Rockford, IL: Water Power District

While reading about the Barber-Colman manufacturing facility, I saw reference to the Water Power District.

The growth and development of Rockford from its founding in 1834 has been one of technical innovation. From individual machinists working in small shops to invent or improve small tools, grew a diversified industrial center that produced machine tools, hardware, farm implements, appliances, furniture, automotive accessories and aircraft parts. Although it was known successively as the “Reaper City,” “Furniture City,” and “Machine Tool City,” the strength of the city’s manufacturing sector lie in the fact that it was not dependent on any one industrial product. 

It was the potential power source of the Rock River that attracted the early settlers to Rockford. The first sawmill was built on the Rock River near Kent Creek in 1834 by Germanicus Kent, and in 1843, the first foundry and machine shop opened on North Second Street by the Watson Brothers. An early act of the Illinois legislature in 1849 that addressed the “improvement of the Rock River…and the production of hydraulic power” provided the impetus for major industrial development in the city. Business leaders in Rockford in 1851 pooled their resources to dam the Rock River and create a Water Power District, and the area was quickly filled with factories and machine shops of many types. 

But it was the coming of the railroads to Rockford that many historians believe changed it from a small town into a burgeoning industrial community. The Galena & Chicago Union Railroad was the first to establish a line through town in 1853. With the availability of hydroelectric power and rail, Rockford entered a period of decisive growth. By the 1860s, the city of Rockford was a booming mill town with a farm implement industry whose foundries and machine shops turned out self-raking reapers and mowers. [Survey]

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

As with many towns built along a river for hydro power, the dam still exists, but the millrace has been filled in and redeveloped. Fortunately, the millrace still existed in 1939 so that we can see where it ran. It looks like there was a short millrace on the east side for an electric power plant and a longer millrace dug inland on the west side for a row of hydro-powered factories.

Have the downstream "islands" been removed, or was enough water diverted to the factory millrace that the flow downstream of the dam was low enough to expose the islands? According to Historic Aerials, the western millrace was filled in between 1945 and 1956.