The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-01
is THE KENNEBEC VALLEY SAFEp
Moosehead's Tremendous Waters
Held Only by an Ancient Dam.
Villages and Cities in the Way OF a
Possible Flood.
One Hundred and Thirty-Five Miles
of Valley Open to the Lake.
Especial to the Press.


FAIRFIELD, December 3l.-The Journal
will publish tomorrow morning the follow
ing in regard to matter of great interest to
the Kennebec Valley: "a few days ago
legal gentleman we'll known in this part of the
State was riding up the Kennebec Valley
with veteran lumberman who knows every
part of the lumber region of this State, when
the conversation touched upon the fearful /
disaster that destroyed Johnstown last sum-
mer. After while the legal gentleman was
startled by the remark that the whole Ken
nebec Valley was liable to be engulfed pre-
cisely as was Conemaugh Valley and with
even greater loss of life and prope rty. The
lumberman said he did not wish 20 occasion
needless alarm yet he had for years feared
that the dam at the outlet Of Moosehead
Lake would some day go out and let the
whole Of Moosehead Lake down the Kenne-
pee valley clear to the sea. He said that he
had been at the dam when heavy 'noreaster
was pillng the water over the dam at ter
rble rate and 1t seemed as though the struc-
ture must sooner or later give way. If it
should the whole contents CT the lake would
go tearing down the valley and nothing
would stay 1t until the sea was reached l55
miles away.
'sWe do not wish to needlessly alarm the
journal readers but yet it is well to know
the exact situation. Here is body of water
S5xl2 miles In extent or 120 square miles.
The dam was erected many years ago and is
owned and managed by the Kennebec Log
Driving Company. 1t is 800 feet in length
and some IS feet high 1t is built of logs and
loaded with stone. Each year it is reDaired
as iar as m outward show reveals the
that it was when built 40 or so years
ago and it is claimed that being under water
Is is preserved intact. The dam rises on
the lake some eight feet. When the wind is
In given direction the strain on the dam
Is naturally very severe, but how much less
than the strength of the dam is an open
question. The Lake is the receptacle Of a
drainage of a vast country, and it is said
tnat the spring rise is no less than seven
feet on the Lake. This makes a terrible
our heads. and with nothing between it and
us but one old log dam. In the 2S miles from
the dam to the Forks, the fall is 500 feet,
and Walter Wells, in his water paper of
Maine, describes the fall in the following
Language; The river for an important
part OF this distance is torrent walled in
by steep precipices of rock from twenty to
fifty feet in height"
TO think with what force the water Of
tnls vast reservoir would rush down this
precipice is terrible in the extreme. 1t
could not be confined within the walls of
the channel, but would overflow its banks,
and when the Forks was reached and the
valley became broader, the waters would
scatter. put not sufficiently to lose their
deadening force. 1t usually takes a rise of
water twelve hours to reach Skowhegan from
the Lake but one half that time would not
elapse should the dam give way before SkOw-
hegan and all intervening villages would be
swept away as was Johnstown. Fairfield,
Wateryllle, Augusta, Hallowell, Gardiner
and even Bath would be engulfed before the
Wild waters found refuge in the sea. 1t is
l55 miles from the lake to the sea and all
property in the entire valley for that whole
distance would be swept away. The loss of
ne would not be as great as in Pennsylvania
Tor the distance is so great that news of the
disaster would precede it and the people
would have an opportunity of saving their
lives If not their property.
Inc m.+hfSa,'s ts af the Log Driving Com
lam. They say that it is so constructed thas
she full force of the lake cannot be thrown
upon it. II it is safe all well and good, If |
not quite the reverse, for there Is no compar- |
son between the danger we stand here below |
ger the Johnstown people were in.
Their lake was only three miles by mile
and a fourth and only about 300 feet above
the city. Our lake Is 35x12 miles and is more
than three times higher. Their dam was
the base, and tapered off so as to be 35 feet
through at the top,
"a more APPALLING disaster could not be
thought of, ~ was ever such one known in
modern times as this would be. The flood
would of course follow the course of the
river very largely. and it would sweep all be-
fore it, Think for moment what disaster
awaits this region. 1t would be without a
village or city on the banks of the Kenne-
bee; not mill nor factory, nor even
store of any sort. 1t would make paupers of
hundreds of men now in prosperous circum-
stances, it would throw thousands of work
men out of employment The damage could
only be estimated in millions of money, and
terrible loss of human life. The distance the
water would have to pass before reaching
thickly settled sections of the State would be
the only hope from terrific human slaught-
or y