After 70 Years the East Sidney Dam is Still a Marvel!

We all remember the first time we saw it.  Probably as a little kid.  We got out of our parents' car and gingerly walked up to the viewing platform and looked over the sides.  For most of us, we might just have well been looking at Hoover Dam.

One of the great things about the social media frenzy we all live in right now is the abundance of wonderful old photographs that surface.  The one above really caught my eye.  It was on one of the popular "Sidney" pages I follow.  It actually shows the construtcion of the East Sidney Dam on April 25, 1947.  Pretty cool, huh?  Although it is identified as an "electric power dam" I don't know how much power it ever produced.

The dam is located on Ouleout Creek about four miles south of Franklin and six miles north of Unadilla.  Today it is a popular recreation site with boating, swimming and camping.  The dam was originally authorized by Congress as a flood abatement project in 1938.  The cost of the dam construction was six million dollars in 1940s dollars.  Today that is equal to sixty million dollars.

The dam was pretty impressive when I was a kid.  And it still is!