building a grist mill nearby in 1826. But it was Brown's commitment that began the milling industry in Lower Town in earnest with the flouring mill of Swift & Company, and the accompanying Argo Dam and mill race to power it.
The map above illustrates early land ownership by these first millers. Notice the mill race which runs beside the Huron River toward the left side of the map.
The Swift & Co. mill building (right) is a prominent landmark in early photographs of the Lower Town area. It was this industrial development that began to change the river and Lower Town itself.
The early Ann Arbor dams were not the large constructions that you recognize today, nor were the earliest mills complicated structures. The original mills were built primarily to process the agricultural materials produced on the farms surrounding Ann Arbor. The dams of the mid-1800s were often less than ten feet tall, and were constructed mainly of wood, with stone fill. Water trapped by the dam would be diverted into a mill race (a long channel or canal leading to the mill building) at the end of which the water would drop from the higher level it had reached behind the dam to the lower level of the river downstream from the dam, spinning the wooden water wheel as it dropped. The Huron river has great natural potential for producing power, dropping 42 feet within the limits of Ann Arbor.
Above is a diagram illustrating the technology used in these first mills.
The mills flourished in the mid to late nineteenth century, turning the local agricultural products from the numerous area farms into consumer goods. As the mills prospered, so did the farming industry and the local economy. Some of the flouring mills were so successful that they not only provided flour for area residents, but also exported it to Eastern states and Europe. Woolen mills had a similar success, turning local raw materials into fabrics which were bought by both local and more distant consumers.
In the 1860's, steel turbines began to replace the earlier wooden water wheels. These were more efficient and their position below the water allowed the mills to operate at lower river levels and even under icy conditions in winter. The milling industry prospered along the banks of the Huron until the early 1900s, when the plains states began to dominate the agricultural market due to new technology and cheaper transportation. Changes in manufacturing and the local economy called for the harnessing of the river's power to produce electricity for the growing demand. In 1905, the Detroit Edison Power Company began buying land and flow rights along the Huron and began replacing the older mill facilities with a series of modern dams.
Built in 1912, the Barton Dam (above) was the first. A construction photo is shown below.
The Argo Dam was similarly rebuilt to modern specifications in 1913. Engineer Gardner Stuart Williams drew up the blueprints below for the Barton Power Plant in 1911.
The hydroelectric power plants were successful for several years, but by 1927 Detroit Edison had built only six of the nine dams originally planned. Plans for the remaining three were abandoned because cheaper alternative methods for producing electricity had emerged, and the Huron's power-producing capabilities were beginning to seem insignificant in the face of growing demand. Detroit Edison's large tracts of land along the river remained mostly undeveloped, leaving a natural area which would eventually be bought by Ann Arbor and developed
as a system of public parks (see the SOS Parks Topic for more information).