The Saranac Lake Dam is in downtown Saranac Lake. The first version of the dam was built in 1827, to power the Merchant Sawmill, and the lake behind the dam was called, generically, Mill Pond. In 1906 it was renamed Lake Flower, after Governor Roswell P. Flower, who helped finance stump removal in the lake. The dam was electrified in 1894, and sold to the Paul Smith Electric Company in 1907. The power plant was sold to Niagara Mohawk in 1966, and the town office and police station have since moved into the old mill buildings. The Saranac River and the Ausable River drain the northeast part of the park, and flow into Lake Champlain. Both were heavily dammed in the 19th century to regulate seasonal flows for log drives and lumber mills. Several of the dams along these rivers remain.