Quance Dam in Delhi

Quance Dam, the centrepiece of Quance Park, is one of Delhi's best-loved landmarks — and one of Norfolk County's oldest industrial sites.

Here are five facts about Quance Dam:

The story starts in 1842, when Henry Sovereen built a lumber and grist mill here on Big Creek. Delhi itself was known as Sovereen's Corners back then — the town didn't take the name Delhi until 1856.
The dam is named for the Quance family, who bought the mills from the Sovereens in 1874 and modernized the sawmill with a turbine water wheel. At the height of the operation, the family ran a sawmill, gristmill, planing mill, carding mill, chop mill, and buckwheat mill around the dam.
The site even made its own electricity. After the Quance family's dam at Croton washed out in 1937, the electrical equipment was moved here, keeping the mill powered until operations wound down in the early 1970s.
The dam you see today was rebuilt in 1992 — complete with a fish ladder — after Norfolk County took over the site as a public park.
The historic mill still stands just north of the dam, a rare reminder of Delhi's first industry, long before tobacco. In recent years the dam has even hosted a modern micro-hydro energy project — old water power, new tricks.

Pack a picnic, cast a line, and take in 180 years of Norfolk history in one of Delhi's prettiest spots.