After working
for nearly four decades on his beloved Glen Iris, Mr. Letchworth
should have been able to relax and enjoy the fruits of his labor.
But in the late 1890's, he faced a threat so severe that it changed
the history of the Glen Iris Estate. Ironically, the source of
the danger was the same River that had shaped the Portage Gorge
and brought Letchworth to the Valley.
The Genesee
River always posed both promise and problems to the communities
along its shores. This was especially true to the City of Rochester,
far to the North of the Glen Iris. Although the Genesee's waters
were essential to Rochester's very life, it also periodically
ravaged the City with devastating floods. There were others times
when drought sapped the River, leaving little water to feed the
Erie Canal.
Rochester officials
called for action after a particularity costly flood in 1865.
Studies were done and recommendations made, mostly in the Lower
Genesee and Rochester area. Eventually, though, attention turned
toward a water storage project in the southern Genesee Valley.
A
report
in 1890 proposed building a dam in the vicinity of Mt. Morris.
Additional reports in 1892 and 1893 also supported such a dam.
As a result, the State set aside $10,000 to carry out a more detailed
study, and hired engineer George W Rafter to carry it out. Rafter
explored three sites near Mt. Morris, including one near the Hogsback.
Based on the Report, a bill to construct a dam 130 feet high at
Mr. Morris was passed by the legislature 1894 but vetoed by Governor
Morton. Another attempt the following year suffered a similar
fate, with Norton stating that it provided no provision for private
interests sharing any of the cost. Why would there be private
interest in the dam? The answer had to do with a new technology
the production of electric power.
George Rafter
wrote another report in 1896, this one focusing on a new site
at Portageville, just 1400 feet upstream from the Erie Railroad
Bridge. The report claimed that the new site would provide twice
the storage capacity of the Mt. Morris site, would be safer, and
could provide a "great increase in the water power development."
Two years later the Legislature debated a bill that would create
the Genesee River Company. The Company, in turn, would build the
Portageville Dam.
At the Glen Iris, Mr. Letchworth watched the developing crisis
with growing concern. A dam at Portageville? What would become
of the Falls? "Are the populous communities that succeed
us to be denied breathing placed and the enjoyment of the natural
beauty God has given us?" Letchworth wrote, "Must everything
be sacrificed to Mammon and adversely to the interests of the
people?" He attempted to block the charter, but he experienced
something rare for him defeat. The new Company was chartered
and given "the right to utilize all the waterpower incidentally
created by the construction of the main dam or reservoir"
According to
Letchworth's biographer, Joseph Larned, the Genesee River Company
had been given extensive powers. "They could take property,
even of cemeteries, by condemnation. They could acquire property
belonging to the state or others authorities; they could use public
streets and highways; they could fix their own charges for power,
light, etc."
It appears the only thing the Genesee Valley Company couldn't
do was raise money. Their charter specified that they had until
April of 1903 to raise their capital and begin the work. When
the deadline passed, Mr. Letchworth breathed a sigh of relief.
But three years
later the battle began again.
The State Legislature
voted to resurrect the Company at the end of its session in 1906.
Caught off guard, Mr. Letchworth could do little to prevent it's
passage. Governor Higgins signed the bill and the Genesee River
Company had another five years to begin building the Dam.
Mr. Letchworth had to find a way to check the renewed threat.
He had willed the Estate to the Wyoming Benevolent Institute in
1870, hoping to turn the Estate into a place that would benefit
orphans and needy children. That had been his dream, but the Company
now threatened everything. Health failing, Mr Letchworth was is
desperate need of strong political allies.
This was the
time that the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society
entered the scene. With their help, Letchworth State Park was
created in 1906. But this still didn't stop the project. The next
year the State Legislature directed the State Water Supply Commission
to make the surveys and maps necessary for the completion of the
project. In addition, that same year the Supervisors of Monroe
County on the lower Genesee filed a petition to regulate the flow
of the Genesee. The proposed dam at Portageville still loomed
over the Glen Iris. Mr. Letchworth and the Society fought back.
Using all the lobbying power they could muster, they skirmished
with the Company and its allies again and again. The key was the
State Water Supply Commission they would have the final
say on the project.
The Commission
finally met to decide the issue on May of 1911. Interested parties
from both sides attended the hearing, but Mr. Letchworth was absent
from the proceedings he had passed away at the Glen Iris
five months earlier. Mr Adelbert Moot, a lawyer from Buffalo,
presented the case for the Scenic Society and the new Letchworth
Park. Mr. Letchworth, he argued, placed the State under the obligations
or a contract when they accepted his gift. Since it was specified
that the land "Shall be forever dedicated to the purpose
of a public park or reservation", any other purpose that
detracted from this would violate the contract. Moot argued that
since the Constitution of the United States prohibits states from
enacting laws which impair contracts. The building of the Portageville
Dam was an unconstitutional act. If the work began, he warned,
the Federal courts might stop the construction, or, at the very
least, the deed to the State would become invalid and the Park
would revert to Mr. Letchworth's heirs.
The Commission
handed down its decision on June 16th, 1911. In its decision the
Commission acknowledged that the application was "complicated
by the existence Letchworth Park.". Voting two to one to
reject the Portageville project, the Commission decided "On
account of the impracticability of regulating the flow of the
Genesee River and making the assessments for the cost thereof
under the river improvement act, and the wider objection that
an attempt to conserve the waters powers of the State under such
narrow limits will impede the greater movement in behalf of a
general systematic development of such power for a general welfare,
this application is denied."
Although the
basis for the rejection left some uneasy, the Glen Iris and Letchworth
Park were saved at least for a generation. In the late Twenties
talk of tapping the upper Genesee for power was renewed, as Rochester
Gas and Electric had expanded its holdings downstream from the
Park. Dam building, like many other projects and schemes were
set aside during the Great Depression and Second World War.
A Dam would
be built but at Mt Morris as had been originally recommended.
And it took the Federal Government to do it - the Army Corps of
Engineers oversaw the construction of the Mt. Morris Flood Control
Dam which was complete in 1953. This structure preserves the heart
of the Park because the water level behind a full dam would only
reach the base of Lower Falls. The closest the Dam came to being
full was the flood associated with Hurricane Agnes (Flood of 72).
At that time water was released from the control gates in the
bottom of the Dam because a huge pile of debris was afloat behind
the Dam which could not be allowed to spill over top with the
rising flood.
Interestingly,
the Portageville site was again the center of a dam project. In
the 1970's the Corps looked into building Rafter's Dam near the
Portage High Bridge, part of a general study of the entire Genesee
River Basin that included about five other impoundments in the
area south of Portageville. But officials found local valley folk
and Letchworth Park lovers in strong opposition once more and
the project was tabled again.
A
century
ago Mr.Letchworth was fighting to save his beloved Glen Iris Estate.
As caretakers of his great gift, we must stay vigilant and watch
for any threats that could cast their shadow over the lands we
know as Letchworth State Park
Tom
Breslin
Tom Cook
November 2004
See more drawings of the Portageville Dam project and project maps
Sources
Image
of Rafter site dam from Report on Flood Conditions in the Genesee
River, by Edwin Fisher, 1937
Genesee River Storage & Power Studies State Water Supply
Commission, 1908
Larned pp 370-398
Beale pp 175-186