From village and farmland to glistening lake, from people and tools and sawmills to fish and turtles

Moore Dam Reservoir on a summer day is the perfect place to spend hours kayaking. Sometimes, when the water is still and reflects the white clouds drifting overhead, it seems I m paddling across the sky.
If I concentrate, I can see a town beneath the water; the houses, mills, and stores, the stone walls outlining the old roads. oahu vacation home rentals The tall spire of the church reaches up through the water to touch the surface just ahead of my kayak. I can hear the calls of the children in the schoolyard, and the whine of Fred Williams sawmill.
Of course, there is no town. Nothing remains of the village of Pattenville, a once-bustling community along the New Hampshire shore of the Connecticut River near Littleton. Gone, too, is Upper Waterford, on the Vermont side of the river. The buildings of both towns were dismantled or moved, and two cemeteries were carefully diagrammed and relocated, long before the waters behind Moore Dam began to flood the area. In their place, a sparkling lake extends over 11miles and 3500 acres, creating a recreation area enjoyed by thousands over the years since the Samuel C. Moore Dam began operation in 1957.
What caused this change, this restructuring of the social and ecological patterns? Progress, of course. In the early 1920s New England Electric System oahu vacation home rentals began to bring electrical power to the less-populated areas of northern Vermont oahu vacation home rentals and New Hampshire in response to the federal Rural Electrification Act. The company developed a plan for the waters along the Connecticut River between McIndoes Falls and Gilman, Vermont, known as Fifteen Mile Falls. Three dams were scheduled to be built: McIndoes Falls, Comerford Station near Monroe, New Hampshire and the Samuel C. Moore Station in Littleton, New Hampshire. New England Electric completed the first two dams in the early 1930s, oahu vacation home rentals but they had to delay construction of the Littleton dam due to the Great Depression and World War II.
New England Electric began buying up the land along the river in the 1920s. Some landowners held out for a greater price, but many thought they were getting a good deal if they received anything more than what they had paid for the land themselves. Norman Kinne, born in 1902, wrote several stories about growing up on his parents farm in West Littleton, located just about where the Route 18 bridge crosses the Connecticut now. In 1923, his father sold their 160 acres to the River Company for $3,000, a few hundred dollars more than he paid for it in 1906 and he considered it a fair price. Kinne s stories were published in the Littleton Courier in 1978-79, and later put into a book titled When My World Was Young.
What did these folks think, I wonder as I move across the water, feeling the breeze beginning to pick up on this quiet afternoon. Did they regret leaving their homes? Did the money bring relief from a hardship they were ready to leave anyway? Maybe they were excited to be part of the progress coming to their town. Pattenville was just one of several villages comprising the township of Littleton. Willowdale grew up along the Ammonoosuc. Apthorp on the east end of town, had mills, a school, and stores. The main section of town was called oahu vacation home rentals Chiswick. It is said some rivalries oahu vacation home rentals existed between these
Pattenville was originally called Rankins Mill, for James Rankin, who bought an unfinished saw mill there in 1791. Rankin also bought up 1200 acres of timberland and his mill flourished for many years. Later, wrote Wilbur Willey in his book West of Littleton, the mill was owned by George Mulliken. The nearby pond, named for him, was a favorite fishing place for locals. In later years, Solomon Whiting, followed by his son, Robert, ran the mill. Robert was killed in a grisly accident there, being decapitated. A short while later his infant son died as well. You can see their gravestones in the Wheeler Cemetery on the North Littleton Road, where they were moved before the flooding of the dam. Young Robert s headstone reads simply, Gone, Too." Willey does not mention this in his book, but he does talk about the Merino sheep that grazed along the river. Before shearing, the sheep were washed in the sheepyard oahu vacation home rentals where the Connecticut River swirled and eddied behind the Bagley place.
The next owners of the mill were Mr. George C. Patten and his son, Frank, and eventually the village became known as Pattenville. In its heyday, the village included a grist mill, shoe factory, starch factory, blacksmith shop, cider mill, stores, school, church, and several farms. oahu vacation home rentals In Will Goodell s (Wilbur Willey called him Goodall ) store, you could buy clay pipes for ten cents each.
My kayak drifts across the water, the wind a little stronger now, small waves adding a touch of excitement. I m near the dam now, and I wonder, if I could see through the water, would I see the foundation of the Pattenville schoolhouse?
Life in Pattenville centered around the school, with its one room housing eight grades. Here, boys and girls learned their ABC s and the 3 R s, readin , ritin , and rithmetic. oahu vacation home rentals Often little ones not ready for school oahu vacation home rentals yet would accompany their older siblings for a day or two, and older students would help the younger in their studies. With one teacher for eight grades, it was necessary for this kind of interaction to take place. Children also learned social skills and manners here. Parents gathered with the rest of the community for Christmas concerts, Memorial Day (Decoration Day as it was called then), recitals, and other occasions during the year. The school was closed in the 1930s and the few remaining students were transferred to the Kilburn oahu vacation home rentals School in Littleton Village. The building can still be seen today, oahu vacation home rentals as it was moved to a location on Farr Hill Road in Littleton.
Between the 1920s and the 1950s, the villages of Pattenville oahu vacation home rentals and Upper Waterford gradually disappeared. New England Power bought the land and buildings. oahu vacation home rentals Eventually everyone sold out to the company. The laborers oahu vacation home rentals who came to build the dam rented some of the houses until it was time to tear them down. Many of those folks decided to stay, and their families continue to live in the area.
Today, instead of the homes, businesses, and farms bordering the Fifteen Mile Falls of the Connecticut River, a dam helps generate power for use up and down the river, from Canada to the Atlantic Ocean. Behind the dam, a lake extends for miles and offers some of the best water recreation in the North Country. On any day from early spring to late fall you will find people enjoying the lake, in kayaks and canoes, rowboats and speedboats, fishing and swimming, grilling burgers at one of the several picnic areas maintained by the present owners of the power company, TransCanada.
The wind is much stronger now and I paddle into the waves toward the Dodge Hill landing where I had put my kayak in. I can almost see where the road continued, down the hill below the water I am skimming over, past Levi Dodge s inn, winding around Mulliken s Pond and the cemetery, through the village and past farms that flourished in the rich soil along the river. Paddling along, sun on my face, I really do see the beautiful old stone walls that once bordered fields, disappearing now in the water. I see the old ghost roads wandering up from the edge of the water into the woods beyond. Now and then I spot a huge wooden beam moored in the sand along the shore and imagine that it was once part once of a Pattenville building. More likely, I know, it floated down from way upstream, but I prefer my own imaginings.
From village and farmland to glistening lake, from people and tools and sawmills to fish and turtles and beaver, oahu vacation home rentals from industry to recreation, this particular part of the Connecticut River embodies change. History is filled with stories of changing landscape, changing lives. In the present beauty of Moore Reservoir, I remember the old landscape, the old lives, as I pull my kayak out of the water, load it into the back of my car, and head for home.
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