2. Our Drinking Water Comes from Drowned Towns in the Catskills

Construction of the Ashokan Reservoir in 1910. Image from New York City Department of Environmental Protection

New York City has some of the best drinking water in the country, but it didn’t come without a price. Six reservoirs of the Catskill Aqueduct, including Ashokan Reservoir which is New York City’s largest, were formed by flooding a dozen towns. 2000 people were relocated, including a thousand New Yorkers with second homes. 32 cemeteries were unearthed and the 1,800 residents buried elsewhere, to limit water contamination. Residents were offered $15 from the city ($65 later for the Delaware Aqueduct) to disinter their relatives and rebury them elsewhere.

Buildings and industries were relocated or burned down, trees and brush were removed from the future reservoir floor–all the work done predominantly by local laborers, African-Americans from the south and Italian immigrants. Four towns were submerged while eight were relocated to build the Ashokan Reservoir. Today, remnants of foundations, walls, and more can still be seen, particularly when water levels are lower–often in the fall. Although access to the reservoirs has been limited since 9/11, you can see some of those archeological finds from bridges.

Read more about the drowned towns here.