The Atlas of Drowned Towns wants to recover lost stories buried underwater

Australia Broadcast Center

02-05-2025

They are among humankind's most impressive constructions, yet deep beneath the surface of some of the world's biggest dams lie the remnants of forgotten towns.
Once home to vibrant, remote communities, many of these towns were submerged underwater to make way for vast 20th-century infrastructure projects.
Houses, town centres, petrol stations and theatres were moved or lost, stirring mixed feelings in the neighbourhoods that stood in the way of large dams.
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The wave of building was not limited to America, but took place in Australia too. And when locals moved elsewhere to make way for construction, the towns they lived in flickered out of existence.
Eventually they passed out of memory and into myth.
But now a small team of people is posing the question: could those lost stories be brought back?
Forgotten communities submerged underwater
Bob Reinhardt, an associate professor of history at Idaho's Boise State University, is the founder of The Atlas of Drowned Towns, a special project dedicated to mapping communities that have been buried underwater in the US and around the world.
What started as a personal interest in submerged towns turned into professional study and eventually a mission to restore them to living memory.
His research began in the American west, where massive hydro-electric, irrigation, and flood control dams have been built.
Before:
A birdseye view of Detroit, Oregan before it was inundated to make way for a dam.
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. After:
In the 1950s, the town was submerged under water.
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Before and after images
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A birdseye view of Detroit, Oregan before it was inundated to make way for a dam. / In the 1950s, the town was submerged under water.
Spurred on by New Deal funding and the Hoover Dam's completion in 1935, the era of
From Sacramento to Columbia and Colorado, Dr Reinhardt says dam building agencies went to great lengths to "scrape the ground clean", a process that resulted in towns in their path being deliberately moved or eliminated.
"They didn't want stuff to float up or they didn't want boats to hit them," he tells
He estimates hundreds of communities in America and globally were displaced in the process and hopes that recovering their stories will reveal the historical significance of these marginalised places.
America's drowned towns
Detroit might conjure up images of Cadillacs or Motown Records, but it also happens to be the name of a former town in western Oregon.
Reportedly settled by pioneers from Michigan in the 1890s, "Old Detroit" was a tiny, one-street village with a boarding house, local theatre and petrol station.
Before:
The petrol station in Detroit, Oregon before it was demolished.
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. After:
Little remained of the town after it was moved.
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The petrol station in Detroit, Oregon before it was demolished. / Little remained of the town after it was moved.
In 1953, it was cleared, along with over 3,000 acres of land, by the US Army Corps of Engineers to make way for the construction of the
Approximately 60 buildings were relocated, along with the town's entire population, to a settlement nearly 1 kilometre northwest.
The town's remains are still
Old Detroit was cleared, along with over 3,000 acres of land, in 1953.
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Supplied: The Atlas of Drowned Towns
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Dams are critical to supplying power and fresh water for neighbouring communities. But like all infrastructure projects, they come at a cost to the people in their path.
The impression Dr Reinhardt and his team were left with, after collecting oral histories from elderly folks who'd lived in Old Detroit and their descendants, was one of loss.
"[In Detroit, Oregon], which is my wife's grandmother's hometown, the spectrum of responses [to the dam project] ranged from disgruntled grumbling … to enthusiasm," says Dr Reinhardt.
"Often in many, many cases, there are people saying: 'Well, this is a sacrifice that we're making for the greater good. This needs to be done. And we understand our role'.'"
Recollections were punctuated by romantic notions about what the community used to be like and a sense of being part of something bigger.
"We [invited] people to come in and bring photographs and diaries and journals and newspaper articles and artefacts that they have, and then we scan all of it, and then we eventually upload it to the database for the website," he says.
"The sense that I got from all of those things that people brought in was … [that] this place was a complex community.
"Some people didn't get along with each other … It was a real community."
While the town still physically existed, residents explained how intangible qualities like memories, feelings and certain sights were lost in the move.
First Nations communities displaced by dams
