Overview

The powerful afterlife of a town that was seized by eminent domain and flooded to create a reservoir, featuring new material which brings the story up to date. In the early 1940s, the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company flooded Connecticut's Saugatuck River Valley to create a reservoir that would meet the region's growing population. Under twelve billion gallons of water lay Valley Forge, once a thriving iron and steel manufacturing town, which was seized by eminent domain to create the reservoir and dam. In Village of the Dammed, journalist James Lomuscio tells the story of the rise and fall of Valley Forge, drawing on Civil War-era photographs of the town and other sources to show what the town was like, document the futile battle to save it, and reveal the flooding's life-altering repercussions. He also recounts a grassroots movement to prevent the development of nearby Trout Brook Valley in the 1990s, a heated fight with a different outcome. As the population of the American northeast continues to swell and spread, placing new demands on existing resources, communities are frequently confronted with forces and choices not unlike those faced by Valley Forge and Trout Brook Valley. Village of the Dammed reminds us to be ever vigilant in the protection of our irreplaceable environmental heritage.

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9781684582969

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Reviews

“For posterity, in writing this history, (Lomuscio) has created for us a very important permanent record of our time and place.”  * Redding Sentinel *

Author Information

James Lomuscio has written for Gannett newspapers, the New York Times, the Connecticut Post, Stamford Advocate and has served as the editor of Westport News, Westport Magazine, and the associate editor of WestportNow.com. He is the author of the textbook Writing with Your Head and Your Heart: Balancing Logic and Emotion to Create Powerful Nonfiction and the book Imagination Revisited, Imagination Regained. He is an adjunct professor of journalism and composition at Norwalk Community College and has taught at Western Connecticut State University and Sacred Heart University.

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