The future of the town, the state decided, would be at the bottom of a lake. When New York City came to destroy the village to slake its thirst, it did so with a marked lack of bedside manner. While collecting oral history from the former town’s last surviving inhabitants, Wyckoff recalled the almost biblical exile that was imposed during dam construction. Residents came home to find ominous Xs scrawled on their doors, marking their homes for destruction. “[One resident] said that for the last load they went back to get her doll collection in her bedroom and the house was already leveled,”
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