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Hudson Valley Ashokan Reservoir
The following photos were taken by Erin Nagy at the Ashokan Reservoir, NY on July 10, 2009 and posted with her permission
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What is this?
I was wondering if you could possibly tell me what this is. I was fishing Sunday on the Ashokan and noticed quite a few of these square foundations along the shore line. I know they are normally not visible but the water was pretty low. Are they from the old villages that were once there? I also found a lot of pieces of old thick glass and what seemed to be pieces of plates and cups.
Photo was taken Aug 17, 2008 by Kika Barbariantz
Answer:
You have discovered the remains (the ghost) of one of hundreds
of
foundations which once belonged to the Village now submerged in the
Ashokan. In addition there were stone roads, many which had wagon wheel
tracks etched into them. These roads were used like rail roads with the
wagon wheels being contained in the tracks. Donkeys would pull the
carts from one point to the other with no humans driving them (Hey
there was food and water at the other side). The donkeys would take
their time but would most often arrive unattended. The cargo would be
offloaded, the donkey and wagon would be turned around and a different
shipment would be sent in the opposite direction. Bartering was a
common means of business transaction. You can read an interesting story
about the origin of these tracks and how that influenced man's Apollo
moon missions.
http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp
Best regards,
Gerry Weber
Ashokan Reservoir
Route 28 and Winchell's Corners, Shokan, NY
Ashokan Reservoir Communities -- Nine villages were either removed or obliterated forever. These included West Hurley, Ashton, Glenford, Brown's Station, Olive Bridge, Brodhead, Shokan, West Shokan and Boiceville.
Eleven miles of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad tracks were taken up and relocated.
Sixty-four miles of highway were discontinued, including a long stretch of the famous Plank Road, and forty new miles of boulevard built, mainly of macadam.
Ten new bridges were constructed.
A sensational feature was the removal from thirty-two cemeteries of two thousand eight hundred bodies or skeletons, including those of many soldiers of the Revolution, and their reinterment in new pine boxes in neighboring graveyards.
Photo by Mike Szyszka, fall 1999
Three-quarters of the land needed for the project was obtained by condemnation proceedings.
By June, 1913, it was found that of the total population of 1,952 in the reservoir area in 1905, exclusive of those who had died, only seventeen percent had removed outside the Catskill region. A large number went to Kingston. Others erected four hundred new dwelling houses along the Ashokan Boulevard. Three new villages, West Hurley, Ashokan and Tongore, were being settled. The newspaper most opposed to the project in the beginning acknowledged, in February, 1913, that the residents of the county, in addition to the vast sums of money paid out through the condemnation proceedings and in the cost of the construction of the work, had profited handsomely. The engineering and general executive operations were admitted to be as efficiently conducted as those of the Panama Canal.
Finally, at noon of June 19, 1914, the blowing of all the steam whistles in the reservoir area for one solid hour announced the completion of the dikes and dams of the reservoir. The farms and villages were left to the rush of the oncoming waters, under which, to this day, the foundations of old houses and sites of well-remembered orchards and gardens are visible at low water. Read more about it! by Hope Fram Books
Photo by Mike Szyszka, fall 1999
Photo by Mike Szyszka, fall 1999
Photo by Mike Szyszka, fall 1999
Photo by Mike Szyszka, fall 1999
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the city and state decided to permanently close the spillway road to vehicular traffic as a security precaution. This has added a great deal more traveling time and distance for those on the south side of the reservoir to reach locations to the north. The city compensates the local school district for the extra fuel costs its buses have incurred. The Reservoir Rd. causeway, however, is still open.
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