North Country At Work

The Lake Flower dam under reconstruction. Date unknown. Saranac Lake, NY. Courtesy of Historic Saranac Lake.

Hillside view of the construction of the Spier Falls Dam. August 1901. Lake Luzerne, NY. Courtesy of the Chapman Museum.

Men using steam drills to begin construction on the Spier Falls Dam. 1901. Lake Luzerne, NY. Courtesy of the Chapman Museum.

Workers posed atop and inside a flume pipe in the Spier Falls Dam on the Hudson River. Circa 1902. Lake Luzerne, NY. Courtesy of the Chapman Museum.

A view of the construction of the Spier Falls Dam on the Hudson River. Circa 1902. Lake Luzerne, NY. Courtesy of the Chapman Museum.

Men constructing the Spier Falls Dam on the Hudson River. April 17, 1902. Lake Luzerne, NY. Courtesy of the Chapman Museum.

Workers reinforcing the base of the east wing wall at Union Falls Dam. September 17, 1942. Black Brook, NY. Courtesy of the Paul Smith’s College Joan Weill Adirondack Library Archives

Forms in place for pouring concrete at the intake of Rainbow Falls dam, part of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation’s Raquette River development. 1955. South Colton, NY. Photo: Colton Historical Society.

Early construction and excavation work on the Blake Falls hydro-electric plant, part of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation’s Raquette River development. Circa 1955. Parishville, NY. Taken by the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation Central Division Photographic Department. Courtesy of the Colton Historical Society.

Control room at Brown Bridge, in the town of Pierrepoint, controls the upper Raquette River dams and Higley Flow. Circa 1950s. Pierrepoint N.Y. Taken by the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation Central Division Photographic Department. Taken by the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation Central Division Photographic Department. Courtesy of the Colton Historical Society.