OLD PHOTOS CAPTURE DAM PROJECT’S MARVELS
Ziegler’s father worked on dam project
HADLEY, N.Y. >> Ammon “King” Ziegler put a roof over his family’s head with a house moved for construction of Conklingville Dam, which was built to create Great Sacandaga Lake.
Ziegler was a timekeeper for the Groves company that built the massive dam from 1927-30, to prevent Hudson River spring flooding that had devastated downstream cities such as Troy, Rensselaer, and Watervliet in the early 20th century.
The house was one of many structures in the Sacandaga Valley that were either burned, razed or relocated to make the lake possible.
“My father bought it for a dollar,” said Ziegler’s son, Harry. “He took it all apart and put it back together. He was pretty handy that way. He could fix ‘most anything. I don’t know where he learned it; prob-
ably the same as me, watching other people.”
The house is where Harry, 82, and his three brothers were raised. He and his wife, Adrienne, now live next door on South Shore Road.
One of the most interesting chapters in “King” Ziegler’s life is captured in a photo album he made during Conklingville Dam’s construction. Many “before and after” scenes are depicted including, the small railroad workers built to haul earthen material, used to form the dam’s core.
“It was hardpan,” Harry Ziegler said. “It’s gray. It looks almost like concrete. There’s a lot of it in this country. You dig down just a little ways, there it is and it’s hard as heck.”
Hardpan is an extremely dense, compacted layer of soil that water can’t penetrate.
It was excavated from a mountain on the south side of the dam and brought to the work site by the railroad’s tram cars, according to Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts. Two dikes extended from the north and south shore and super-fine hardpan particulates were washed, filled in and compacted to build the middle of the dam.
Ziegler’s photo album also has old newspaper clippings that told about the project. One headline says: “Over 400 Men Are Creating Big Reservoir.”
Roberts said many laborers were local men, who lived in camps with quickly-constructed shanties, although the Groves company brought people in from outside the area for more technical jobs.
Harry Ziegler said his father was originally from Lancaster County, Pa., and started out as a school teacher before coming to upstate New York.
Work began during the “Roaring 20s,” one of the greatest periods of economic prosperity in American history. But the lake began filling up on March 27, 1930, when a ceremony was held to mark the closing of the dam’s gates – five months after the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 that ushered in the Great Depression.
In dramatic fashion, a newspaper reported, “Old Sacandaga, Wild and Cruel Tamed at Last: Vicious River, Defying Man for 25 Years, Chained as Gates Close and Form a Lake.”
Men now had to find jobs elsewhere as work on the dam came to a close.
Ziegler also has a program booklet from dedication ceremonies of the Elmer J. West power station, just below the dam, on May 28, 1930. “For nearly 30 years, Mr. West was active in the development of power through the lower Adirondack region,” the publication says. “Mr. West was instrumental in the purchase of much of the land that has been used in the Sacandaga reservoir project of the Hudson River Regulating District.”
“Of brick and steel construction, with cast stone trim, the (power station) building is of pleasing architectural design, blending well with its rugged background,” the booklet says.
In the early 1950s, work began on Stewart’s Dam, a power-generating project just downstream from Conklingville Dam.
“We used to ride our bikes down there to watch. We also used to go down to the river to swim. We weren’t supposed to, but we did,” Harry Ziegler said, smiling. “The water was swift. We didn’t go out far.”
He’s still impressed at the ingenuity that went into both dam projects, but especially Conklingville Dam and 29-mile-long Great Sacandaga Lake for the sheer size and scope of the work. He recalls two stories his father told him about.
At one point, a supply of dynamite started to disappear. Suspecting a thief, project leaders smoothed dirt around the storage shed, hoping the person would leave tracks. To their great surprise, they came back the next morning and found nothing but deer tracks.
“Deer were eating the dynamite,” Harry Ziegler said. “It’s mostly saltpeter anyway. Deer love salt. It couldn’t blow up because the blasting caps were kept someplace else. But they found out who was taking the dynamite, the deer!”
Ziegler’s father got an equally big surprise of another sort one day when the construction project’s supervisor asked him to read something.
“The superintendent of the whole thing couldn’t read or write,” Harry Ziegler said. “He was a good man, though. He knew how to handle men and get the job done. That’s the main thing.”
A free public screening and presentation of the documentary, “Harnessing Nature: Building the Great Sacandaga” is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 30 at Union College’s Kelly Adirondack Center.
For information go to https://muse.union.edu/ adirondack/2018/09/27/ harnessing-naturebuilding -the-greatsacandaga.