The Town of Canaan, established in 1738, is known as Falls Village because of the Great Falls of the Housatonic, where a power company dam was built in 1912-13. Early industrial prominence came from a saw mill and grist mill built at the Falls in 1741, an iron works in 1743, and a fulling mill in 1747. The region's iron ore, limestone, and forests were important to America during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The Housatonic, meaning "place beyond the mountains" in the Indian language, forms Canaan's western boundary, and in 1858 Canaan was divided into two towns, Canaan and North Canaan.