INDUSTRY EXPANDS AT
FALLS RIVER COVE
The initial development consisted of a dam, grist mill and the Hough
House (the miller’s home). The earliest written records state that in
1689 Samuel Hough was invited by the Proprietors (landholders) of
Potapaug to build a dam, erect and run a grist mill. Hough built the dam
along a line of glacial erratics that formed a slight natural fall as the Falls River entered Falls
River Cove. The Hough dam was 200 feet long linking the north and south banks of the river
standing 3 to 4 feet tall. Wooden sills formed the base for the upstream and downstream
walls, which were 6 to 8 feet apart. Its walls were built from locally collected field stones filled
in-between with gravel, soil, stones and clay. A sluiceway (a stone lined channel) was built
into the south side of the dam for the grist mill.
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