Quabbin · lost townsLiDAR imprint explorer
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The lost towns of the Swift River Valley

Between 1938 and 1946 the Swift River Valley was flooded for the Quabbin Reservoir, erasing four towns — Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, Prescott. On the land that never went under, their street plans, house-lot outlines and cellar holes are still imprinted in the earth.

Turn on LiDAR relief and zoom in: the grey is MassGIS 1 m bare-earth LiDAR — the ground with the forest digitally removed — and the old roads, walls and foundations read straight off it. Check what you find against the 1890s and 1940s surveys, or turn on the reservoir water to see what drowned.

Base

LiDAR imprints

Turn on LiDAR relief and zoom in: the grey is bare-earth LiDAR — hunt the old streets, house-lot outlines and cellar holes. Traced lines are auto-detected candidates: roads & paths, stone walls.

History & water