This paper written By Willard Sanders has been transcribed
exactly as it was originally written by Mr. Sanders himself.
A Brief History of the Green River Project and the area covered
by it.
Willard K. Sanders – May 31, 1951
After a lapse of six years during which time the Green River Storage
Project has been studied, planned, completed and put in use, it
seems a good idea to assemble in one volume,
all the information available regarding this area, its history,
the land and rights purchased, and certain details of the several
surveys involved, hence this volume.
Fifty years ago, and previous to that time there were as many as
five saw mills operating in the area, the Schofield (later Morrill
and Gates) mill operating at the outlet of Big or Schofield Pond
in the so-called Upper Diggins, possibly a water power mill in its
beginning as the pond was raised some ten feet by a log dam, but
after a fire which destroyed this mill about 1909, it was rebuilt
and operated by steam, the foundations of the boiler and engine
being in place. About two miles below this, on the Green River,
below the confluence of the Adams and Sodom Meadow Brooks, was the
H. S. Hasking Mill ( ‘S’ rene Haskins, the owner was called)
driven by water power from a log dam and a pond setting back toward
Sodom Meadow about a half a mile, discharging its waters into the
head of Great Pond. At the outlet of Great Pond was the Sherman
Farnham mill below the log dam which raised Great Pond about 12
feet above its normal level and Dead Pond and Long Round Pond with
it (approximate elevation 1174, normal 1162). This was know as the
“Lower Diggin’s” and here were the saw mill, dam,
covered bridge and a group of houses among which were the residences
of C. L. Gates and Sherman Farnham. Warren Farnham and Sylvia Farnham,
son and daughter of Sherman, were born here and lived here for some
years, attending school at Garfield, 2 miles south. At Garfield
was the largest mill of all, said to have employed 100 men (probably
some of them in the woods), the Charles Swift mill, formerly the
Wilkins mill, and later owned by C. L. Gates, A. A. Pike, and A.
G. Small later consolidated under the name of Morrisville Lumber
and Power Company. This mill was a two or three story affair with
a covered way across the “Diggin’s” road and two
houses and a barn were situated east of the road at this point around
which were piled the lumber which was finished ready to be hauled
to Hyde Park to the Railroad for shipment. In one of these houses
was born one of our Water and Light Commissioners, James O. Reed,
his father being the mechanic at the mill. About a half mile east
from here on the Craftsbury road was another water mill operating
at the outlet of Taylor Pond.
Garfield, or Green River as it was formerly know, was a thriving
community centering around the covered bridge, the school house,
the blacksmith shop, and the general store and the post office.
When the post office came it was found that there was another Green
River Post office in the southern part of the state so the community
changed its name to Garfield by which name it has since been known.
There were a dozen houses in the community and the schoolhouse was
the community center where were held the country dances, church
suppers and all sorts of community events. As late as 1912 church
services were held here every Sunday, Elder Alec L. Huntley of Morrisville
preaching there regularly as well as at Morristown Corners. (He
was of that religious denomination known as Russellites or Jehovah’s
Witnesses).
The community extended south on the Morrisville Road and west on
the Hyde Pard Road, while over in the Zackwood Pond area some miles
east that rural community with headquarters at the Wolcott West
Hill School was know as “Lost Nation”, also largely dependent
upon the lumbering business.
North from Garfield on the Diggin’s road a short distance and
on the hill east of the road was the farm of Steven Shepard and
at this point the “old county road” crossed the main road
in former times, directly from Taylor Pond and points east through
a covered bridge in the “Shepard Meadow” and on up over
Davis Hill to Hyde Park Center and Centerville, all in Hyde Park.
A half mile farther was the “log cabin clearing” and on
the left of the road near the summit of the hill was the log cabin
housing a family whose name has been lost. At the top of the hill
a road left the main road to the right and climbed sharply in a
serpentine course up to a flat on the side of the small mountain
which I shall call “Bub’s Hill” for want of a better
name, most of it being the property of Rob (Bub) Darling, to a set
of farm buildings call the “Messer Place”, a flat area
of four or five acres, where now remain only the cellar hole, a
well, and the barn foundation high above any thing else in the immediate
neighborhood excepting the summit of the hill in the rear of the
house to the North.
Then through the woods, and down the road until it came out in Farnham’s
clearing wound the highway, where was the C. L. Gates camp, then
the covered bridge, the mill and the settlement around it. This
road then branched, the right branch going directly north to Sodom
Meadow by the Haskins Mill and the road to the left by the south
shore of Clear Pond up an abrupt rise into the clearing known as
the Prior Place. Then again through the woods to another clearing
was the Sulham place with the Spaulding brook running down through
it. The road then climbed abruptly to the top of the backside of
Davis Hill and continued on down to Hyde Park Center. At the top
of this hill, however, it branched sharply right and continued into
the “Upper Diggins” and the Schofield Mill. Along this
road were many houses, a school, and was quite a populous location,
although now utterly abandoned. At the mill was the Boss’ house,
the Boarding house and a complete set of farm buildings. West of
Big Pond was the Button Place, now marked only by a deer hunting
camp, back of which rises the eminence of McKinstry Hill and Bean
Mountain, and over north on the ridge runs the town line between
Hyde Park and Eden, and over the ridge still farther north is Rush
Pond feeding its waters into the Eden South Pond.
