Tide Mills Solve 18th-Century Energy Crisis

We usually think of power shortages as 21st-Century phenomena, recently in news about California and Texas. But as early as 1720, colonial York, Maine, also faced a power shortage that threatened the economic growth of the settlement. According to a recent research paper by Bob Gordon, every possible site in the early town had by then been exploited for its water power, but there still wasn’t enough energy to support and expand an export economy that relied on grain mills and sawmills.

To solve the problem – and make a profit while doing so – 19 men with vision organized to dam York’s Meeting House Creek, creating a mill pond to power sawmills and grist mills using the energy of the tides. The project tripled the mechanical energy available in York and was the largest tidal power project in New England at the time. The business, named New Mills Company, turned out to be a great financial success for its owners.

The milling operations prospered for decades after their establishment, but President Jefferson’s trade embargo, the War of 1812, a depression and the depletion of the nearby forests eventually led to the failure of business at the site. Later entrepreneurs attempted ice harvesting operations and real estate development around the pond, but they failed. Finally in 1922, a local society came to the rescue, repairing the original dam so pedestrian traffic could cross the mouth of the creek.

The site of the dam and the tidal pond, now called Barrell’s Mill Pond, is today a peaceful, photogenic spot with a graceful causeway over the old dam leading to Steedman Woods Nature Reserve. Except for the explanatory plaque near the east end of the dam, little evidence remains of the busy industrial operations once centered there.

Read more about the history of Barrell’s Mill Pond in Bob Gordon’s report.