{"id":43,"ordinal":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:57:31","content_modified":"2026-04-17 19:57:31","featured":1,"title":"Pawtuxet River Mills—Fires, Failures, Successes and Survival","creator":"Larry Manire","description":"<p>Drawing on the skills of Pawtucket iron-makers, financing from Providence and maritime merchants, and the introduction of the Arkwright system of carding and spinning by Samuel Slater in 1790 in Pawtucket, water-powered cotton mills flourished in Rhode Island especially on the Pawtuxet River in central Rhode Island.   Rhode Island had four textile mills by 1800 and by 1832, 119 cotton mills dotted the rural landscape.  In fact, at one point the Pawtuxet River was the most heavily industrialized area in the entire United States.\r\n\r\nBut water-powered textile mills were a very difficult, risky business.  It took a lot of courage and perseverance as a mill owner to find financing, build dams, raceways, and huge buildings, buy lots of machines, buy cotton from the south, produce and market a good product selection, deal with floods, droughts, strikes and weather, hire a lot of workers and provide them with housing, and the basics of a village (which came to be known as the “Rhode Island System”).    \r\n\r\nFor about 150 years the cotton mills prospered but eventually failed or moved south for cheaper labor. The physical reminders of the industrial history of the Pawtuxet--its textile mills, machine shops, transportation structures, power canals and 167 dams still survive in substantial numbers on the river.  \r\n\r\nThis 12.4 mile self-guided tour through Warwick, West Warwick, Coventry and Scituate will take you to 15 of the most significant, originally water-powered mill sites on the Pawtuxet.  Through their history these mills had 14 serious fires and over 85 changes of ownership.  Nine of the 15 are National Register properties or in such districts.  As we visit the mills we will learn about the hardships and struggles along with the successes to produce textiles at the dawn of American Industrialization.\r\n\r\nThough some call the surviving mills “the standing corpses of industrialization,” the good news is that, through specialization and innovation, 70 textile firms employing 2,500 workers continue to thrive in Rhode Island even occupying one of the mills on this tour (Anthony)! \r\n\r\nSee the Rhode Island Textile Innovation Network (https://ritin.org/).</p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/eaef607ba9dd3e762782b8c67f57c584.jpg","items":[{"id":396,"title":"Pawtuxet River Watershed and Mills Tour","latitude":41.72631175000000069985617301426827907562255859375,"longitude":-71.472208088888891097667510621249675750732421875,"thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/eaef607ba9dd3e762782b8c67f57c584.jpg","fullsize":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/eaef607ba9dd3e762782b8c67f57c584.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":"400 Knight St, Warwick, RI 02886","custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":397,"title":"Pontiac Mill","latitude":41.7263999999999981582732289098203182220458984375,"longitude":-71.472499999999996589394868351519107818603515625,"thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/a51a65fe24422966bff9b70850547ce4.jpg","fullsize":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/a51a65fe24422966bff9b70850547ce4.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":398,"title":"Natick Mill (destroyed)","latitude":41.7179679999999990513970260508358478546142578125,"longitude":-71.4925630000000040809027268551290035247802734375,"thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/7e58702bb0cefc7e220f9392cbecb021.jpg","fullsize":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/7e58702bb0cefc7e220f9392cbecb021.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":399,"title":"Valley Queen Mill","latitude":41.714146999999996978658600710332393646240234375,"longitude":-71.5121850000000023328539100475609302520751953125,"thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/f575881ad98bd07f4c74f02c6ae4921e.jpg","fullsize":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/f575881ad98bd07f4c74f02c6ae4921e.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":400,"title":"Royal 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Mill","latitude":41.69706699999999699457475799135863780975341796875,"longitude":-71.5193629999999984647729434072971343994140625,"thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/13e639a7ee9bdc0695d832811cd594e5.jpg","fullsize":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/13e639a7ee9bdc0695d832811cd594e5.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":403,"title":"Crompton Mill","latitude":41.6868860000000012178134056739509105682373046875,"longitude":-71.5241749999999996134647517465054988861083984375,"thumbnail":"https://rhodetour.org/files/square_thumbnails/bd21c59fe128b214afb24138e26351d2.jpg","fullsize":"https://rhodetour.org/files/fullsize/bd21c59fe128b214afb24138e26351d2.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":404,"title":"Quidnick 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