Second Falls, one of four waterfalls on Yarmouth’s Royal River, became a major industrial site because the river’s steep descent lay close to navigable water. From the late seventeenth century into the mid-twentieth century, the falls helped power dozens of mills, including an early paper mill and later the North Yarmouth Manufacturing Company and Royal River Manufacturing Company. The surviving Sparhawk Mill site reflects repeated rebuilding, changing ownership, and varied production, from paper to cotton goods and grain bags. Bridges, boarding houses, and worker housing grew up around the falls, whose turbines still operate. In 2025, Yarmouth chose to remove the dams here and at Fourth Falls to improve ecology.