About Adirondack Explorer

The Adirondack Explorer is a nonprofit magazine covering the Adirondack Park's environment, recreation and communities.

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  1. Little Buckaroo says

    The Dam Safety unit in DEC undoubtedly has a complete list of all of the Forest Preserve dams in the Catskills and the Adirondacks. It would be interesting to see the whole list, but it can easily be FOILed.

    You forgot to mention that the Henderson Lake dam, in addition to the massive rock-earth fill component, also includes a very solid concrete outlet-spillway which is where the small hydro plant would be located. This was built by NL Industries shortly after Texas billionaire Harold Simmons bought the property in 1986 from National Lead and long before OSI bought it from NL Industries in 2003.

    OSI reserved the right for hydro to provide the electric for Masten House, still owned by OSI but used by ESF. Masten House is still served by oil heat and electricity and it sometimes difficult to get oil in there during the winter. Also it is expensive. It will be too bad if an electric line has to be brought down the hill through the Forest Preserve and across the parking lot to a substation on the 44-acre Masten House inholding – but that’s what OSI has set us up for, unless Masten House burns down at some point (Oh, Happy Day because we do not need hydro in the Forest Preserve)and the State buys the inholding. One can hope.

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