The company built a larger dam, sawmill, cabinet shop and bridge and owned about 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of land.

[2] The Little Falls Manufacturing Company faltered due to a number of factors, including "the ill effects of the economic depression that swept the frontier and ultimately the nation in the late 1850s.

"[3] William Sturgis and James Fergus left their Little Falls business interests in the hands of their wives while they went west in search of gold.

In 1978, automation for Blanchard, along with the Sylvan and Pillager dams on the Crow Wing River, were centralized in Little Falls; this allowed a staff of four to do work that had previously required sixteen operators.

The operation has since been remotely controlled by Minnesota Power's central dispatchers in Riverton, and the dam is now staffed only by maintenance personnel.

Because generating electricity by water power has little overhead and no fuel costs, this relatively small 4.5 megawatt dam remains economically profitable.