A Culture Lost Beneath the Waters: The Downsville Dam/Pepacton Reservoir

Northern end of Pepacton Reservoir, looking NE.

“(Pepacton)” was the first sign I saw as I drove northward along the Pepacton Reservoir on Route 30, just northeast of Downsville, NY. Interesting, those parentheses. A lost community. There was no evidence of any settlements – just a perimeter road through the forested banks of the Pepacton Reservoir. How many more towns were here once, I wondered?

In upstate New York with a rare free afternoon, I had set out to explore the Downsville Dam – an enormous earthen dam completed in 1954 as part of the Delaware water system. I remember walking with my father along the crest of the dam when I was about 5 years old. Then it had seemed an endless expanse of bare earth stretching from one side of the valley to the other. I recall other sightseers strolling along the crest that Sunday afternoon as if they were on an outing at the Boardwalk.

Dad was always impressed by major events – natural and man-made -- that changed the earth in some way. Large-scale earthworks were a special fascination. I can imagine how the Downsville Dam must have inspired him.

Aerial view of Downsville [NY] Dam. Historic
Postcard.  Delhi, NY: Bob Wyer Photocards, ca. 1960.

The dam is 2,400 feet long, 200 feet high, and 1,800 feet thick at its base. The upstream side is concrete; the downstream side is a long, gently sloping earth embankment. The Reservoir is some 18 miles long, has a shore line of 50 miles, and a surface area of 6,400 acres. It drains a watershed of 370 square miles and holds 150 billion gallons of fresh water. A 26-mile long tunnel transports water eastward from the Pepacton Reservoir to the Rondout Reservoir, thence through the Delaware Aqueduct towards New York City.

The Pepacton was part of the Delaware system first approved in 1931 that included the Rondout, Neversink, and Cannonsville reservoirs. They augmented the earlier Ashokan and Schoharie reservoirs in the Catskills. These new reservoirs were to meet New York City’s water needs at least until 1990.

I traveled to the hamlet of Downsville via Route 30, a scenic route along the East Branch of the Delaware River in Delaware County. I was hoping for a visitor’s center where I could learn more about the dam and its history, not to mention a good viewing point for photographs like they have for the “Big Dams” built during the New Deal. I encountered none.

As part of the New York City water supply system, security is tight around the Pepacton Reservoir. There are no pull outs, no visitor centers. Fishing is allowed in the reservoir, but only by permit. There are only a few places to launch a boat. I saw only one boat on the water that day. Glimpses of the reservoir can be seen through the trees along the perimeter road, but otherwise, the best viewpoint for a photo is taken from a car window as you drive over the bridge at the north end near Margaretville. As for the dam itself, there is certainly no more strolling along the crest. Chain-link fencing and lack of a pull-out discourages any would-be sightseer from stopping for a closer look.

View of valley before inundation by Pepacton Reservoir.
From NYS interpretive exhibit nr. Margaretville, NY.

The story of the Pepacton Reservoir is revealed only in a small installation of several photo boards under a shelter at its northeastern corner. These modest boards provided the basics of the story and some excellent historic photos of the four hamlets that were inundated: Pepacton, Shavertown, Arena, and Union Grove. In all, 974 people were displaced, along with 36 businesses, 8 churches, 5 schools, 4 post offices, and 13 cemeteries, and a number of outlying farms. Subsequent research discovered only one other local history, one video produced in 2007, and one website that considered the building of the Downsville dam and the loss of the communities in the valley. I found numerous articles on the project in the online archives of the New York Times, which were quite satisfying. Perhaps there are more, but I was unable to find them during this search.

In contrast to this paucity, federal dams such as the Grand Coulee, which I visited this summer, are focal points for tourism and ready sources of information. That dam had an excellent interpretive center, which offered written materials, videos, staff, and walking tours not only about the dam engineering, but also the lost Native American culture that lived for generations beside the banks of the Columbia River. The Grand Coulee is remote from major tourist routes, yet the center was filled with visitors, many of whom had driven many miles out of their way to learn about the site.

Given the budget issues facing all levels of government these days, there is little chance that a more thoughtful and comprehensive exploration of the creation of the Delaware/Catskill water system will be installed near the reservoirs anytime soon. And yet, I hope that at some point New York will find the resources to better remember the communities that sacrificed their existence for the sake of the larger good and celebrate the marvels of this great engineering feat.

Student posing outside the school at Arena, NY (demolished 1954)  
From NYS exhibit board nr Margaretville, NY. 

Resources:


“A memorial to the towns that were sacrificed for New York City.” The Hudson Valley and the Catskills. Website. URL: http://bearsystems.com/losttowns/lost.html accessed August 24, 2010. Information on lost towns from the Delaware/Catskill reservoir system: West Hurley, Ashton, Glenford, Brown's Station, Olive Bridge, Brodhead, Shokan, West Shokan, Boiceville, Beerston, Cannonsville, Rock Rift, Rock Royal, Granton, Neversink, Bittersweet, Arena, Pepacton, Shavertown, Union Grove, Eureka, Montela, Lackawack and Gilboa.


“Shavertown – Reservoir of Memories.” Video. 2007. Documentary created by students Cheyenne Tait, Carrianne Fairbairn, and Brittany McAdams along with Mrs. Colleen Heavey and Mrs. Wendy Redden of Andes Central School. Project was made possible in part with a grant from the Catskill Watershed Corporation in partnership with the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection. URL accessed August 24, 2010 [no longer online as of December 2014].


Jacobson, Alice H. Beneath Pepacton Waters. Andes NY: A.H. Jacobson, c1988; rev. 1994.

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