PART 3: Lake Garfield Dams
Threatening Leaks by Linda Thorpe

There had been leaks in the dam from the very earliest days. In the early 1930s there was another scare that the dam was liable to break, and the water level was ordered lowered. Dye was used to try and find the leak, but with no success. In 1934 a contract was let to drive sheet steel piling at the road edge twenty feet below the level of the road. This was done to all but two of the pilings which could not be lowered below the fifteen-foot road mark. These were cut level by a cutting torch.

When the gates were closed and the pressure of the water became greater, the leak appeared as much or even more.

In 1947 another scare on the lake took place. The lake was again lowered, and drill holes were bored ten feet in front of the old pilings and samples taken to find the consistency of the formation. Again, sheet pilings were driven in by a contractor from Williamstown named David Dean and a core of blue clay was drawn from the outlet of Fargo Pond and filled between the two sets of pilings at a cost of $73,000. The dam was finished by Mr. Dean in 1949.

During the following few years many cottages were built on the shores of the lake. One, located on what was called “the Narrows,” was built by Gordon Burhans from Harley, New York. Mr. Burhans was the uncle of the late Robert Brown, a native of Monterey, who will figure prominently in the future of a new dam in the 1960s.

Every weekend when coming to his cottage in 1962, Mr. Burhans would find his boat on dry land where the water had lowered several inches leaving boats out of the water to dry out and leak. It would take a few days to swell back so that the boat could be used. Mr. Burhans wrote a letter to the selectmen complaining about how fast the water was receding and that he thought that there was a large leak in the spillway.

The selectmen’s reply was that “God was the one who made it rain and the so-called leak at the spillway was a boiling spring and had been there for many years.” Mr. Burhans, not satisfied with the reply, sent a letter to the Berkshire County Engineers regarding the lowering of the water. Mr. Heaphy, the engineer in charge, stated that in the past years many pounds of dye had been used to try and locate the so-called leak but with no success. So, the leak was thought to be a boiling spring.

Mr. Burhans, still not convinced, took it up with the geological service, finding that with the amount of rain, and the numbers of days of sunshine, the evaporation would account for only about three-and-a-half to four inches per foot of lowering of the lake. In other words, four inches by evaporation and eight inches by leaking. Also, the temperature of the water was taken in the lake and compared with the temperature of the leaked water. Both registered the same. But at the spring house, where the water was used by the cottagers at the Schwab development, and an artesian well that was created by the test drilling of holes which were made in 1949 while repairing the old dam, a difference of two-and-a-half to three degrees colder were recorded. The water leak was twenty to thirty gallons per minute.

The winter of 1968 left a heavy covering of snow on the hill, and when the spring rains and fog came heavy in April 1969, In the left foreground can be seen a guardwall that ran along the west side of the existing dam in 1969. The view is south and a little west towards the area where the kayak racks are now. 15 In this view, looking generally north in the direction of the Tyringham Road, pumps are drawing water out of Lake Garfield along the east side of the existing dam in 1971.  the run-off started, and the lake began to rise more rapidly than usual. Robert Brown, coming to the village, stopped at the dam to see if the leak or boiling spring had changed by the added weight of the water in the lake. To his surprise he saw where more sediment had accumulated on the basin of the leak and colored water was seeping through the foundation of the dam. The water in the spillway was rising quite rapidly as well.

With Brown stopping at the village and speaking with other men, word got around very quickly. Several men went to investigate. Raymond Tryon, living on the banks of the Konkapot, was alarmed enough to move much of his heavy equipment to higher ground.

The gatekeeper was notified, and he opened the gate to full capacity, but the lake kept on rising. The county engineer was called in to pass his judgement and, being alarmed by what he saw, had the US Army Corp of Engineers come and inspect the whole construction. They recommended the lowering of the lake at once.

The next day four large diesel driven pumps arrived and started pumping water from the lake into the brook across the road. This made a detour for traveling to and from Tyringham. Our Monterey Civil Service Director, Carl Champigny, gave his assistance by erecting a shelter where the men who were hired to keep a twentyfour- hour watch could stay. Heat, lights, and a telephone were installed in the shelter and all the inhabitants along the Konkapot River were notified of what might take place and to be prepared to evacuate. The watch continued for approximately two weeks. Drawdown continued until the level was down three feet. The gates draining the lake remained open. The twenty-four-hour watch, which had been in effect for the previous two weeks, was lifted. The dam would continue to be inspected every four hours.

— Linda Thorpe, Monterey News, November 2020