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Description
In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874Early one May morning in 1874, in the hills above Williamsburg, Massachusetts, a reservoir dam suddenly burst, sending an avalanche of water down a narrow river valley lined with factories and farms. In just thirty minutes, the Mill River flood left 139 people dead and 740 homeless and a nation wondering how this terrible calamity had happened. In this compelling tale of a man made disaster peopled with everyday heroes and arrogant scoundrels,
Early one May morning in 1874, in the hills above Williamsburg, Massachusetts, a reservoir dam suddenly burst, sending an avalanche of water down a narrow river valley lined with factories and farms. In just thirty minutes, the Mill River flood left 139 people dead and 740 homeless -- and a nation wondering how this terrible calamity had happened. In this compelling tale of a man-made disaster peopled with everyday heroes and arrogant scoundrels, Elizabeth Sharpe opens a rare window into industry and village life in nineteenth-century New England, a time when dam failures and other industrial accidents were widespread and laws favored factory owners rather than factory workers. In the Mill Valley, the townsfolk depended upon generally benevolent patriarchs who assured them that the dam was safe, when most people could see that it was not. The story of the Mill River flood is the story of those townsfolk: of George Cheney, the dam keeper whose repeated warnings about leaks in the dam had been ignored by the mill owners; of his wife, Elizabeth, who watched in disbelief as the dam burst open from the bottom; of Isabell Hayden, the mother who saw her young son swept away in the river's torrent; and of Fred Howard, a box maker who spent the days after the flood searching for bodies, burying friends, and waiting to see if the button factory he relied upon for his livelihood would be rebuilt. It is also the story of the well-meaning but overconfident businessmen who built the dam: of Onslow Spelman, the manufacturer who dismissed the dam keeper's flood warning, irrationally insisting that the dam could not break; of Lucius Fenn and Joel Bassett, the engineer and contractor whose roles in the construction of the dam would be questioned during the public inquest into the causes of the flood; of William Skinner, the factory owner who struggled to decide whether or not to rebuild his silk factory in the village that bore his name; and of many others. The flood highlighted class divisions between worker and owner, as well as the disorganized state of professional engineering, then still in its infancy. As the flood exposed the dangers of allowing mill owners -- who were not trained engineers -- to design their own dam, legislation to regulate the building of reservoir dams in Massachusetts was enacted for the first time. Engineers, politicians, and business owners battled over control of the reform measures to prevent similar tragedies, yet saw them continually repeated. In the Shadow of the Dam is the story of an event that reshaped a society. Told through the eyes of villagers like Collins Graves, lauded as a hero for his desperate ride through the valley to warn people of the impending flood, and industrialists like Joel Hayden Jr., entrusted with the responsibility of disaster relief despite his culpability in failing to maintain the leaking dam, In the Shadow of the Dam is a history of our uneasy relationship with industrial progress and a riveting narrative of a tragic disaster in small-town Massachusetts.Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 08/10/2007
ISBN: 9781416572640
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.68d
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4.7 ★★★★★
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Perfect inserts for a great price
Size: 20 x 20 inches, Style: 4 Pack, Size: 20 x 20 inches, Style: 4 Pack
Great inserts! (The cat’s judgement is of me, not the inserts)
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Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Hands down best hammock accessory
Color: Green, Size: Medium
Tried many, this pillow is perfect. Not too big, not too small. Soft yet supportive. It’s also well made and super comfy. Plus it packs up nicely. I’m a new Wise Owl convert, everything I’ve ordered so far has been excellent quality. Just wish they kept the colors consistent so it all matched (minor annoyance). You need this.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Comfy, soft, packable, and cool
Color: Green, Size: Small
I absolutely love this pillow. It's well constructed but not OVER constructed - it is soft, comfortable to my neck and head - very packable and stays pretty cool - like the 'other side' of the pillow. I also appreciate the stuff sack that Wise Owl sends with it. I was able to get this down into my right side of my Redwing 50 pocket. This thing fits everywhere and while some folks think its a luxury, when you get to be my age - comfort is something that you take for granted. I feel well rested after a night on this bad boy.
Shape always fluffs back out. I think it's a great value at the price point it is at compared to other pillows in this range. Very very durable, like all Wise Owl products I own. Easily fits snugly into the bag, and can mold around you depending on how you want to adjust it. I don't use a sleeping pad, just this for my neck support and it really is worth every penny.
Water resistance - I'm not sure as I've not had the opportunity to see it but I feel like with the material it is, water would probably bead off in light amounts.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2025
★★★★★ 4
It's comfy but not UL nor packs down well.
Color: Blue, Size: Medium
Don't get me wrong, overall this is a very good mini portable camping pillow that has slightly bigger length, width & thickness than most of the other name brand inflatable camping pillows that cost $20 extra, which is nice for having more pillow/support to work with while you sleep, & it being foam filled rather than inflated means you don't have to worry about it deflating on you overnight out in the wilderness where you likely don't have a backup!..
All that is great until it's time to pack it back up..
It doesn't compact down small, nor easily. You have to put a little elbow grease into tightly rolling it up like a burrito, 🌯
And even Then, it's still a bit of a fight to squeeze it back into it's compression sack, but Still winds up being a bulky bulgy chunk of space real estate in my pack, and if you're a serious hiker you know every ounce counts as well as every inch of space that's taken up by bulky gear.
I didn't consider returning or replacing it for something else until wayy past the return window.
Again, it's not bad at all for your average travel or weekend camping trips, but for expedition, section or thru-hiking it's not the best choice to go with when budgeting weight & space in your pack.
I went with a similarly priced Teton camping pillow that is 18" by 12", also filled not inflated so it's basically the same thing but ever so slightly smaller in circumference, yet packs down noticably easier & more compact, weighing slightly less & taking up noticably less space in your pace as well.
I can easily stuff it in the outer back kangaroo pouch on my Osprey Atmos AG 50L.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Soft and Confortable
Color: Rose, Size: Medium
Excellent travel and camping pillow. Soft and confortable. My wife loves it.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2026
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