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Turners Falls Dam and Canal

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This stereoscope picture of the Turners Fall Dam and Canal was taken just before it was entirely rebuilt in 1869. The dam was built at the site of a waterfall on the Connecticut River and generated water power for the factories on both sides of the river. The canal had originally been built in 1798 to circumvent the waterfall. It functioned until 1856 - the railroad network had long since supplanted it - but its channel still existed, and the stone piers for the dam offered a good viewing point for spectators looking at the river. The canal was rebuilt in 1869 by a group led by John Alvah Crocker. Its channeled water was used for power by a number of new factories on the east bank of the Connecticut River across from Greenfield. These factories would become the heart of a new town, Turners Falls.

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