Steele Creek (Mohawk River tributary)

Flooding

History

• Rudolph Stahl built the first grist mill in Ilion on the Steele Creek, at about where the Ilion Episcopal Church sits today.
• Sam Newton built a cider mill in "Smokey Run", now known as South Ilion. He built a mill pond on the creek and powered the cider mill and vinegar works, a full blacksmith shop and a first floor wood working shop. Here the first 800 washing machines built in Central New York under a Mitchell Patent. A flood in 1938 took out the mill dam and the back end of the mill.
• Along Steele Creek sprang up other various mills. The Dexter oil mill and saw mill about where Weber Avenue is now, the Ingersoll plaster mill and saw mill near Philip Street, and a fulling mill close to present Richfield Street.