Ford's Folly

The dam was built to create a reservoir for a proposed historic village complex by trapping water from Hop Brook. In the interest of historical accuracy, the dam was, along with the rest of the complex, constructed using local stone, oxen and manpower.

The long dam was sited on incompetent fractured rock. That meant the dam, despite its size and years of labor to correct the problem, simply could not hold the reservoir it was designed to create. In a rainy year, it would fill in the spring and then drain in the fall. In a dry year, it would not fill at all.