Welcome to the Fly Creek Area Historical Society
"Many leaders of the young American republic believed that the nation’s economic viability lay in domestic manufacturing binomo web login. So long as the nation produced mainly raw materials and bought its cloth, paper, machines, and other factory-made goods from abroad—an underlying commercial purpose of any colony, its future would be controlled by others. In the quarter century following the constitutional convention of 1787, America struggled to assert her economic independence against the established and far superior strength of industrialized Great Britain. American industrial development relied on flowing water, so streams and falls dictated the location of early American industry. Surveyors working for large landowners preparing to sell land in manageable parcels usually noted potential mill streams. Gazetteers, often published by men interested in promoting the new country’s development, provided details about “well watered” areas with potential mill seats. These locales hosted numerous small grist and saw mills serving mainly local needs and also served as the prototypes of American industrialization" - Jesse Ravage, Mill Hamlets of the Oaks Creek Valley 1786-1956