More than 300 years ago, Richard Arnold left the sunshine and contentment of the Moshassuck Valley and “footed” his way along the serpentine banks of the crystal-clear Blackstone River to a spot where the water’s majesty was thunderously pronounced. Arnold had found Woonsocket.

Focusing his attention on a superb waterfall that roared “like thunder” and moistened the leaves of streamside maples and birch, he recognized the growling roar of power.

Historians can speculate and others can conjecture, but Arnold’s impact on greater Woonsocket cannot be denied. What he wore that day or what his spirits were can only be imagined. Little is recorded about this man. There are no known photos of him.

Here was a hardy man who had picked his way through forest and glen, across gurgling brooks and streams and decided to harness the powers of Woonsocket Falls. He built a primitive sawmill. Fat-bellied salmon were in profusion in the river at that time.

Woonsocket had no inhabitants insofar as European civilization was known and it certainly did not have any commercial activity. It had no domestic environment aside from the muffled sound of Indian moccasins on the forest floor. Yet Arnold, like a few others of that illustrious period, recognized the advantages of upland streams. All of New England was thrust into basic economic patterns because of the abundance of streams and rivers.