Frontiersman Joe Whitford first came to this spot in the winter of 1856 after James Fergus employed him to establish a townsite, and after hearing from Indians of a good site with "big swift water" on the Otter Tail River, he filed a claim in 1857, built a log cabin, and named the townsite Fergus Falls for his employer. Whitford was killed in the Sioux Indian uprising of 1862, and his claim lapsed. Five years later George B. Wright, a young surveyor and civil engineer, found Whitford's vacated 160-acre riverfront claim and bought it for $100. Wright then partnered with Minneapolis businessman R.J. Mendenhall to build a dam, sawmill, and flour mill at the point where the river's turbulence was greatest, now the center of Fergus Falls. The townsite was chosen for practical reasons, as the Otter Tail River drops more than 300 feet across Otter Tail County's highlands toward the Red River of the North valley, and Fergus Falls lies about halfway down that slope. To 19th century engineers, the river's descent through ravines, its many potential damsites, and its lakes as natural reservoirs made it especially valuable for water power suited to mills. Built in 1871, the earth-filled Central Dam, also called Wright Dam, powered Wright's sawmill, the first Fergus Falls industry driven by the river. By then Wright owned much of the townsite and offered free lots to anyone willing to build a business, while his sawmill supplied the lumber. Recognized as the founder of Fergus Falls, Wright built a hydroelectric plant in 1881 that supplied 2,000-candlepower arc lights rented to downtown businesses for 75 cents a night, and it also furnished electricity for the Fergus Falls Journal, identified as the world's only water-powered newspaper plant. During the first decade of the 20th century, developers rushed to claim damsites and enter the electric business. By 1902 Vernon Wright, George's son, was surveying at Dayton Hollow downstream, and in 1907 he led an investment group to incorporate; the Dayton Hollow hydroelectric station began operating in April 1909, marking the emergence of Otter Tail Power Company as an operating electric utility. At about the same time, the City of Fergus Falls was building a dam and powerhouse upstream for its municipal electric system, but after construction problems that included springs and seepage, the city dam washed out in September 1909, sending a surge downstream that destroyed four more dams and temporarily threatened Dayton Hollow Dam, which was saved by the large pond behind it. Several dams were later built, and their power helped mills grind grain from the prairies to the west and cut lumber from the white pine forests to the east, while promoters imagined a metropolis perhaps 14 miles long lining both sides of the river with factories. Today Otter Tail Power Company supplies electricity to about 422 communities across a 70,000-square-mile area.