Total Project Cost The combined cost associated with feasibility, engineering, permitting, and construction totaled approximately $590,000. In addition this project received hundreds of hours of volunteer in-kind services and support from individuals and non-profit organizations who support the restoration of the Souhegan River. A Short History of the Merrimack Village Dam The Souhegan River in south central New Hampshire has a rich and varied history. Before European and English settlers arrived here some 300 years ago, the Penacook Indians lived along its banks and gave the river its name, which can be roughly translated as "river of the plains" referring to the rich flatlands on either side as it meandered on its wild course to the Merrimack. For those who lived on its shores, the Souhegan was a rich source of shad, salmon and alewife. When early European settlers arrived, they too were attracted by the rich land and abundant fisheries. They soon settled near the mouth of the Souhegan by the falls that emptied into the Merrimack, naming the settlement Souhegan Village, later known as the town of Merrimack. These settlers erected the area's first grist mills along the river, followed by other mills, dams, and bridges. The first dam at the site dates to the 1730s. According to old records, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted John Chamberlain 300 acres of land at the point where the Souhegan empties into the Merrimack on the condition that he established a saw and grist mill in the area. By around 1737 he had built Merrimack's first mill buildings as well as its first bridge over the Souhegan. Chamberlain served the Town of Merrimack as Selectman, Surveyor of Highways, and Town Meeting Moderator before his death around 1800.		PROJECT PARTNERS
		American Rivers Conservation Law Foundation Gomez and Sullivan Engineers, P.C. Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment Manchester Fly Fishing Association Merrimack Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited New Hampshire Coastal Conservation Association New Hampshire Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership New Hampshire Deprtment of Environmental Services New Hampshire Fish and Game Department NOAA Restoration Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce Restore America's Estuaries Souhegan River Local Advisory Committee Souhegan Watershed Association Town of Merrimack United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior

In 1807, the mill buildings at Souhegan Falls were passed from Chamberlain's heirs to Isaac Riddle, a merchant from Bedford, who established the Souhegan Nail, Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company. While Riddles' many other business ventures in neighboring towns seemed to flourish, the Souhegan Nail, Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company did not, and in 1840, David Henderson, a Scot who had worked in the Lowell Mills, became the new owner of the Souhegan Falls site. By 1850, Henderson had established a large woolen carpet mill at the site that was producing 75,000 yards of carpet and employing fifty-four workers. This operation thrived through the Civil War and continued to grow, attracting immigrants from Scotland and Ireland to the area.

By 1880, Henderson was no longer operating the carpet factory, but had let it out to Paul Litchfield, a "repellents and suitings" manufacturer. Adjacent to the mill, toward the bridge, David Henderson's son, William, operated a Shoddy Mill that was located up river from the main mill building, and may have replaced the gristmill and sawmill. Around the same time a furniture factory, the Thomas Parker Table Company, was built. It continued operations at the site until the 1950's.

On September 8, 1883, fire destroyed all of the mill buildings except the table shop. Around this time the mill site was briefly owned by Jones and McQuesten, and then sold to Gordon Woodbury of Bedford, who constructed a large plant to house the Merrimack Shoe Company. In December 1906, Woodbury sold all the land he had acquired in Merrimack Village to the W.H. McElwain Company, one of the largest shoe manufacturers in the country. Soon after coming to Merrimack Village, McElwain made changes around the Souhegan Falls dam, constructing the concrete gate structure, and likely at the same time topping the existing stone power canal adjacent to the dam with concrete. The arched spillway design of the dam, used in other New Hampshire dams dating back at least to the 1880s , increases the overall length of the spillway which directly increases the amount of water passing over it. During World War I, McElwain supplied boots for American soldiers. But in the years after the war, business declined. McElwain sold the operations to thee International Shoe who ran it until 1953 when the shoe industry left Merrimack for good. International Shoe sold the Merrimack Village site to Andrew J. Woronka, who was the force behind a number of different companies that packages, distributed and in some cases produced, chemicals at the site.

In 1964, Woronka sold the Merrimack Village dam to the Pennichuck Water Works, which sought the water rights to divert water from the Souhegan River upstream in Amherst to the Pennichuck Brook watershed. Pennichuck used the Souhegan as a supplemental supply during dry, summer periods until 1984 when Pennichuck constructed a new intake on the Merrimack River. At one time during the 1980's, Pennichuck conducted a study to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a hydroelectric project at the site. The hydroelectric facility was determined to not be economically feasible. Pennichuck never constructed the project and has retained ownership of the dam to present day.

Efforts to remove the dam began in 2000, when New Hampshire state officials notified Pennichuck that the dam was structurally deficient and needed repairs. Pennichuck began exploring the possibility of removing the dam when its studies determined that the costs of repairing and maintaining the dam did not justify the benefits of keeping it intact.

Planning and impact studies for the project were contracted to Gomez and Sullivan Engineers, P.C., of Weare, NH and Utica, NY; and actual physical removal of the dam was carried out by Costello Dismantling, Inc., a Massachusetts firm. The work began on July 14 and was completed in early September of 2008. The estimated $590,000 needed to pay for studies, engineering and dam removal was funded by Pennichuck Water with help from a number of federal, state and private grants.

 

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