Ceating a reservoir and a wilderness

Looking north up the  Swift River Valley from Quabbin Hill, in central Masssachusetts, on Aug. 14, 1939, shortly before a dam started to create the huge lake that was to be the major water supply for Greater Boston.

“In front of me stretched the water of the Quabbin {Reservoir}. It was for this water that the Swift River Valley was flooded. It was because of this water that the wilderness, with its eagles and its extensive woodlands and abandoned cellar holes, exist in the Quabbin region.’’

— From Quabbin, The Accidental Wilderness (1981), by Thomas Conuel

The Quabbin Reservoir in  November 2005.