Our foliage season is finally beginning to pop.  We have noticed a lot more color since the rains came this week, and it's looking good for foliage viewing in these parts.  Not peak yet, but looking good!

There's a neat spot for taking advantage of the expanding beauty of our Vermont woods this time of year - or any other, for that matter.  I bumped into Jane Milne and her son, Chip, this week at the West Danville post office, and Chip handed me his business card.  I've heard about his tree house for years, but have never been to see it or seen pictures, so I was particularly interested.  When I got home I noticed there's a web site, www.vermontvacation.org, so of course I visited.  What a charming spot he has out there in the woods - pretty much in the middle of nowhere, as the pond that is Mollys Falls Dam, has only one other "inhabitant" on its shores, and that's a corporate retreat owned by Green Mountain Power Corp., not often occupied, so it's almost like having a private lake - except there is access to the water at the far opposite end of the lake near Route 2.  

Access to the land where Molly's Falls Dam is today began in 1923 when Angelina Gaulin sold "100 acres with buildings" to Molly's Falls Electric Light and Power Company.  There were more land transactions throughout the following two years within the Cabot community known as Petersville.  The Town of Cabot sold the power company a small parcel of land with the Petersville school on it in 1925, and by 1926 all deeds and rights of way for the dam and land it would eventually flood were in place.  Trees were cut and most burned  at the site; some buildings were moved, others taken down, some probably burned.  Some land owners sold their farms with "rights to sell the hay" written into their deeds.  The Lamberton Mill shown above was part of Petersville community along Molly's Brook.  The mill burned in 1906, but as you can see, it was a thriving business in that once productive community. 

A dirt dam 1100 feet long, 10 feet wide at the top and 228 feet wide at the base was constructed on Molly's Brook.  The highest point was 48 feet from the ground and engineers expected the dam would hold 400,000,000 cubic feet of water.  There was a concrete spillway to release surplus water at one end, and a 6,900 ft. long wooden penstock constructed to carry water down to a 60 foot high surge tank.  From the surge tank, water was carried in a 328 ft. drop to the power plant below on the Winooski River in the Town of Marshfield.  Water began flowing through the penstock on June 19, 1926. The town road to West Danville and a bridge over Molly's Brook were flooded over, and the community known as Petersville was lost  under approximately 500 acres of water.

The reservoir was still filling in 1927 when rain began on November 3 and continued drenching the area for several days, knocking out power stations, roads, and devastating homes and businesses.  The little power plant being operated by water from the new dam on Molly's Brook continued to send out power even though it was completely isolated, surrounded by water with no telephone service.  Archie Bullard, of Marshfield, was the operator at the dam and he remained on duty for 154 continuous hours, only knowing he couldn't leave and nobody could reach the plant to relieve him.  He was also unaware that his plant was the only one remaining on line and providing power for the hospitals in Barre and Montpelier.

At one point during that flood in 1927, according to Hap Hayward in an interview for the book, Cabot Vermont, A Collection of Memories From the Century Past, published in 1999 by the Cabot Oral History Committee, " . . . they had horses up there and they were going to pull the gates out . . .They were afraid the whole thing [the dam] was going to go.  But somebody stopped them."  
The dam had not completely filled when the rain began on November 3rd, but officials were afraid the tremendous amount of water against the newly built earthen dam would be too much for it and all would be lost.  Hap Hayward commented, "What in the hell would it have done to Marshfield Village if they would have dumped twelve feet of water on it?"

After Hurricane Irene in 2011, officials from Marshfield and Cabot  met with the present owners of the dam, Green Mountain Power Corporation, to set up procedures to guide them during events such as a major flood.  The power plant still generates power, and along with the plant in West Danville, has been modernized with updated generating equipment and penstocks.

Ok, long story for which I apologize.  More than you wanted or needed to know. 

However, I think the history of the dam is interesting and I know most people don't realize the entire body of water as well as the dam is in the Town of Cabot, not Marshfield, even though many locals refer to it as "Marshfield dam."  Green Mountain Power Corporation is the second largest tax payer in Cabot; Cabot Creamery is the largest.