Neversink: Sunk By New York City

Whenever 1 of the 1.629 million people that live in Manhattan turn on their faucet for water, that water could have traveled hundreds of miles from the Catskill, Delaware, or Croton watersheds (U.S. Census Bureau 2021; Beisaw 617 ). Over the past 150 years, the city has created a network of watersheds, reservoirs, and aqueducts that bring unfiltered natural water from rural regions to urban city dwellers. However, the construction of these seemingly natural “lakes” in the mountains has only been possible by removing people and businesses, and displacing communities. The city continues to take property in the watersheds in an effort to stop pollution, but while NYC attempts to construct a false wilderness, each land taking leaves behind ruins that tell the story of the former communities that once thrived in the region. While the former hamlet of Neversink does not lie below the reservoir like an Atlantis, the remaining foundations, stone walls, wells, surface artifacts, and cut telephone poles that scatter the land adjacent to the reservoir reveal that the current forest is all but natural.

Located 75 miles north of NYC the Neversink reservoir is in Sullivan County and holds 34.9 billion gallons of water at full capacity (DEP 2020).The Neversink reservoir is one of the four reservoirs that are part of the Delaware Water Supply System, the newest of the three systems. Its accompanying watershed is 92 square miles and has areas in 6 different towns that include Fallsburg, Liberty, Neversink, Dennig, Hadenburgh, Shandaken that are spread over the two counties of Sullivan and Ulster (DEP 2020). In 1941, the New York City Board of Water Supply began construction on the reservoir and on June 4th, 1953 the Neversink River flooded the valley (Spencer 2013).

To build the reservoir, New York City took land from the communities of Neversink and Bittersweet through eminent domain. The entire hamlet of Neversink was lost. Currently, Neversink's present site is along Route 55 (Smythe 2019). At the time the reservoir was built more than 1,500 people had to vacate their homes, farms, and businesses. Similar to the other earlier reservoirs, such as the Ashokan, residents only received half of their land’s assessed value (Catskill Watershed Corporation 2019).

The 1875 Beers Atlas displays the layout of Neversink before the construction of the reservoir and land takings that would take place in the 1930s and 1940s (Catskill Watershed Corporation 2019).

Although the Neversink reservoir was one of the smaller reservoirs it would still cause a significant amount of destruction. Based on the 1947 topographic map taken of Neversink just before construction started, 116 buildings were destroyed, 76 of which were submerged in water and the remaining 40 on DEP property. Four of these buildings were churches, 4 were schools and there was 1 cemetery that had to be moved.

In the early 1900s, before the reservoir, Neversink was a hamlet connected by dirt roads and centered around Mainstreet, covered bridge, a two-room district school, and a methodist chapel. It was similar to many of the other Catskill communities and thrived on tourism and boarding houses. Edward R. Hewitt, who owned over 5,000 acres, helped make Neversink a popular tourist destination as he and other fly fishermen honored the Neversink (Nardini 2015). Furthermore, the Neversink had attractions like a casino and brass band that also drew guests (Schuetz 2010).

Another important part of the town's industry was agriculture, particularly poultry farming. Eggs and chicken became the main output of the industry with secondary outputs of milk and dairy products. Many of these farms were run by Jewish farmers. In 1911 there were 1,500 Jewish farmers in Sullivan and Ulster county, which was the highest concentration of Jewish farmers in America (Gold 1981). One of the main factors in the early success of Jewish egg farmers was the New York Rail system, particularly the O&W Railroad. The tracks created a market for the farm products by connecting the region to city-dwellers. The railroads also made feed for chicken readily available, making it easy for farmers with little experience to start off (Skye 2005). However, the construction of the reservoir and land takings of the 1930s and 1940s disconnected most of the railroads and many of the farms were broken up through eminent domain, turning the once green valleys of farms into acres of water.

