Lake Whitingham
Before Harriman Reservoir flooded 2,200 acres of surrounding farms and woodland, the meandering, uninterrupted Deerfield River wound its sinuous way through this fertile valley. The river's power was harnessed in the late 19th century by the creation of Mountain Mills Pond as a holding area for logs floated down from Somerset Reservoir. This is where the town of Mountain Mills was founded in the early 1900's.
In 1923, Lake Harriman was created by the New England Power Company as part of its hydroelectric system. Fifteen hundred men labored for one year to provide hydroelectric power for the Northeast, including workers from surrounding towns, Nova Scotia, Maine, Prince Edward Island, as well as many Austrian Italians, Canadians, and some Native Americans from Maine. The Harriman Dam at the south end of the lake is named for Henry I. Harriman, engineer for the New England Power Company. The maximum depth of the reservoir is 185 feet.
In the early 1900s, the New England Power Company began intensive hydroelectric development of the Deerfield River along its entire length in Vermont and Massachusetts. A massive earthen dam was constructed in 1912-13 to create the Somerset Reservoir. Somerset Reservoir is the largest wild body of water in the state of Vermont. For many years it has been a special destination for canoeists, kayakers, and fishermen who seek a quiet, wild place to be on the water. Currently, there is no waterskiing or jet skiing allowed on Somerset Reservoir, and a 10 mph speed limit is in place.
Occasionally glimpsed by travelers on the Molly Stark Byway is a black tube that looks like a giant caterpillar crawling through the woods along the Deerfield River. This wood-staved pipeline conducts water from the Somerset Reservoir to the Searsburg Power Station, a small brick hydroelectric station (built in 1921) on the south bank of the Deerfield River near the Searsburg-Wilmington town line. Frequent travelers along the Molly Stark Byway will notice the seasonal drawdown of Harriman Reservoir in which the water line drops many feet and much of its coastline is revealed. This annual drawdown is now regulated to ensure the ecological health of local fisheries.
(excerpts from mollystarkbyway.org)
