Title: Ashokan Reservoir - Wikipedia
Headings: Ashokan Reservoir
Ashokan Reservoir
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Content: The impoundment covered twelve communities located in a valley where farming, logging, and quarrying prevailed. Approximately two thousand residents along with roads, homes, shops, farms, churches, and mills were either moved or abandoned, but most of them were torn down. According to Bob Steuding, a humanities professor at Ulster County Community College in Stone Ridge, the area that became the West Basin of the reservoir contained 504 dwellings, nine blacksmith shops, 35 stores, 10 churches, 10 schools, seven sawmills and a gristmill. Several of these communities were re-established in nearby locations. Nearly 12-and-a-half miles (20 km) of a local railroad line (the Ulster and Delaware Railroad) was moved and cemeteries were relocated. The dam was constructed mainly by local laborers, as well as African-Americans and Italian immigrants, who also did the job of razing most of the trees and buildings in the area. Fights would often break out in the labor camps where the crews would eat and sleep, so a police force, which would later become the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) Police, was established to keep peace in the camps. The dam was constructed with Rosendale cement, which at the time was the world's strongest cement. When the dam was completed, giant steam whistles blew for one hour, signaling to people in the valley to evacuate immediately. Some relocated communities survive along the reservoir's banks, such as West Shokan, Olivebridge, Ashokan and Shokan.