The 6-foot drop in the Cedar River attracted William Sturgis and Erasmus Adams to the area in 1845 because the falls provided dependable energy to operate a saw mill for lumber and a grist mill for grinding grain. Sturgis built a timber brush dam and cut a millrace, a channel parallel to the river with a gate to control the water level, so river water could be diverted into it and allocated to each mill as needed to drive the generator. A larger millrace built in 1867 attracted new businesses, including three large flour mills, an oatmeal and cornstarch plant, a saw mill, and woolen and paper mills. The millrace also produced electricity, first through a small private electric generator built in the 1890s, and later through a city power plant constructed after Cedar Falls bought the millrace in the 1930s and put the plant into operation in 1941. Located at the east end of the millrace, the hydro plant provided cost effective energy for many years until the millrace was filled in during construction of the Highway 20 bridge in 1971.