While looking at the number of residents removed and how the maps of the region changed from before to after the reservoir can help reveal overarching changes, understanding the personal losses that many residents suffered is only possible through hearing the stories firsthand. That is why we hiked the city-owned lands with locals around the Neversink to fill in the gaps in the knowledge and help interpret these cultural landscapes.

On the first day of our three day community hike of the Neversink, John Nielsen joined us for our hike of East Neversink. After visiting the first foundation on our maps, which was most likely A. Quick’s house, John took us to an open area where his house used to stand. While the foundation is no longer present, John mentioned his mother used to plant sweet peas, which are still scattered throughout the property.

 Because of the distance away from the reservoir, John’s house was not claimed as part of the initial land takings in the 1930s and 1940s. He was allowed to stay in his home until 1954 when the city eventually claimed his neighborhood and his house was moved.

As we walked along what was formerly known as Old Hollow Road, John told us of his group of friends when he was a child and all the places they used to play. We first passed by the location of Jim Keene’s house, whose children were some of John’s best playmates.

Then on the way back out of the area, John took us past the location of an old sandbox and a play tree thats roots made it perfect for hiding treasure and climbing. He also pointed across the stream known as Hollow Brook to a tree that used to have a chain attached where his friends and him would swing across the water.

John Nielsen's parents did not have to change professions unlike many of the farmers who lost the majority of their land and had to move onto smaller lots or out west. What his story reveals though, is that the land-takings for the reservoir were not a one-time situation in the 1930s and 1940s, rather it continues as New York City's water needs change.

Another local resident who joined us for the entirety of our three-day community hike around the Neversink was Bobbie Gorman. Although Bobbie did not remember the particulars of many of the land-takings, her mother, Agnes R Kortright, wrote a book about Neversink called Old Neversink and Surroundings that can be found in The Time and The Valleys Museum. Her family had a dairy farm in Old Neversink, although we did not get to hike the area where it was located. She did tell us a story about the construction of the reservoir and the dangers it brought to many of the workers.

During the construction of the core wall of the reservoir her uncle, Albert “Mike” Kortright, 22 at the time, Werner Gills, 30, and Lee Bridges, 53, died. The forms for the core wall collapsed and they fell 50 feet to their death. On December 31st 1947 on page 4 of an article titled “Chronology of Local Events During 1947” the Kingston Daily Freeman mentions their deaths:

“Three men—Werner Gillis, Lee Bridges, Albert Kortright—die of injuries when Neversink Dam wall collapses.”

This devastating story was unfortunately not unique to this instance or the construction of the Neversink reservoir. Known as the “last of the handmade dams,” the Ashokan and other reservoirs were constructed through the brute force of workers, mules, and dynamite (Galusha 1999). There was no labor-saving diesel-powered machinery which made the construction more tiresome, dangerous, and expensive. 

 The main source of labor for the infrastructure workforce came from new immigrants, changing the makeup of many of the local populations. Many of these immigrants were Irish, Italian, Eastern European, and African Americans who moved North during the Great Migration. The companies who were hired to build the dams and reservoirs were responsible for housing the workers and built work camps where up to 2,500 workers resided (Mattingly 2021). These workforces essentially created miniature cities , with many having their own “hospital, fire department, police force, sewage system, mess hall, and retail stores”(Silverman and Silver 2015, 190).

While there was a sense of solidarity among many of the workers in these communities, as seen by the various labor movements and strikes workers organized to fight for increased wages, there was also the same racism that pervaded official American cities. A quote from David Soll (2013) shows how segregation took place in the work camps:

"Italian and black workers generally [occupied] separate quarters below the dam while white Americans lived separately"(44).

As mentioned above, the construction of the reservoir, dams, and aqueducts was grueling and dangerous labor. In Liquid Assets, Diane Galusha (1999) claimed that 1/10th of workers were killed and/or injured each year during the construction of the Catskill Aqueduct. Furthermore, in 1913, the local newspaper Pine Hill Sentinel reported that:

“Approximately ten out of every 100 [workers] are killed or injured every year. More than 3,800 accidents, serious and otherwise, to workers on the great aqueduct have been recorded. . . . The men doing the rough work are virtually all foreigners or negroes. Owing to the laborers being so inconspicuous, the death by accident of one or more of them attracts no public attention” .

