Flashes of Panic

Driving to Notchview from Amherst requires a trip through Williamsburg, up the Mill River from Northampton. Much of the drive along Route 9 is alongside the river, and there are a few little memorials along the way. The memorials are from the flood described at this cache.

To summarize, a reservoir dam upstream in Williamsburg ruptured, the first recorded dam failure in the U.S. The dam was entirely swept away, and a twenty-foot flood wall swept down the stream through downtown Williamsburg, Haydenville, Leeds, and Florence. 138 people died, and it was the biggest industrial catastrophe in American history until it was (sadly for all concerned) dwarfed by the Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania a few years later.

Nowadays, aside from the markers in the towns along the flood’s path, you wouldn’t know it ever happened. The dam itself has been swallowed by the forest, and many of the mills were rebuilt. Once you know about it, though, it’s hard to drive that little corridor without imagining the wall of water sweeping down. It’s a little chilling.

Now Playing: Capsized from You Were Here by Sarah Harmer