Nothing about today’s Big Elk Creek hints that it was a major driver in Cecil County’s industrial output from colonial times into the mid-19th century. Merely 20 miles long (as the crow flies) and unimpressive in size and flow (except during those occasional destructive floods), the modest waterway powered a surprising array of industries producing goods not just for the local residents but for international markets as well. The commodities produced within what is now Fair Hill NRMA ranged from flour to iron boilerplate, from cotton thread to carpenters’ augers, from cut nails to tanbark, from board feet to army blankets. Fair Hill historian Emily Kilby will trace the rise and fall of the Fair Hill area’s water-powered mills and bring to life the people who owned and worked in these thriving industries.

Register here https://fhnc.z2systems.com/np/clients/fhnc/eventRegistration.jsp?event=980&

www.fairhillnature.org