Watershed Conservation Plan - Destination Erie

and some of the mills continued to work into the early twentieth century. Claridge described the various
types of water wheels used in Erie County mills (tub-mill wheel, paddle-wheel, and under-shot wheel),
and the great skill and craftsmanship required in the construction of the mill apparatus, weight-bearing
walls, and associated machinery. According to Sanford (1894), the principal streams identified in the
study area for hydropower were Conneaut, Crooked, Raccoon, Elk, Walnut, Mill, Fourmile, Sixmile,
Twelvemile, Sixteenmile, and Twentymile Creeks and Trout Run. Sanford conveys a sense of the
prevailing attitude of humans toward the resource in the accompanying remark, that "these streams afford
abundant water power for manufacturing; and while the valleys and rivers are sometimes wild and
picture-like, as at Elk, Walnut and Twenty Mile Creeks, the broken and unproductive areas of Erie
County are few indeed."
Lechner (1994) provides further historical insight regarding the settlers< attitude about the land,
indicating that from 1792 to 1802, that the Pennsylvania Population Company "presided overt the
establishment of an agricultural frontier in Erie County." In 1797, from an agency at Greenfield (later
named Colt Station), Judah Colt worked to promote the development of the Erie Triangle by "bringing in
merchandise for sale, and hiring workers to build roads, cut timber, build houses, girdle trees in order to
kill them so sunlight could reach potential crops, and make other improvements before the land was sold"
(Lechner 1994). In particular, "Colt encouraged settlers to build saw- and gristmills or contract to have
them built." Lechner (1994) further notes that "the only industries were the operations of saw- and
gristmills, which served the immediate needs for construction work and grain grinding."
Mills were not only found on the study area