Fall River has few resources. It has little tillable land. The soil is encrusted with rocks and boulders. There are no mineral or metal deposits. Its location is not promising because Fall River does not lie on the shortest routes between any large cities. Fall River has no hinterland to provide trade materials. The Taunton river impedes travel on the west side; the Wattaupa ponds similarly hinder travel on the east side. Native American bands were located to the East, West, North and South of present day Fall River; but there is no record of any permanent Native American occupation.

One of Fall River's few resource is water power. The Quequechan river is the outlet of the Watauppa ponds that hurries amain over a three mile course to reach the Taunton river. Grist mills, sawmills and fulling mills were built on the banks of the Quequechan in the 1700s. But, in 1803, Fall River had a population of some 300 people with surnames such as Borden, Durfee and Brayton. The Bordens and Durfees owned much of land that constitutes present day Fall River.

In nearby Providence and the Blackstone valley, Samuel Slater and Moses Brown had started producing in 1790 cotton yarn using machinery powered by the flowing water of the Blackstone river. Men who learned to spin cotton yarn in the Slater mills struck out on their own looking for mills sites. Three of them, David Anthony, Dexter Wheeler and Chace, set up two mills on the Quequechan river in 1813. Wheeler and Anthony started the Fall River Manufacturing Company and Chace started the Troy Cotton Mill.

Richard Borden and Bradford Durfee established the Fall River Iron Works. The manufacture of iron pieces for boats and nails turned out to be profitable. Borden and his brother, Jefferson, expanded their activities to establishing a railroad to Boston and to setting up a steamboat line to New York in 1847. Fall River was now one the main routes between New York City and Boston

Fall River boomed with the age of steam with its dependence on steam powered trains, boats and cotton mills. Coal could be more cheaply delivered to the seashore cities. Cotton mills using steam engines were built at a distance away from the banks of the Quequechan river. When electricity and oil replaced steam as the primary power sources in the 1920s, Fall River lost its competitive advantage and languished. The low points came when Fall River declared bankruptcy in 1931 and the Fall River Line shut down in 1937.