Neversink – The Town in New York That Literally Sank
With a name like Neversink, one wouldn't think a town would have trouble living up to its name but that certainly isn't the case for this (former) New York town.
Neversink Reservoir is located in the Catskills about 75 miles northwest of New York City and it acts as a water supply system but beneath the water lies a secret not many know - an entire town is submerged 200 feet below the surface.
Ironically, the town was named Neversink and it will forever remain under the water as it was submerged and trapped in time in 1953.
The Catskills are charming and so are the remote small towns scattered through them and Neversink was one of those quaint towns filled with about 2,000 residents when it was destroyed.
Founded in 1798, Neversink was a quintessential Catskills town that featured a charming main street, a church, a post office, a covered bridge, and even a two-room schoolhouse. Today, all that remains above the surface of the town are photographs and memories from those who once called it home.
Why was a charming town filled with friendly citizens taken from them and flooded? The simple answer is that the people of New York City were thirsty and the Board of Water Supply made a decision in 1941 that both Neversink and another quaint Catskill town called Bittersweet, should be flooded in order to create a reserve to supply drinking water to residents of New York City.
If the name Neversink makes bells sound in your head and you swear that you've driven through it at some point in the not-so-distant past, you might very well have as a new town was created just a few miles from the old town. Let's hope this new town will forever live up to its name of Neversink - unlike the original town.