Million Dollar Dam: A historic Adirondack tale of engineering, ambition

The rise and fall of William H. Miner’s dams: A walk through history

By Tom French

Like an ancient Roman aqueduct, the remains of William H. Miner’s Million Dollar Dam rises above the Jack Pine Pavement Barrens of Cobblestone Hill. It’s situated five miles from the Adirondack Park’s Blue Line, at the site of an epic glacial flood in Clinton County.

Miner, a wealthy railroad industrialist with ties to the Chazy area, built a number of dams in the first decades of the 20th century as storage reservoirs and to power his state-of-the-art Heart’s Delight Farm along with neighboring schools, churches, and the community of Chazy.  His dairy barn was electrified before the Governor’s Mansion.

None of the dams generate power any longer.  The last, the McGregor Powerhouse in Altona, shut down in 1961, though the impressive, six-story, Spanish Mission-style building (which had several apartments for employees) is still standing and visible from the Devils Den Road.  A few of his dams still hold back water, such as the Chazy Lake Dam in Dannemora which is also on the top-ten list of Adirondack dams deemed unsound and whose “safety cannot be assured.”  

His dams are in various stages of decay – historic vestiges of man mixing into the glacial detritus of the last ice age, perhaps none more so than the largest, the Altona Dam, a.k.a., the Million Dollar Dam, a nickname referring to construction cost at the time.

At almost a half-mile long and 30 feet high, about 500 laborers working in shifts 24 hours a day beginning in 1911 finished the reversed (slant on the inside) slab and buttress dam in 22 months.  Several camps of various ethnicities (including Polish, Russian, and Spanish workers) sprung up along with a boarding house, horse barn, dynamite building, and other structures.  It’s reported that the Italian camp had a reputation for the best beer.  

Unfortunately, the project was plagued by difficulties from the start and only produced power for seven years.  First, the hired contractor passed away, forcing Miner to manage the construction himself.  Then, when the reservoir began filling, the porous cobblestone sucked up water like a sponge.  The reservoir refused to hold water.  In order to combat the porosity, a six-inch concrete floor, referred to as the scar pit, was poured for nearly a half mile behind the dam.  An additional 23,000 cubic yards of concrete was added to the 27,000 used for the dam itself.  When that didn’t work, tar was used in spots.  Footprints of the workers and horses can still be found in the cement pavement along with signs of equipment.  Although the project was officially finished in 1913, it wasn’t until 1917 that the 4,000-acre, billion-gallon-plus reservoir finally filled completely.  Continued leakage and generator issues forced Miner to shut it down in 1922.

Now owned by the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute, an educational center with connections to SUNY Plattsburgh, the University of Vermont, and other academic institutions, the site of the Million Dollar Dam as well as the unfinished Skeleton Dam, a fire tower, and a small lake surrounded by cliffs known as the Dead Sea, is open to the public from January through August, with permission.  For more information about visiting, contact Kirk Beattie at the farm office at Miner Institute at 518-846-7121, ext. 114.

Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) also hosts tours of the dam, McGregor Powerhouse, and Miner Institute as part of their annual tour program. I first visited the dam on an AARCH tour that began at the Miner Institute’s wilderness classroom – a converted cabin just yards from the dam.  The institute sponsors a number of high school and college programs as well as research studies ranging from earth and environmental science to agricultural management and forestry.  After an introduction, the group was led to a hole in the dam blasted out years ago to keep water from rising and facilitate a corridor for wildlife.

The site is part of the Altona Flat Rock pine barrens, much of which is state forest or owned by the Miner Institute and Nature Conservancy.  The ecosystem is unique because it’s the southern edge for jack pine and northern edge of pitch pine.  I found both species growing within feet of each other.  According to our tour guide, Amy Bedard, the Miner Institute Librarian, the ecosystem can be found in less than 20 places globally with two in New York.  Both species are reliant on fire for propagation, along with native blueberries which were harvested “by the truck- and train-ful” as part of the local economy in the early 20th century.  

The area has a history of fires, including intentional fires to regenerate the blueberry crop.  The largest fire on record burned 3,000 acres in 1957.  Most recently, a fire in 2018 burned 550 acres, the second largest of the last 100 years.  The area is now providing research opportunities for scientists and students on the regenerative effect of fire on this rare habitat.  

After exploring the dam, the group hiked to the top of the scar pit.  Although it’s clearly cement pavement, the ecology mimics the surrounding sandstone barrens with its thin soil and scrub brush.  Bedard explained how Miner was continually expanding his hydro-electric and control systems.  He began building another dam just over a mile upstream before he knew the Altona Dam would be a failure.  The Upper Dam, now known as the Skeleton Dam, was never completed due to equipment issues, but its remains at Chasm Lake are also accessible.  

With words like “remains,” “chasm,” “Dead Sea,” and “old fire tower” bantering about, I knew I needed to return for further exploration.  When my daughter came home from college last spring, she was eager for a fresh-air adventure after several months in an urban jungle.  Due to a recent surgery, it was a hike, but mountain bikes are allowed (with the permission permit).

After obtaining our permit and map from the farm office at the Miner Institute, we drove to the gate near the dam.  The first 300 yards to the top of the dam is rocky (turn right at the first junction), but the next mile is literally a flat cement road (installed by Miner) with views across the scar pit and shallow valley of the Little Chazy River.  Cliffs appear above the river – remnants of the glacial flood that ripped across the area roughly 12,000 years ago.  Shortly later, the road veers to the right as the topography enters true flat rock terrain.  Miner’s cement becomes sandstone pavement.  The road dips past remnants of a concrete levee – what would have been the upper reaches of the reservoir.  

Just above these ramparts is the junction to either the Skeleton Dam or the fire tower.  We turned right.  The tower is a half-mile further.  The trails are unmarked – but the map from the institute should be sufficient.  Go straight at any trail junctions.

The roughly 30-foot tower was built around 1950 and used during the 1957 fire and by Miner Institute game wardens until the early 1980s.  It was not what we were expecting.  An open platform with no cab, the observer would have faced an arduous task exposed to the elements – even if it were only sun and wind.  Visitors are not allowed to climb it.  

We hiked back to the junction for the Skeleton Dam.  It’s less than a quarter mile to the west and another dramatic site with a lean-to (permit required for camping) overlooking Chasm Lake – more cliffs from the glacial torrent line the northern shore.  Like the Million Dollar dam, the Skeleton Dam was slab and buttress, but with a more traditional configuration of vertical slabs holding back the water.

If we’d had bikes, we could have swung below the Million Dollar Dam and up along the west side to the Dead Sea, another chasm lake, but walking the additional 8 miles was not on the agenda.  We’ll save it for another time.  Our round trip for the day was less than 5 miles.  

When you reach the end of the cement road on the way back, a path to the right takes you to the bottom of the Million Dollar Dam.  Find the hole (past the one for the Little Chazy) and inspect the inside before returning to your car.