{"id":396,"featured":1,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:57:16","latitude":41.72631175000000069985617301426827907562255859375,"longitude":-71.472208088888891097667510621249675750732421875,"title":"Pawtuxet River Watershed and Mills Tour","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/eaef607ba9dd3e762782b8c67f57c584.jpg","address":"400 Knight St, Warwick, RI 02886","all_locations":[],"zoom":9,"creator":["Larry Manire"],"description":"The “Pawtuxet,” named by the Native Americans as “the river of many falls,” had numerous cataracts due to the underlying hard crystalline rock of the area producing an average fall of 4.7 feet per mile and it never ran dry!  It had everything needed for cotton production.  By 1840 textile manufacturers occupied the 17 most suitable waterpower sites along the Pawtuxet River.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nThe river’s watershed covers 232 sq mi in central Rhode Island.   The river has 588 miles of tributaries which flow east to eventually enter Narragansett Bay at Pawtuxet Village on the Cranston/Warwick line.  Starting at elevations of 500 to 600 feet in the west and 800 feet in the northwest the river flows as two major branches, the North and South branch which join at “Riverpoint” in West Warwick at about 300 feet above sea level.  There they contain enough flow to power large textile mills.  The river descends about 250 feet within five miles through Coventry, West Warwick and Warwick.  Over 15 very large cotton mills were built on this stretch in the 1800s.  Most of the buildings are still present.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nFrom the beginning of occupation many small dams were built to provide water power for grist and sawmills.  Virtually all of these dams still exist although the small mills are all gone.  The map in the Watershed image shows the 167 dams as black squares on the rivers.  The red dots are the mill sites on this tour.  <br />\r\n<br />\r\nThe Mill Tour Route Image shows the shortest route to drive the 12.4 miles of the tour starting at the Pontiac Mill in Warwick.  Of course you can drive it in reverse or do any portion of it as desired.  More detailed images of the lower river and branches show the relatively large drops in elevation along the way which provided the vast water power needed to run the thousands of textile machines in the large mills.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":["<p><a href=\"http://www.pawtuxet.org/\">Pawtuxet Valley River Authority</a></p>","<p><a href=\"https://www.rigis.org/\">Rhode Island Geographic Information System</a></p>","Gary Kulik, et al, eds., The New England Mill Village, 1790-1860 (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1982).","Rupp, Richard A. and Townsend, Peter R., The Mills at Remington’s Run, A Chronological History of The Arkwright Manufacturing Company, 1809-1999 (Meridian Printing, East Greenwich, RI, 1999)."],"factoids":["For a driving tour with CD narration that is more mill village oriented see <em>The Villages of the Town of West Warwick: A Self-Guided Tour</em> available from the <a href=\"http://www.pvhistorian.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pawtuxet Valley Preservation and Historical Society</a>, 1679 Main Street, West Warwick.","Rhode Island Water Power--An 1832 Census of Manufactures noted the great advantage of Rhode Island rivers for manufacturing.  “The Blackstone, Moshassuck, Woonasquatucket, Pawtuxet…more steady in their volumes than those of the western country, and descending, in their short courses, an elevation of from two to four hundred and fifty feet to the tide waters of the bay and sound, furnish, with their tributaries, innumerable cascades, and a power of propelling machinery almost incalculable in amount. The operative capacity thus offered has been improved by human art, in some instances, to the extent of constructing artificial works for the retention of superabundant waters during the winter and spring freshets, to be again turned into the river in the summer and autumn. Many streams which, with their natural flow, would drive the works upon them only ten or eleven months of the year, have been thus made to operate them throughout the year. The power thus of the labor of more than twelve thousand horses, working eight hours in each day. The amount of water power still unoccupied is very great. With such a redundancy of this natural agent, the more expensive one of steam has been, so far, very little used, and only under peculiar circumstances of location and business.”"],"files":{"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/eaef607ba9dd3e762782b8c67f57c584.jpg":{"id":1638,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Pawtuxet River watershed topographic map","description":"The river flows 12.3 miles and drains 232 square miles into Narragansett Bay. | <a href=\"http://www.pawtuxet.org/\">Pawtuxet River Water Authority</a>","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/eaef607ba9dd3e762782b8c67f57c584.jpg"},"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/442e195ea124a1e3ca20e57c2fe1e72e.jpg":{"id":1639,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Watershed Dams and Tour Mills","description":"The Pawtuxet River descends over 800 feet across about 20 miles to empty into Narragansett Bay at Pawtuxet Village in Cranston.   The water power at 167 dams (black squares) powered many grist mills and sawmills, and dozens of textile mills large and small including the 15 mills on this tour (red dots). | <p>Map data from <a href=\"https://www.rigis.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rhode Island Geographic Information System (RIGIS)</a></p> | 2021 | Larry Manire","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/442e195ea124a1e3ca20e57c2fe1e72e.jpg"},"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/c5ab66c0735f97e119546a91fe67ee79.jpg":{"id":1640,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Driving tour overview","description":"Our 12.4 mile tour starts at Pontiac Mill in Warwick on the lower river to see two mills, then follows the South Branch to see seven mills, then moves to the North Branch for the remaining six.  The route shows the shortest drive to see all 15 but you may start or stop anywhere along the route as desired.  See the next three images for detail of the tour on the lower river, south and north branches. | Map data from <a href=\"https://www.rigis.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rhode Island Geographic Information System (RIGIS)</a> | 2021 | Larry Manire","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/c5ab66c0735f97e119546a91fe67ee79.jpg"},"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/bc31ff132c9a6022f7d1541fb7d38a9f.jpg":{"id":1641,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Lower Pawtuxet portion of tour","description":"The North and South branches join to form the lower river which flows into Narragansett Bay.  Note the 125 elevation drop which provided lots of water power for the large mills. | <p>Map data from <a href=\"https://www.rigis.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rhode Island Geographic Information System (RIGIS)</a></p> | 2021 | Larry Manire","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/bc31ff132c9a6022f7d1541fb7d38a9f.jpg"},"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/968d0331df0d062f3181dd8f545ee2d9.jpg":{"id":1642,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"South Branch portion of tour","description":"The South Branch has seven mills on this tour with 100 ft drop in elevation.  | Map data from <a href=\"https://www.rigis.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rhode Island Geographic Information System (RIGIS)</a> | 2021 | Larry Manire","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/968d0331df0d062f3181dd8f545ee2d9.jpg"},"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/db77d5f51060b43aaa0ac01b13efa183.jpg":{"id":1643,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"North Branch portion of tour","description":"The North Branch has six mills on this tour with 75 ft drop in elevation. | <p>Map data from <a href=\"https://www.rigis.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rhode Island Geographic Information System (RIGIS)</a></p> | 2021 | Larry Manire","thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/db77d5f51060b43aaa0ac01b13efa183.jpg"}}}