Woonsocket Falls, the largest drop on the Blackstone River, has long provided a natural source of power despite posing an obstacle to river travel. Settlers began harnessing that falling water as early as the late 1600s, when Richard Arnold, Sr. built a sawmill below the falls, and grist mills, forges, and other small enterprises followed. By 1842, at the height of the American Industrial Revolution, dozens of mills used the rushing waters to make textiles and other goods. Early development of Woonsocket centered near the falls, where businesses and mills created an urban hub, and as the city grew, steep hills encouraged distinct settlements including mill villages, ethnic neighborhoods, and other communities. Today the Woonsocket Thundermist Hydroelectric Plant produces more than 7 million kilowatt/hours of electricity per year, enough to power the city's water and sewage treatment plants, with an underground conduit channeling water to a small brick structure where a turbine converts water power into electricity for residential and commercial use. The Woonsocket Falls Dam now helps control the river and protect nearby people, businesses, and industries, and after major flooding in 1955, the Army Corps of Engineers redesigned and strengthened the region's entire water system, including the dam at Woonsocket Falls.
