The Cedar River drops about six feet during its half-mile course from Franklin Street to the U. S. Highway 57 bridge. This geological occurrence had great consequences for Cedar Falls. It determined the town's location, its name and its principal early industry: milling.

William Sturgis and Erasmus Adams, the first settlers at the falls, recognized the value of the water's power. Investors Ed Brown, John and Dewey Overman acquired water rights and began to develop the power that Sturgis and Adams had dreamed of. A dam was built across the river, and a millrace in a channel between an island and the river bank.

A six-story stone flour mill was built in 1856, followed by another in 1869. Oatmeal, cornmeal, starch, straw paper, metal machinery, pumps and wool were among the items that were eventually produced using power supplied by the millrace.

A series of financial reverses for the principal milling company, the Waterloo and Cedar Falls Union Mill Company, plus the replacement of water power with electricity, brought an end to milling in Cedar Falls during the 1920's.

The Olde Broom Factory Restaurant, once part of a starch mill, is the only building surviving from Cedar Falls' great days as a mill town.