It was over east of here between Adams Brook and the Sodom Meadow
Brook that the Balloon Ascensionist from Morrisville Fairground
in the 1870’s unexpectedly came down and spent a couple of
bad days until he finally wandered, tired, torn and hungry out into
the clearing at the Haskins Mill.
Sodom Meadow was a hay field of considerable extent up the town
line where was formerly a barn, and a part of a mowing machine still
rests there in the weeds rotting its heart out. West of Sodom Meadow
was the Gates upper camp, now a complete ruin, and east from it,
high on the hill side was the Lemay farm with its plastered house
on the road leading to South Opening and Willey Opening in Eden,
areas which according to local legend were populated until the ‘Scase
year in the early 1800’s when there was a frost every month
and crops failed creating great suffering and privation.
Legend also tells us that the Indians used to grind corn in the
pot hole in the rock just south of Garfield on the Morrisville Rd.,
but possibly it is a relic of the glacial period, probably is.
That the Gates-Pike-Small aggregation formed themselves into a company
by the style of Morrisville Lumber and Power Company shows that
in those days, there was some idea that sooner or later power would
be developed on the Green River when the days of lumbering were
passed. There is considerable evidence that this possibility was
explored from time to time due to the fact that between 1906 and
1912 an electric railroad was projected to connect with that at
Stowe and continue through Morrisville, North Hyde Park, and Eden
to Newport, to be furnished with electricity from an electric plant
on the Green River at or above Garfield.
At about this time A. G. Small, later one of the Water and Light
Commisioners of the Village of Morrisville, and one of the frim
Morrisville Lumber and Power Company upon seeing the passing of
the lumbering days with the burning of the Mill at Garfield, offered
all their land and power rights in the Diggins to the Village of
Morrisville for $5,000.00. However, the offer was not taken up as
it was not thought that additional power would ever be necessary;
hadn’t we a 250 Kw generator at Cady’s Falls with a pond
back of it that would last for a month with no water running into
it? Hell’s-Bells, why throw away money for something you would
never need!?
So they sold it to Warren Curtis, Jr and H.L. Curtis, brothers from
down New Jersey way, who were interested in power generation of
one kind or another, possibly the electric railway bee was still
buzzing, as the Vermont Legislature was chartering electric railway
systems right and left every time they go together. This they acquired
in 1915.
The same year they acquired the Sherman Farnham Mill and 175 acres
of land, including the deep gorge below the mill, where there was
an ideal dam site where you could build a dam 165 feet high and
flood half the country.
Following up their business, they set a pin in the rock on the summit
of the hill at Garfield Dam, west of the brook at an elevation of
1152.788 above sea level and ran a line up the west side of the
brook to the above mentioned gorge and back down the east side at
an elevation 1.6 feet below the pin or elevation 1151.188 and bought
all the land from the brook to that line except that land which
they already owned at the Garfield Mill, on the Shepard Meadow or
above the Gorge. This resulted in an irregular, looping unfenceable
line up and down the river and due to this feature, most of the
abutting property owners have continued to use it as their own for
the past 36 years, in fact in some instances, the Curtis’ deeded
the right of occupancy (Shepard Meadow) or the standing timber (Taylor
lot) back to the grantors. They purchased all to this line except
a piece up on Bub Darling’s lot. Bub didn’t want any truck
with these city fellers and wouldn’t sell them an acre or two
at any price or at least any reasonable price. Hence the rights
to this elevation have a small piece still missing to this day,
but it is improbable that a dam will ever be built at Garfield to
any such elevation as to do so would necessitate the entire removal
of the road from Garfield north to a higher elevation. The Curtis’
had this in mind as they had contracted and paid $40.00 each to
Elmer C. Bartlett and Maude C. Muckler for land 3 rods wide over
which to be followed northeast from Garfield. It left Garfield at
the Bridge and continued up by the Steve Shepard Cellar Hole.
While on the subject of old roads it might be mentioned in passing
that there was another road from the Garfield Bridge going straight
east not down the side of the river as it does now but in a straight
line to the farm west of that occupied by Aldis Darling. Our electric
line follows this old road for some distance after leaving the Garfield
Covered Bridge.
Continuing with the power project, the Curtis’ also bought
the right to divert all water from the stream and to erect and maintain
penstocks over land along the Green River from Garfield to the Lamoille
River across lot 24, 3rd division, ten 5th division lots and three
lots in Wolcott, the 3rd and 5th division lots being in Hyde Park.
