Haydens Dam- A Follow Up

 I had posted this view before, but two more views of this dam have come into the Society's collection, so I wanted to offer an update.

In case you missed the earlier post, Hayden's Dam was located upstream, or south of Hayden Road, which is two miles south of Port Byron. The dam, which dates back to before 1830, was used to power Hayden's Mill which was located on the Outlet here. It was also used power Beach's Mill which was located in the village. When the mill burned in 1857, the millrace was taken over by the State to feed water into the Erie Canal.
 

This photo was taken from the Hayden Road bridge, looking upstream. The trolley bed can be seen along the left bank of the Outlet, and if you look upstream, you can just make out the dam. When these photos were taken, Hayden's Mill had been torn down to make way for the trolley line. Hayden's Mill would have been fed by a mill race on the left side of the view.

Here is an another view of the dam. The little building to the right was the gate house that controlled the flow of water into the mill race. The goal of building a mill race this far up the valley was to get good head at the mill wheel. The head is the amount of energy that the water can exert on the mill wheel. Between Hayden's Dam and the village, there is 20 feet of fall, which is what was needed to turn the massive wheel at Beach's Mill. In short, it took two miles of mill race to get the power needed to run the mill. The State didn't need head to fill the canal, but since the race was in place, it made sense to use it. The building basically contained the on / off valve for feeding water into the canal.

And here is the view today, looking upstream from Hayden Road.

Hayden's Dam was one of four dams built across the Outlet in Mentz.

View at Hayden's

It is hard to see, but the caption says "View at Hayden's", which would mean that this is now Rt 38 looking to the south, or towards Auburn. Hayden Road would be just behind us. The old highway is still there, although it now serves as a driveway. The power poles follow the line of the old trolley line, and that route was taken over for the new state highway. Looking off in the distance, you can see the bed of the trolley going up the hill. I don't have a date. This photo comes from the Port Byron Telephone Company collection.

Hayden's Dam

This is a nice image taken around the Port Byron area, but not of Port Byron. Of course, if the postcard printer had put down "Hayden's Dam, Mentz, NY", no one would know where this was.

This photo is of a dam that goes way back to the 1820's. The dam was built by Charles and Amos Parks to back up water in the Outlet to run a small mill near the site. It was located just south of where Hayden Road crosses the Outlet.   In 1830 when John Beach was constructing his large mill in Port Byron, he built a two mile long canal to receive water from this dam in order to get enough water pressure to turn his mills large wheels. We can still see the remains of this canal (mill race) today.

After the mill burned in 1857, the State took over the mill race to direct water into the Erie Canal. The little building you can see on the far bank covers the gate that allowed water into the mill race and canal. The foundation for this building can be seen even today from Rt 38. Not much of the dam remains today. If you happen to be walking up the Outlet, you might stumble over one of the iron spikes used to nail the dam together.