Fleischmanns ~ Lake Switzerland
This page is dedicated solely to Lake Switzerland and the 'Falls' which are now gone.
Also below the postcards & my photograph is a newspaper article one of which isn't 'historical' in nature however it is related.
CLICK HERE: POSTCARDS - WHY DO SOME HAVE MY EMAIL ADDRESS OR DO NOT COPY ON THEM?
(AS SEEN ON MAIN PAGE)
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ABOVE: photographed from the bridge
August 4, 1981
Thousands of Fish Die As Lake Drains
by NEAL ALLEN
Freeman Staff
FLEISCHMANNS - An estimated 14,000 native trout - many 2 feet long were killed Monday when the plug was pulled on a private lake in Fleischmanns, according to town residents and state conservation officials.
A sluice at the foot of Lake Switzerland was opened sending a wall of water downstream and causing an 11 year old Fleischmanns girl child playing by the stream to be stranded on a rocky bank until neighbors alerted by screams for help rescued her.
"All of a sudden it just started coming down, it was all brown," said Tammy Sanford daughter of William and Catherine Sanford.
"Beer bottles, sticks, a cooler top, just coming down."
For a half-mile below the lake, the streambed is coated with dead fish most of them suffocated by silty water from the onrush, said Tom Miner, associate director of the Catskill Center, a conservation group.
Miner said he investigated the carnage Monday night. "I just saw these white glows of bellyup trout."
Village Justice Arthur Tieg said "To a guy who's into trout fishing and into streams, this is incredible. There's been a huge fishkill... and I'm talking about monsters, as big as your arm."
Lake Switzerland is reportedly owned by Russell Cherry. A similiar incident took place three or four years ago, according to Kay Sanford, a fishery biologist for the state Department of Enviromental Conservation. He said the owner was fined last time.
Cherry was not available for comment this morning. DEC is investigating, and Sanford said no motive is yet known.
**Of personal note: I was at the rear of the Fleischmanns Ball Park in the stream when I was caught up in the water before being rescued by the Mayor's wife, Mrs. Bertha Mayes. **
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