For hundreds of years, Native Americans used the rock shoals at Cedar Falls as a hunting campsite and as a ford across the Reedy River. In the early 1800’s, the river’s elevation change made waterpower possible, and Hudson Berry used the site for a textile mill, grist mill, saw mill, cotton gin, and general store, supplying his waterwheel with a small dam on a side channel of the river. The store became the hub of public activity in the Cedar Falls area during the 1800’s, and its foundations still survive near the river, while the old road is marked by a dry stacked stone wall at the creek. To maintain water flow during low water levels, an eight inch high concrete curb was built on top of the shoals to funnel water over the dam. Around 1910, a larger dam across the entire river was built to generate electricity for the Fork Shoals Mill and for Dr. Ross’s home and medical clinic one mile upstream. Water passed from a round hole at the base of the dam through a seventy-two inch iron penstock pipe, supported by twenty-six rock and concrete columns, traveling 530 feet to a water-powered turbine at the base of a concrete pier, with the turbine connected by large leather belts to a generator set atop a nineteen foot tall pier above floodwater level. The plant, which also contained a machine shop used by the community, became a local gathering place, and when it operated the river no longer spilled over the dam, leaving the falls and riverbed dry until the river reestablished itself below the race. In the 1940’s, the Fork Shoals Mill began purchasing electricity from Duke Power, and the power plant was demolished in 1950. For nearly thirty years during the early development of the Fork Shoals community, the Cedar Falls Light and Power Company provided electricity, and beginning in 1905 Clarence Williams started operating the power plant at the site.