July 3^rd at 3:00pm

Come inside for a fabulous hour with Diane Galusha!

Author of Liquid Assets: A History of New York City’s Water System

Diane put together a special program for us titled “Where the Sun Never Shines: Tunneling to the Rondout,” about the East Delaware Tunnel, which runs under Lew Beach and Willowemoc. This 25-mile tunnel, built between 1949 and 1955, carries water from the Pepacton Reservoir to the Rondout Reservoir.

It was blasted through bedrock from vertical shafts that were 1,600 feet deep at Lew Beach, and 965 feet deep at Willowemoc. Hundreds of men toiled in the tunnel that links Pepacton, Neversink and Cannonsvile reservoirs with the Rondout. It transports mountain water for 84 miles to other reservoirs before it enters the distribution network just north of New York City.

With each blast at the heading, the East Delaware Tunnel had to be ‘mucked out,’ by machines and men with strong backs. Photo by Walt Dette**, courtesy Delaware County Historical Assoc.

If you have memories of tunnel or reservoir construction, or of the communities claimed for these public works projects, please come and share them.

Copies of the expanded edition of Liquid Assets will also be available for purchase and signing.

Diane has served as the Communications Director and Education Coordinator for the Catskill Watershed Corp. since 1998. She has written several books of regional history and is president of the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, Delaware County.

Refreshments and air conditioned comfort. 

RSVP requested so we have enough chairs. Call us at 845 439 5507 or email back!

** Walt Dette was a well known flyer tyer from Roscoe, NY. Walt and Winnie Dette’s great-grandson Joe Fox is carrying on the family business, Dette Trout Flies.