The Last of the Handmade Dams: The Story of the Ashokan Reservoir

The Last of the Handmade Dams tells the story of building New York City's first great Catskill Mountain Resevoir, largely built by pick-and-shovel work. It was a triumph of engineering but with profound consequences for more than 2,000 persons in the flooded Ashokan Valley. Elevem communites were razed for the mammoth project. 2,000 graves were disinterred and relocated. The story is told in all aspects: political, social, engineering. It tells of immigrant laborers and their problems, of the dislocations and the lore of the drowned valley all that remained as the waters rose.