American Falls in Idaho is another forgotten town that was submerged to make way for a dam.
The first recorded permanent settlement in 1800 was located on the west bank of the Snake River, which stretches from Wyoming through to the Idaho-Oregon border. Then in 1888, the town was moved to the opposite riverbank.
In 1925, American Falls moved again after construction began on a dam of the same name.
In 1925, American Falls became the United States' first town to be entirely relocated.
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Getty: Keystone View Company/FPG
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An estimated
But the biggest impact was on the Shoshone-Bannock people and the Fort Hall Reservation, which sits between the cities of Pocatello, American Falls, and Blackfoot.
"They gave up some of their land for the construction of the American Falls Dam," Dr Reinhardt says.
In newspaper articles and other period documents that he found in his research, the Shoshone-Bannock people are portrayed as "pleased to be giving up more of their reservation", he says.
"[But] reading between some of the lines and some of the speeches from the dedication of American Falls, there's a real sense of loss, and I would say buried betrayal.
"We're talking about the 1920s so it's not as though the Shoshone-Bannock could get up and say, 'We've been betrayed by the American government, this is a gross violation of our rights'."
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An ongoing consequence of the dam's construction is that whenever the reservoir is close to full, it impacts other parts of the Fort Hall Reservation.
"Fort Hall is where some Shoshone Bannock continued to do their ranching, and so even to this day, they're continuing to give up land," he says.
"That's a big part of the story of the construction of large dams in the American West in the 20th century. And it's part of a bigger story of this longer history of displacement [and dispossession], whereby these places were seen by the government and dam-building agencies as [empty] because native peoples were forced to leave."
Today, a 60-metre grain silo deemed too difficult to move is one of the few physical reminders of old American Falls.
"You can go to Google Earth and you can see the shadow of this thing in the water. It's pretty spooky and fascinating," Dr Reinhardt says.
Australia's forgotten towns
While the Atlas is focused on America, it has recently broadened its brief to include other countries. Australia features on the map five times.
In the 20th century, Adaminaby, Jindabyne and Talbingo were submerged to create large reservoirs as part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme.
The agricultural town of Old Adaminaby in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains was inundated in the 20th century.
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Supplied: Anne Kennedy
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Residents displaced by the scheme were compensated financially, but locals say the experience of getting kicked out of their home was like nearly being "torn apart".
"You often think about where you were brought up, but it's different than moving a house," Bruce Stewart, who grew up in Adaminaby,
"Getting kicked out of your own town, it's a different feeling altogether."
Photo shows
A historic photo of a house on wheels.
The nation-building Snowy Hydro scheme came at a huge cost for the people of Old Adaminaby, some of whom are still lamenting their loss more than 65 years later.
The rural town of Bonnie Doon, north-east of Melbourne, is another example.
In 1953, houses and buildings from the original town site were moved to higher ground after the damming of Lake Eildon.
"Going across the bridge in Bonnie Doon after really dry summers in the 80s and 90s, you can still see the old road outlines [below the water],"
Why explore the history of lost towns?
The erasure of towns to make way for large reservoirs is often viewed by dam-building agencies as a clinical process, but Dr Reinhardt says there is an inherent spookiness to their disappearance.
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"I was attracted to this [project] in part because of my wife's grandmother's story [and] I continue to be attracted to it because of some of the questions, the intellectual and academic questions. But there is a mystery [and] a romance [to these submerged towns]," he said.
Delving into their history recalls "the value of inundated communities and the perspectives of people who call them home" as well as the "persistence of such places and people", Dr Reinhardt
"For me, it really is a question of, how did people leave a place they loved?"
When former residents of submerged towns or neighbouring communities get together to make sense of dam displacement, the answers they give to this question are far from simple.
Each person's experience is unique, as is their relationship to the old communities.
"To create a space where people can have those kinds of connections, and for their stories to be valued is really cool," Dr Reinhardt says.
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