River Works Park

River Works Park. knives, forks, and spoons. , John Russell dreamed of creating a source of metal tool products in the United States. He starts with a small facility, J. Russell and Company, on land just east of the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage in Greenfield. The factory runs on steam power., In 1836, John and his brother Francis moved the factory to the banks of the Green River to take advantage of water power from Bascom Dam. Within weeks, a large portion of the complex buns down. Before they can begin to rebuild, a major flood sweeps away the dam and most of the remaining buildings. A new dam, later named the Wiley and Russell dam, is built (the dam still exists just north of Meridian Street, a short walk from here). With the financial backing of Henry W. Clapp, the factory is built to be state-of-the-art and is renamed the Green River Works., Green River Works becomes the country's first cutlery factory to use the American factory system, bringing mechanization to production and competing with the famous cutlery of Sheffield, England. By 1837 Green River Works has seventy employees., In order to expand, the company moves to neighboring Turners Falls in 1870.