The San Lorenzo Paper Mill was established by Henry Van Valkenburgh in 1861 on the present site of Paradise Park’s Section 6, where a dam and flume provided water power to drive the machinery. The dam was fairly primitive, with large tree trunks laid crisscross on an incline, spaces between the logs packed with earth, and the whole structure overlaid with planks to make it relatively watertight. It was designed to allow large trees and debris to flow over the top when the river was at flood stage. However, the dam backed the river’s water far upstream, creating a small lake that sometimes flooded the southern end of the Powder Works north of the Paper Mill. To resolve this problem, the two companies agreed that the paper mill would tear down its dam, and in return, the Powder Works would provide water to the Paper Mill via a flume running alongside the river and connecting the two operations. After Henry Van Valkenburgh’s untimely death, the Paper Mill was eventually sold to the Powder Works in 1872, and by 1873 the CPW began its expansion there by building the nearby brick Powder House. Henry’s widow Ellen was an early suffragette who tried to register to vote in Santa Cruz in 1871, was refused by the County Clerk, and sued; in 1872, her case for voting rights for women reached the California Supreme Court, which ruled against her. Another 48 years passed before the 19th Amendment was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1920, granting women the right to vote in California and the United States.