If You Want Something Done Right . . .

The discovery yesterday that Oakdale Lake was an artificial lake created in the summer of 1916 inspired further investigation. So far, that investigation has uncovered two articles of interest. 

The first, which appeared in the Hudson Register for October 15, 1913, reports that Arthur Farrand and Walter J. Watson, the owners of the property previously known as Power's Woods, intended to extend the water main from Sixth and Washington streets to the building lots they planned to develop. The article indicates that the entire cost of installing 2,200 of water main would be borne by Farrand and Watson. 

The second article, which appeared a little more than a year later in the Columbia Republican for December 18, 1914, reports a break in that very main, which lowered the water level of the reservoirs on Mt. Ray by three feet, threatened the entire city with a "water famine," and "caused such a great loss of water that still greater efforts must be put forth to use water sparingly or the situation will become more serious, if not alarming."

COPYRIGHT 2016 CAROLE OSTERINK