So while these reservoirs are painted as marvels of modern engineering or as lake areas great for recreation, the construction of the New York City water system was anything but the glamor that should be associated with the “champagne of tap water” (Hu 2018).  The creation of this false wilderness for the benefit of urban populations miles away not only created ruins in the form of foundations, but also in the individuals lives and families of the men injured or killed to quench Manhattan's thirst.

On the last day on our hike of the Neversink we found the foundation of A. Hodge, who we later discovered was Asa Hodge by looking through the graves at the Hodge cemetery which was down the road from the foundation.

Asa Hodge was born on Christmas Day in 1816. His family had been long-term residents of Neversink, as seen by his earlier relative, Abel Hodge's grave in the cemetery who was born in 1771. In 1870, Asa Hodge resided in dwelling number 439 and lived on a large farm near the hamlet of Neversink. At the time his farm had an estimated real estate value of 4,000 dollars. He was married to his spouse Julia A. Hodge and was living with his teenage children Neona, Alida, Irwin, and Newell. 

Later, in 1874  his relative and neighbor Joel Kimball kept a year-long journal that not only recorded his own daily activities but also described the cast of characters that made up the town. On Thursday January 29th, 1874, Kimball refers to Mr. Hodge as “Uncle Asa” and talks about how they drew some hoop-poles. The diary describes him as a great uncle to Joel and was very active in town affairs. He was elected to several political positions, one of which was township supervisor.

Asa Hodge would eventually die on June 22nd, 1890 at 73 years old and his wife would follow him a year later on December 9th, 1891 at the age of 75.

Although Asa and Julia died before the reservoir was built, their families' long history on the land is just one example of many. While today the land around the reservoir is a forest, this does not mean this land does not have a long past - a past that is told by the house foundations, landscape, artifacts, and the locals.

Many residents of Neversink still have negative feelings towards the construction of the reservoir and the land-takings of the 1930s and 1940s. Many still refer to this time period as "the wars" and one woman at a town council meeting in 2005 claimed that "they [NYC] drowned us" (Whitman 2010).

Neversink is a very isolated and rural community due to the strict building codes on watershed lands. The town only has one grocery store, a gas station, a hardware store, and a few commercial properties (Whitman 2010). To have a wide variety of restaurant choices, to get a haircut, receive medical care, or to do many errands, most residents have to drive at least a half-hour.

In 2005, there was controversy over a tax raise that came as a result of eliminating a tax benefit that the hamlet received from the reservoir. Neversink's county taxes went up by 73% and many older residents claimed that this was a betrayal that felt similar to when NYC took their property in the 30s and 4s (Whitman 2010).

The construction of the Neversink Reservoir not only forever altered the geography of the landscape, turning fields of green pastures, dairy farms, and town centers into an expanse of water; but the water system changed the trajectory of many of the families who lived in Neversink and Bittersweet. While the houses on top of these foundations that scatter the landscape will never be rebuilt, by performing archaeological surveys in the form of community hikes the stories of struggle and perseverance can be told.

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“Chronology of Local Events During 1947.” Kingston Daily Freeman, December 31, 1946. --

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Schuetz, Annemarie. “Neversink Celebrates Its History.” Times Herald-Record. Times Herald-Record, December 15, 2010. https://www.recordonline.com/story/news/2000/10/01/neversink-celebrates-its-history/51195412007/.

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Whitman, Victor. “Neversink Taxpayers a Reservoir of Anger.” Times Herald-Record. Times Herald-Record, December 17, 2010. https://www.recordonline.com/story/news/2005/10/30/neversink-taxpayers-reservoir-anger/51112108007/.

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