Found the Lost/Sunken Town at the bottom of Round Valley - home, school and church foundations - all along the Main Road in town. I do not own the rights to this song.
There is much misinformation about the history of Round Valley. As a young boy around 1961-1962 my father and I delivered milk to some of the farms in the valley. The construction of the reservoir had started and since supermarkets were replacing milk men, my father took a job with the NJ Department of Natural Resources and Economic Development as an inspector. Initially he worked on the North and South damn earth fills and then went on the dike which is the section that connects Cherry street to the boat launch area. During this time all houses were raised or moved to a new development on the hill above the reservoir. As the base of the South damn was in place, the Prescott brook running thru the valley started to back up. I don’t remember seeing any structures in that area. As far as a “town”, my recollection was of scattered dwellings on the various farms with a few houses clustered around the crossroads formed by the valleys two roads. Running E/W was Valley Road, an extension coming off Dreahook road in Whitehouse Station and running out to Rt 31 which at the time was Rt 69. The corner of Valley Road and the “Relocate Road” as it was titled, is where the houses were moved to. Running N/S was Cherry Street in Lebanon and it came out on the Stanton Mountain Rd below what is now the South damn. At this crossroad was a foundation and a well which was springfed and ran continuously. If you headed north you had to climb a very steep hill up to the new road, a gate is till there just south of the North damn. After spending time on the Spruce Run project, Dad was transferred back to Round Valley for the Clearing and Stripping contract. Men in small row boats cut the partially submerged trees North of the South damn. It was dangerous work with large chain saws and one of the workers slipped with the saw falling back in the boat severely cutting him. At the time most ambulances were Cadillacs and could not get thru the deteriorating roads so injured would be loaded in the bed of a pickup and transported to the waiting ambulance. The rest of the clearing and stripping involved cutting down all trees to an elevation above “Flow Line” to make navigation safer and promote water quality. If you go to the reservoir you will not see ANY original trees below a certain consistent elevation. As the valley contained many fruit orchards, a Euclid C-6 dozer with huge V-blade that had serrated cutting edges was used to drive down the rows off trees cutting them off at ground level. Two other dozers followed along behind to push the trees into burn piles. A dump truck would dump a load of tires, the dozers would spread them, and then the burn piles would be built on top. The piles would sit awhile drying out and then in the winter, a fuel oil truck would come and pump diesel fuel on the pile. Once the fire was lit the diesel would get the tires burning which would help the semi wet wood burn. The piles near the South damn were huge, slightly smaller than a football field. They would burn for days and days. Our house had recently been lost to a fire and needing money, my dad would work days then do a second overnight shift for fire watch. I would curl up on the truck floor in his Woolrich hunting coat while the flames lit up the truck and provided warmth even though we were well away from the fire. The smoke hung in the valley for weeks at a time. During this phase the railroad outside the North portion of Round Valley dropped wheel bearing packing setting numerous fires along the tracks. Local fire departments were not equipped to attack the fire on the side of the mountain. My father went to the Union Hotel in Whitehouse Station and enlisted several of the operators to fire up the dozers parked for the weekend. They built a road out of the valley and created a four leaf clover type pathway on the North side behind the area of the Spinning Wheel Diner. Crews were able to then go in and fifth the fire with Indian Tanks and were assisted by Boy Scouts and volunteers. Many people don’t remember that the National Guard had a compound out from where the boat launch was filled with tanks and other military vehicles. Round Valley during the Clearing and Stripping phase was the scene of many weekend battles. The tanks tore up the roads and one even collapsed the stone bridge wall over the Prescott brook. One week facing an impending brutal cold snap, my dad had the dozer operators back drag some of the roads so they would freeze smooth. That weekend the Guard came in and tore everything up which immediately froze making many of the roads impassable. Suffice it to say the stories of submerged dwellings, scuba divers ringing church bells, etc. are urban legend!
Cool video ...Strange coincidence Blues traveler won their first recording contact at a"battle of the bands" 10 minutes away in Glen gardnerNJ back in the late 80s
O had seen a book on the Quabin , saw some pics of a 'flattened' city, but for one structure, it was either a church, or a factory? made of granite, the rest of the structures were gone,,, i had thought they left stone buildings. and i also love classical music, look up "The sunken cathedral " or 'sumerged.... you'll love it,,,,
I found this video via one of those "places you've never heard of" type articles 😂 Of cours I have! I camped there all the time as a kid. Really cool video. I always wondered what exactly it looked like down there.
So if you gave time tonight Sat 7/25 9pm - History Channel - The UneXplained- S02 E03 Mysterious Curses - Round Valley Reservoir - I have 15 secs of GoPro video in the show... William Shatner is the moderator - I am not in the clip but my video is.. My 15 secs of fame - freshwater - 75 houses, church, school and Post Office were torn down to create the reservoir back in the 40's and 50's...
There were several houses moved up to Valley Crest road out of the valley. The movers put a brick on the top of the chimneys and if the brick fell off they knew they were moving too fast and rough.
@@nataliedeshow768 My earliest recollections of being on the job site daily with my father was when the base of the North and South dams were being constructed. The Prescott Brook was backing up and had widened in some areas near the South damn along the road that connected Cherry street to the North with Molasses Hill Rd to the South. When the Clearing and Stripping contract was let, men in row boats cut the tops of any exposed trees at water level. I don't believe there were any houses in that area. I can tell you without reservation there were no other structures left standing in Round Valley.
At least you have access to your reservoir, e.g. diving. There is a reservoir in Mass. called Quabbin, where four complete towns were disincorporated, along with land taken from 7 others. This is Boston's water supply, and no such activities are allowed there. It predates your reservoir by 20+ years, so very little is left, and not much in the way of concrete foundations, as most buildings predated the use of concrete.
2:41 I know that place! Almost lost my anchor there. So it was the old school house. I imagined it was a gas station at the time. Nice video. Can you tell me how deep the water is where these structure are?
It used to be a town of black families. But the black families began to become rich , so they ran the black families out of town. Burned the houses down and turned the town into a lake. That lake has terrible history for African Americans
It was 40 feet back in 2015 when I took the video - the water level is down pretty far this year. So it would only be a guess now - maybe less than 30 feet.
This is an awesome video. I love fishing round valley and have always been trying to find these foundations. Is there any way you would be able to point me in the right direction as to where they are. Thanks
