[3] The town of Rowe grew around mills on the river, but also had other industries, including sulfur, talc and soapstone mining.

In the late 1880s, with the addition of the railroad along the river, the area had become somewhat of a small resort town.

But, by the advent of the 1900s, most industry had begun to dry up, leaving the town fairly rural until the 1950s.

At that point, with the "baby boom" underway, Rowe became the site of Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station, the first nuclear power plant in New England, near the Sherman Dam along the Vermont border.

The plant was in operation from 1960 to 1992, and the plant is now completely decommissioned, with the nuclear waste planned to be transported to Yucca Mountain's containment facilities, or another facility in the event that Yucca Mountain remains closed as a result of Harry Reid's lobbying to keep the planned nuclear waste repository closed permanently.

The town is bordered by Whitingham, Vermont, to the north, Heath to the east, Charlemont to the south, and Florida and Monroe to the west.

Rowe lies along the eastern bank of the Deerfield River, which is dammed near the Vermont border to form the Sherman Reservoir.

(Nearly half of these towns are on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, with the majority of the rest in central and western Massachusetts.)

Rowe employs the open town meeting form of government, and is led by a three-person Board of Selectmen.

In the Massachusetts Senate, the town is part of the Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire district, represented by Paul W. Mark.

The town is patrolled by the Second (Shelburne Falls) Station of Troop "B" of the Massachusetts State Police.

It offers a variety of summer camp options for youth, as well as adult workshops and spiritual retreats.

[21] The Rowe Historical Society, located at 282 Zoar Road, operates the Kemp-McCarthy Museum.