In the turn-of-the-century decade, transition and progress helped usher in what was considered the first decade of materialism and consumerism. In western Montana, the growth of the lumber industry depended on the development of electrical energy. For W.A. Clark, wealth from mining in Butte made possible expansion into other Montana businesses, and he recognized the growing energy needs of Missoula and the surrounding area. In 1904 he purchased 20 acres at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers for a proposed dam and obtained enough water rights on both rivers to operate a power plant. Construction of Milltown Dam began in September 1905 and was completed in 1907. In 1911 Clark moved his Western Lumber Company from Lothrop to Milltown, further establishing the community as a lumber town and a focal point for electrical energy production. The dam shaped the culture and landscape of this part of western Montana, and the industry it enabled created a solid livelihood and sense of ownership for a community that had once been pioneering. Original features included a 220-foot timber crib, a rock-filled spillway about 40 feet tall, and 10-inch square timbers set on the riverbed and secured to pilings to form the spillway foundation. The structure functioned as a gravity dam, resisting the reservoir's force through the shear gravity of the rock-filled cribs. Its 126-foot-long by 65-foot-wide powerhouse of brick and reinforced concrete housed five General Electric alternating current generators and two G.E. direct current exciters powered by Leffel twin horizontal turbines. At peak generation, 3,400 kilowatts served local industry and transportation, the towns of Bonner and Milltown, and a Missoula and rural circuit. The site's larger history included Captain John Mullan carving the Mullan Trail through Milltown in 1854, the Northern Pacific Railroad arriving in 1883, the Hammond-Bonner Mill opening in 1886, McCormick selling the townsite land to the Western Lumber Company in 1903, the plant first generating electricity and surviving major flood conditions in 1908, Clark selling the dam to the Missoula Light and Water Company in 1916, later sales in 1924 and 1929, Northwestern Energy's purchase of Montana Power Company in 2002, and the dam's scheduled removal.