On an ill-fated spring night in 1852, a peaceful lake in Brighton Township dealt a cruel hand of death and devastation to the unsuspecting farming community. By all reports the gravel dam at Hilton Lake burst at about 10:30 that night. Millions of cubic meters of water roared downstream between the narrow banks of the creek pushing a wall of gravel, stones, rocks and debris in front of it. The force of the flood was over in just minutes, the lake was drained, the creek was flooded, two mills had been destroyed and two lives were lost. The families would take years to recover.