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Spier Falls

The 1903 Hudson River Spier Falls Dam Disaster

August 16, 2022 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

Construction workers installing a 12 foot diameter penstock at Spier Falls Hydroelectric Dam, 1901In the spring of 1903, more than a thousand men were at work on the final stages of the Spier Falls hydroelectric project on the Hudson River near Glens Falls.

A large number of skilled Italian masons and stoneworkers were housed in a shantytown on the Warren County (north) side of the river.

Most of the remaining work was on the Saratoga County (south) side, which they accessed by a temporary bridge. But the company feared that the high waters of springtime had made the bridge unsafe. To avert a potential catastrophe, they destroyed it with dynamite. [Read more…] about The 1903 Hudson River Spier Falls Dam Disaster

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, Hudson River, Italian History, Labor History, Saratoga County, Spier Falls, Warren County, Warrensburg

At Spier Falls Immigrants Built America, Or Died Trying

August 15, 2022 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

Spier Falls DamAdirondack history is naturally rife with river-related stories — wildly successful fishing trips, damaging floods, wilderness exploration, and dam construction.

Rivers were the lifeblood of development: settlements sprang up along waterways, where partial diversion of streams provided the wheel-turning power necessary to many industries. But freshets were so common and destructive that dams were introduced as flood-control measures, and then for hydropower as the electrification of society unfolded. [Read more…] about At Spier Falls Immigrants Built America, Or Died Trying

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, energy, Glens Falls, Hudson River, Immigration, Labor History, Saratoga County, Spier Falls, Warren County

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