Conuel skillfully provides an overview of the region, a discussion of its people, the reasons for the construction of the reservoir, and the impact of the project on human settlements and natural resources. -- Historical Journal of Massachusetts

The Quabbin Reservoir, in central Massachusetts, was created in 1938 to supply the state's growing population with a source of drinking water. More than two thousand people were displaced when the Quabbin Valley was flooded. Three branches of the Swift River were dammed, and five towns-Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, Prescott, and parts of New Salem-were covered with water. The Lost Towns of the Quabbin Valley highlights the life and times of these towns from 1754 to 1938, when the inhabitants were told, "All Must Leave." The architectural landscape of the Quabbin Valley at one time included the churches, cemeteries, schoolhouses, post offices, homes, and businesses that made the thriving communities. The Lost Towns of the Quabbin Valley presents rare photographs of town life, including images of students at the first Hillside School and Dr. Mary Walker, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and Greenwich summer resident. The images are drawn from the archives of the Swift River Valley Historical Society. Although the towns are gone, their stories are alive and well.

In the tradition of Silent Spring, a modern parable of the American experience and our paradoxical relationship with the natural world. Though it seems a part of the "natural" landscape of New England today, the Swift River Valley reservoir, dam, dike, and nature area was a triumph of civil engineering. It combined forward-looking environmental stewardship and social policy, yet the “little people”—and the four towns in which they lived—got lost along the way. Elisabeth Rosenberg has crafted Before the Flood to be both a modern and a universal story in a time when managed retreat will one day be a reality. Meticulously researched, Before the Flood, is the first narrative book on the incredible history of the Swift River Valley and the origins Quabbin Reservoir. Rosenberg dive into the socioeconomic and psychological aspects of the Swift River Valley’s destruction in order to supply drinking water for the growing populations of Boston and wider Massachusetts. It is as much a human story as the story of water and landscape, and Before the Flood movingly reveals both the stories and the science of the key players and the four flooded towns that were washed forever away.

Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, Prescott-- four towns are dismantled slowly while their inhabitants grieve for a history and heritage that has been voted away from them. A family saga based on an actual event which displaced four entire towns in central Massachusetts for the construction of a reservoir to supply water for Boston, where families are divided between those who protest the construction project, those who give up and leave, and those who help to build it.

Stunning landscape and wildlife photography from a dedicated naturalist and chronicler of Quabbin, the central Massachusetts nature preserve created when four towns were flooded in the 1930s to create the water supply for Greater Boston.

Well-worn pathways wind through thickets as easily as they do our minds. Often, the unexpected happens when we diverge from the familiar. The world may turn upside down, strangeness creeps alongside us in the darkness, and a shiver at the back of our neck whispers a warning we often don't heed. Join us as we explore 40 contributors from the Quabbin and New England region bringing all new works to explore just what makes us move beyond the intimate, time-worn pathways of life to discover what lies beyond the veil of the common. Quabbin Quills is a Massachusetts 501(c)(3) nonprofit group consisting of authors banded together by the common love of writing. Our goal is to share information and tools of the trade with other writers as well as providing a platform to display their talents. All profits will be used for future publications, workshops, and scholarships for local high school and college student contributors and participants.