Bob Reinhardt, associate professor in the Department of History and affiliated faculty in the School of the Environment, recently published his article “Exploring Submerged Resilience: The Atlas of Drowned Towns” in the American Historical Review, a leading journal in the field.
Reinhardt’s article discussed his current project, the Atlas of Drowned Towns. His research delves into the history and resilience of towns and homes submerged under the reservoirs created by large dams. Such stories are common throughout the American West. Reinhardt has conducted most of his research in western Oregon, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built 13 dams between 1941 and 1969.
Those dams reshaped the Willamette River Valley, managing flood risk, providing hydroelectric power and redirecting water for irritation. But they also buried whole towns under hundreds of feet of water.
Now those towns are only accessible by the records and memories of those who once lived there. Reinhardt has collected oral histories, personal and official documents, photographs, artifacts and a range of historical data to reconstruct the towns covered by damming in the American West. He has processed this treasure trove of information with the help of the Atlas of Drowned Towns staff and community volunteers at “History Jamboree” events.
Reinhardt’s article in the American Historical Review explores resilience in these towns—how their inhabitants and cultures have persevered despite the damming. It also grapples with the complex relationship between resilience and resistance: were drowned-town residents engaged in an act of resistance against the powerful forces building dams when they left and carried their personal histories out of the inundated regions?
Reinhardt’s research also shines a light on part of Idaho’s history. There are flooded towns throughout Idaho, including Dent, which was flooded in 1973 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Dworshak Dam. Thanks to Reinhardt and his team, the stories of those who lived through such flooding are remembered. Like Dent resident Alfred Jenks, who said:
“I hated it! It done away with my native homeland that I loved as much as anything I ever did love. I hated to leave it. Of course, I was always against any dam, really, because look at our fish runs has been destroyed and all of this stuff! As far as I’m concerned, man has been progressing backward for about the last forty to fifty years!”