This was to take advantage of the nearly 500 feet of fall between
Garfield and the river. Also, in order to take advantage of the
immediate fall at Garfield below the bridge, about 125 feet, $I,000.00
was paid to G. A. Morse for the right to erect a power house, penstock,
water division, transmission lines, etc. on lot 25, 3rd division
of Hyde Park, or that portion of the lot owned by Morse.
In the Wolcott lots, above referred to, one indeterminate acre was
purchased upon which a power house could be built at any advantageous
location on this land.
Just what progress was made at this time along the lines of power
development, the record is silent, but this writer remembers that
in 1924 or 1925, he visited the gorge on the Green River at which
time there was a sizeable group at work there clearing a dam site
in the gorge, building roads etc. This dam site is still visible,
being between the present arch dam and the weir below it.
In 1926 and 1927, Charles T. Middlebrook, Engineer of Albany, NY
started work on a power project in this same area, supplementing
the work already done by the Curtis’, probably for the Curtis’
for in 1927 he published a plan of the holdings of the Curtis’
in this area, a copy of which is in the Town Clerks Office at Hyde
Park, together with a plan of Hyde Pond and the land around it which
he proposed to flow. This has been copied and is in our Water and
Light Department plans. However the writer has found several discrepancies
in this description and plan, among which are 100 acres of land
south of Garfield which the Curtis’ never owned but which was
deeded by the Morrisville Lumber and Power Company to G. W. Brown
now being held by Ernest Brown of Garfield along with the Shepard
Meadow, the latter being acquired later. The lot lines and property
lines are also somewhat garbled on the plan, the east-west lot line
between lots 25-26 and 23-24 is shown on the plan as being several
hundred feet north of its actual location which when restored to
its proper location makes considerable difference with many of the
rights below Garfield. Therefore this plan should be disregarded
except as a curiosity.
The Middlebrook plan called for a dam in the gorge to a height of
1191ft. above the sea level which would raise Great Pond 29 ft.
above its normal level. As this would set back over a corner of
the Morrill land, 10 acres of flowage were purchased in the upper
west half of lot 57. The plan was supplemented by another small
dam at the outlet of Sodom Meadow which would create additional
flowage together with two dikes near there to help hold the water.
As this would entail the need for a dike at the south west end of
Great Pond to contain the water at the elevation 1191, rights to
build a dike were purchased by Middlebrook from Patnoe and Foss
for that purpose, although they could have flowed additional area
without a dike by letting the water back up to the present dike
location where the natural elevation of the land was 1211 at its
lowest point. The Middlebrook dike location was about 500 feet northwest
from the present one.
In 1928, following
the disastrous flood of 1927 in this area, the Army Engineers under
the direction of Prof. H.K. Barrows, made a survey of the Lamoille
River Valley with a view to power development and flood control.
It is interesting to quote the conclusions reached in this report:
(a) The Green River Reservoir extends a distance of 2.5 miles upstream
from a point 1.5 miles above Garfield. It has a drainage area of
16.5 square miles of mountainous terrain, having a maximum watershed
elevation of 1850 feet. The entire area is heavily wooded
(b) The reservoir spreads over an area of 565 acres of which 55
acres are water surface and 200 acres are wooded. It is a comparatively
undeveloped section, without farm buildings or cultivated fields.(The
buildings had all been removed under the Curtis’ supervision.)
The drainage area is very sparsely populated, containing about 5
inhabitants per square mile.
(c) A wagon road, more aptly described as a trail, crossed the lower
end of the reservoir. This will be partly flooded by the construction
of this reservoir. For the purpose of providing access to the dam
site it is proposed to rebuild a new road 1.7 miles in length from
Garfield around the east side of the intake reservoir to the dam.
Dam – The site is located in a rock gorge 1.5 miles above the
village of Garfield. The top of the dam will be at elevation 1220
feet with two additional feet of permanent flashboards, the maximum
height 90 feet, length along the arch 250 feet and a constant central
angle of 90 deg. It will be founded on phyllite rock on the west
and sericite schist on the east. Materials for construction are
available within a distance of three miles. A dike will be required
at a low point 1.5 miles southeast of the dam. It would be 15 feet
high and 120 feet long. The construction of a permanent spillway
is unnecessary as the flood storage capacity of the reservoir in
conjunction with the outlet conduits would be sufficient to provide
for a run off in excess of any which can be anticipated. However,
to assure the safety of the dam the earth dike is to be constructed
at an elevation of 1220 feet. If this is ever overtopped, the dike
will wash out, thus providing an emergency outlet into the adjacent
waterway.
We can only wonder what the North Wolcott folks would think of this
scheme today, allowing the whole reservoir to dump down through
the Baldwin Brook into the Wild Branch at North Wolcott.
|
 |
