{"id":22798,"date":"2022-12-22T00:20:38","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T05:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=22798"},"modified":"2022-12-22T00:24:54","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T05:24:54","slug":"wpisode-600-st-john-river-valley-before-dam-built-and-after-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=22798","title":{"rendered":"WPISODE 600 ST JOHN RIVER VALLEY BEFORE DAM BUILT AND AFTER 1961"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From: <\/b><\/span>ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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Subject: <\/b><\/span>ST JOHN RIVER VALLEY BEFORE DAM BUILT AND AFTER 1961<\/b>
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Date: <\/b><\/span>December 19, 2022 at 7:28:31 AM EST
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To: <\/b><\/span>Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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EPISODE    600    Take me back to the SAINT JOHN RIVER VALLEY 1961<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Dec. 19,2022<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Sometimes change is not such a good thing.  That is what I thought<\/p><\/div>\n

when Avul Mousuf and I ran a seismic survey up the St John River <\/div>\n
Valley in 1961.   Old farms dating back far deeper in   Canadian history<\/div>\n
than I ever thought possible.  Barns filled with wooden machines that<\/div>\n
in their time were designed to make farming easier.  United Empire <\/div>\n
Loyalits settled the valley after they were driven out of the new United<\/div>\n
Ststes of Smeircs.  Or that happened to some of them.  I speculated.<\/div>\n

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Not all Loyalists.  The upper part of the valley around Grand Falls<\/div>\n
was French Canadian.  The valley was not easily explained but it <\/div>\n
was very Canadian.   And it would never be the same once the<\/div>\n
water drowned the valley.<\/div>\n

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That is what was happening when we were there.  Slowly snd<\/div>\n
steadily the river was getting wider snd deeper\u2026becoming a lake.<\/div>\n

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This is how the St. John River Valley above Fredericton appeared to me in that summer of 1961.  Like  a picture postcard.<\/div>\n
Stunning in its beauty.  We were agents of change.  <\/div>\n

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The whole valley from Fredericton to Grand Falls was destined to become a huge lake held in place by the Mactsquak Dam.<\/div>\n

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King\u2019s Landing.   Many of the historic buildings in the Valley were  moved to King;s Landing which remains a mecca  for tourists.<\/div>\n

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That job was done a few years earlier around 1961.   Actually the job was depressing because the St. John River Valley was absolutely <\/div>\n
beautiful.   To imagine it being flooded made me sad.  But progress is  progress.   Loyalist  farms had been expropriated. Their antique <\/div>\n
treasures were so vast that a huge historic village called King\u2019s Landing was being constructed while we were assessing the future lake bottom.   Some of these farms were <\/div>\n
still in operation others had  been demolished.  One farm I remember particularly.  We had rented cabins at a doomed resort near Pokiok Falls, also doomed.  The weather <\/div>\n
was turning cool, early September, and each of us had a small wood burning stove beside our beds.  In my mindI can  still smell  that wood fire.<\/div>\n
The barns on that farm were filled  with ancient farm machines like  a wooden tread mill for a horse to deliver power to a florally decorated  flat to the floor threshing machine.<\/div>\n
At the time I  wished I could rescue some of these implements.  I hoped they would end  up at King\u2019s Landing for future tourists.<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dec. 22, 2022<\/p><\/div>\n


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Begin forwarded message: From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> Subject: ST JOHN RIVER VALLEY BEFORE DAM BUILT AND AFTER 1961 Date: December 19, 2022 at 7:28:31 AM EST To: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> EPISODE    600    Take me back to the SAINT JOHN RIVER VALLEY 1961 alan skeoch Dec. 19,2022 Sometimes change is not such a good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}