Hey, there! Log in / Register

A visit to one of the towns flooded so we could get clean drinking water

Turns out that only three of the four towns evacuated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir are mostly submerged under the water. Roadtripnewengland recently visited the ex-town of Dana, which is still mostly above water.

Via Boston Reddit.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

There's a really good WGBY (PBS) documentary about these towns and the Quabbin that is definitely worth checking out.

http://video.wgby.org/video/2365046325/

up
Voting closed 0

This is very interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

There are two books that I have which deal with the “disincorporation” of the 4 towns and building of the Quabbin.

One, I think, I simply entitled Quabbin. There is a subtitle, but I have forgotten it and I don’t have the book handy (it might be “accidental wilderness”).

The other, arguably more entertaining, is Stillwater by Bill Weld (yes, as in Gov. William F. Weld). It’s a novel that, if I remember correctly, Weld once described as a fictional account of all the sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll that went down immediately before the flooding of the 4 towns began. It’s not literature, but it’s an entertaining vacation/beach-type read (but not embossed paperback/head of the checkout line silly). I know that it's probably not popular to say on UHub, but I will confess to having enjoyed Weld's 3 novels.

up
Voting closed 0

https://www3.amherst.edu/magazine/issues/06spring/quabbin/

I wrote this feature article for Amherst College's magazine in 2006. It's one of my first attempts at feature writing (please excuse the bumps), but it goes into detail about the history of the Quabbin and its current status as a critical watershed.

up
Voting closed 0

Excellent story.

up
Voting closed 0

I grew up in Hardwick, about 5 or 6 miles from where those pictures were taken. The Quabbin is such a great place. If you fly over it, you can see all of the cellar holes and stone walls under the water.

I wonder if whoever took those pictures scoped out the site where Popcorn Snow's tomb was.
http://www.westfordcomp.com/quabbin/snow.htm

up
Voting closed 0

In the future, we can all look forward to a photo expose of the Back Bay, or Seaport - "The submerged city of Boston, flooded so that we could all continue to drive our pickup trucks, SUVs, etc...

up
Voting closed 0

Be careful if you visit. I've picked up ticks every time I've walked near the Quabbin.

up
Voting closed 0

...what is the reasoning behind reintroducing the timber rattlesnake to Massachusetts?

up
Voting closed 0

Because they're indigenous to the state and in danger of extinction.
http://www.wbur.org/2016/02/24/rattlesnake-fears-quabbin-island

up
Voting closed 0

...it's the snakes that ought to be asking questions like this about us.

up
Voting closed 0

Almost all of Prescott was spared submersion too. Prescott Center was on what is now the Prescott Peninsula, which is a portion of Quabbin Reservation that is not open to the public. Greenwich (pronounced green-wich, BTW) and Enfield fared the worst fates of the four towns, having been pretty much completely submerged. Prescott Town House is still standing, it was moved to Petersham (pronounced peters-ham, while we're at it..) shortly after the town was disincorporated.

up
Voting closed 0

I worked in Worcester for a while and took great pleasure in mispronouncing town names to the natives and watching them get angry. Fish in a barrel.

up
Voting closed 0