The first dam at the mouth of the Meduxnekeag River was built in 1886. In the 1880s Woodstock had two small electric companies related to the Small & Fisher and Connell Brothers iron foundries. These were superseded by the Woodstock Electric Railway Light and Power Company which in 1906 built a dam and a powerhouse on the Meduxnekeag for distribution of power to the town. The first hydro-electric station in New Brunswick, the Hayden dam and its power station was destroyed by a freshet in 1923, which also washed out the bridge that crossed the Meduxnekeag.