Shortly after the village purchased the private water company that had served this community for over 20 years, it became evident that an additional source of water was needed other than that of Cranberry Pond. The surveyors’ original recommendation in 1895 to use Little Simond Pond proved to have been well founded.
Little Simond Pond lays in a basin between Buck Mountain and Mt. Morris in Township 25 in the Town of Tupper Lake. It is a secluded, deep pond that has been privately owned by members of the Read family since being acquired in 1895 by William Read and his cousin, Albert Strange.
Most Adirondack lakes were born with the arrival of the Continental Ice Age, when tons upon tons of glacial ice finally ceased to move and lay melting away, the melt water filling the depression formed by the glacier’s massive weight. Someone with more knowledge of geology than this writer would need to confirm this, but it would seem, when viewed from a neighboring height like Buck Mountain or more dramatically from River Road off Old Wawbeek Road, that the Little Simond Pond was formed differently. It is probable that it was “gouged” out by valley glaciers. This cycle of erosion would have occurred even before the arrival of the ice sheet and the melting glaciers, which would make that extraordinary pond even more unique among Adirondack waters.
At any rate, the size of the pond and its extreme depth that approached 100 feet of crystal clear water made it an unrivaled source for this community. Thus it was that in 1931, the people of the village took a bold step. They would lay a 12-inch pipe, 20,000 feet in length. to Little Simond Pond. If, by chance, you would have observed the difficulties contractors with modern earth-moving equipment encountered while recently laying a sewage line along Racquette River Drive, it becomes easier to appreciate the challenge facing our early residents with only the rudimentary equipment, which consisted mostly of pick and shovel, available to them at that time. The pipeline would cross a portion of O.W.D. lands, which that firm had acquired in 1915 from Norwood Manufacturing Company (Sisson) for its hardwood that had been left behind by that paper company. The line would then continue beyond the O.W.D./Read boundary to Little Simond Pond. Here, it would extend 150 feet into the pond, with the intake approximately 30 feet below the water’s surface. In charge of the project was village engineer Floyd Hutchins Sr., assisted by Peter La Montagne, who was the superintendent of water works. A $65,000 water bond provided the financing, and construction started in November, continuing through the next January. Over 150 men were employed on this welcome work project in those Depression days. The weekly payroll approached $2,500, which figures out roughly to about $16 per week for what was probably a 10-hour, six-day week. But in those dark days of economic despair and unemployment, it was probably a welcome compensation.
As a youngster in the late 1930s, spending summers at the family camp on Lake Simond, the “pipeline,” as it was known, became the “secret trail” to the fire tower on the summit of Mt. Morris. There were a half dozen lively youngsters of the same preteen age, whose parents either owned or rented summer camps, on the lake in those days. That fire tower trip was the highlight of a summer spent exploring, canoeing, swimming and picnicking on the quiet lake. Without the aid of compass or map, or the ability to use either, we would follow the pipeline, often walking on the top of the pipe where it lay above ground for purposes of elevation. We first crossed O.W.D. lands where there was, as yet, no restricted access (Dr. R.L. Cook of Sunmount and associates would not lease 2,400 acres of this land until 1938, and even then, hikers were welcome in the summer season). We would soon arrive at a former lumber camp clearing known as Donahue’s (named after Jack Donahue, a prominent Potsdam lumber jobber who cut timber on Mt. Morris under contract with the Sisson family).
Here, the pipeline continued across to the Read property, and we would turn and leave the pipeline, following Donahue Creek up the mountain to the recently abandoned Conservation Department observer cabin next to a wonderful spring near the Read property line. Note: The cabin had become obsolete when a crew of 25 CCCs from Camp 15 of S-63 Cross Clearing Station had completed in 1934 a shorter, more accessible trail to Mt. Morris from Rte. 3, starting near the Waukesha Hotel at Moody. A new observer cabin was built on what became the official state trail. From the old cabin, we would follow the original trail used by long-time observer Andrew Gebo to the fire tower. Note: The steep waterfall on Donahue Creek that cascades hundreds of feet over ancient moss-covered granite is little known, but it is one of the more outstanding scenic falls in the Adirondacks.
We were too young in those carefree days to appreciate the rigors and hardships that must have prevailed in laying that pipeline; nor were we even slightly aware of the give-and-take that would have allowed the village to cross two private parcels and siphon water from a pristine private lake.
In retrospect, and this is just speculation on my part, it is likely that Mr. Hutchins played a large role in the success of the project. As a case in point, Mr. Hutchins had, at one time, worked for – and was highly respected by – both owners. He had first arrived in Tupper Lake in 1916 as a construction engineer for the O.W.D. Corporation, laying out and surveying the building of their logging railroads in the Kildare section. He had also worked for Read & Strange for two years and, in fact, had laid out their access road from Rte. 30. Those connections and his acknowledged skill as an engineer and surveyor must have enhanced the negotiations between the village and the owners, even as both owners had always been generous and cooperative in matters where this community was involved.
Afterward
With the need for even more water in the still growing community, in
1950 a new water pumping station was built on the shore of Big Tupper
Lake to supplement the Little Simond source. A strip of fill 120 feet
long and 60 feet wide, extending 70 feet in the lake and rip-rapped
with stone, was laid, on which a brick and stone station was erected
in 1951 by Johnson Construction on today’s Maddox Lane. A 14-inch intake
was laid 800 feet into the lake at a depth of 43 feet, and a new 12-inch
line connected with the Little Simond line near Moody Bridge (Simmons, Mostly
Spruce and Hemlock). During 2004, 200,000,000 gallons were drawn
from Little Simond and 182,000,000 gallons from Tupper Lake. (See the
Annual Water Quality Report from 2004, T.L. Village Water Department.)