August at the Reservoir

August at the Reservoir
The fungus are in bloom

Welcome

This blog is a chronicle of life and the seasons at the New Concord Reservoir. The manmade reservoir lies about a mile and a half outside the village of New Concord toward the end of a country road lined with small farms and homes. A half mile long and about 150 yards wide at its widest point, it is bordered by forests on its eastern, western and northern shores. New Concord is a village in Southeastern Ohio, which, like its New England namesake, originally served a hinterland of small farms. Today, life in the village is shaped primarily by the presence of Muskingum College, a private, residential liberal arts college founded by Scots-Irish Presbyterians in 1837. The New Concord reservoir lies about the same distance from the village of New Concord as Walden pond lies from the village of Concord, Massachusetts. It is only about one quarter of the size of Walden, and no great works have celebrated it. While Walden is a natural pond, carved by receding glacial moraines, the New Concord reservoir required human intervention to emerge. It only came into existence a few decades ago, when the village created an earthen dam near the headwaters of Fox Creek, and its first function was to ensure a dependable source of water for the village. Neither Walden, nor our reservoir are notable for their extraordinary majesty or wildness; both exist in the midst of civilization rather than remote from it. In chronicling the days of Walden Pond, Thoreau sought to encourage us all to appreciate the ordinary natural world we live in rather than only valuing that which is remote and seemingly untouched by human hands. This blog is intended to encourage you to find your own Walden in your own neighborhood. Visit it frequently, learn from it, find peace and inspiration there, share it, cherish it, and protect it.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Some History

The New Concord reservoir lies northwest of the village of New Concord, near the headwaters of Fox creek. From that relatively high ground, the water flows through pipes into a lower reservoir, just west of the village, where it can be treated and pumped to residents throughout the village. The reservoir was constructed in 1955-56, to meet the increasing demands for water which emerged in the post WWII housing boom and student population boom.

The contract for construction was awarded to Carl Hansen on April 11, 1955. The reservoir covers about ten acres of surface area, but the watershed is about 260 acres. Here is a picture of the earthen dam constructed by Hansen's crew. Here's an image of the newly-constructed basin of the reservoir before it filled with water. The drain is still visible, and the western slope, now covered in grass, is still easily indentifiable.

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