Glen Falls is a small waterfall located on
Ellicott Creek
Ellicott Creek is a stream in Western New York, United States. It is a tributary of Tonawanda Creek, which in turn flows into the Niagara River.
Course
Ellicott Creek originates in southwest corner of Genesee County, just northeast of Darien L ...
in the village of
Williamsville,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. The
hydropower
Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...
provided by the falls made it an ideal site for a number of early
watermills
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...
used to grind
grist
Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding. It can also mean grain that has been ground at a gristmill. Its etymology derives from the verb ''grind.''
Grist can be ground into meal or flour, depending on ho ...
and to power
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
s.
One of the earliest
settler
A settler is a person who has human migration, migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area.
A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a ...
s of what is now Williamsville, Jonas Williams, owned two mills on opposite sides of Ellicott Creek.
The name of these mills, Williams Mills, eventually transformed into the name of the village in which the falls is located, Williamsville. The falls has a vertical drop of approximately .
The vertical drop is part of the
Onondaga Escarpment
The Onondaga Limestone is a group of hard limestones and dolomites of Devonian age that form an important geographic feature in some areas in which it outcrops; in others, especially its Southern Ontario portion, the formation can be less promine ...
, a portion of which runs through Williamsville. Today, the falls forms part of the eastern border of
Glen Park.
Glen Falls has a very similar name to the city of
Glens Falls
Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census. The name was given by Colonel Johannes Glen, the falls refe ...
, which is located in the far eastern portion of
New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
, over from Williamsville.
References
{{reflist
External links
A 1909 photograph of Glen Falls
Waterfalls of New York (state)
Landforms of Erie County, New York