Lowell is in the northeastern part of the state of Massachusetts and Middlesex County. Lowell is situated at the junction of the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Lowell was the United State’s first planned town to become primarily industrial. The area began as an agricultural community and was formerly known as East Chelmsford. Over the years, the village grew and became an important center for the cotton textile manufacturing with the help of the waterpower from the Merrimack’s Pawtucket Falls. The city experienced a period of decline and the relocation of the textile mills to the southern states of the country. With the influx of Cambodian immigrants in the late 1970s, it made Lowell one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country at the end of the 20th century. At the start of the 21st century, health care, technology, higher education, and tourism became the city’s significant activities.