Fire Moves Fast .
15 Feet Below
date. 2014
city. Portland, ME
role . reporter/producer
An excerpt from 15 Feet Below, a long-form multimedia documentary about the flooding of two towns in Northern Maine.
A multimedia piece with photos, video, an essay and more at Atavist's 15 Feet Below
Produced by Chloe Prasinos in collaboration with Pete Lang-Stanton and Roger Smith at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Spring 2014. Music: Pete Lang-Stanton
It was fall of 1949 when the gates of the Long Falls Dam were shut and the Dead River swelled backwards up the valley forming Flagstaff Lake.
The towns underwent a comprehensive graft. Some wedged I-beams between the foundation and ground floor of their homes, lifted them onto flatbeds, and trucked them down to their new plot of land in Stratton-Eustis, a few dozen miles upstream.
In 1948, the construction of Long Falls Dam began. When it was completed, what remained of Flagstaff was swallowed by a brand new lake.
It was fall of 1949 when the gates of the Long Falls Dam were shut and the Dead River swelled backwards up the valley forming Flagstaff Lake.
Historical Photographs Contributed by: Dead River Area Historical Society, Mary and Lee Henderson, Jeff Hinman, Forest and June Parsons, Kenny Wing, and Earl Wyman Jr.