Over the years the water coming over the stone dam had created a small pool where the water hit.
When Jane, Jim, and I were quite small, I recall our mother taking us there to play in the water.
Along about 1930, Arthur Payne, Ed's father and Charlie DeVosier on Troy Street came up with the idea of building a dam to make a real swimming pool. Their first dam was a wooden one backed with stone and dirt and clay. It worked fairly well for a couple of years and then there was a flood and the pool filled up with stones, dirt and debris.
They didn't give up but rather went to work with pick and shovel and trusty wheelbarrows to restore and improve the pool.
They must have been helped by some skilled workers for they laid up stone walls with mortar.
Cindy Evans gave us a photo from her father's collection and my brother Jim supplied a similar one. They are in winter as is obvious.
After reconstruction the water no longer came over the original stone dam, but was sent around to the right and the pool was drained of water.
If you notice to the right is a stone wall which enclosed a large pool for small children. There was a diving board in summer on the corner of this enclosure and a high board on the old original dam.
The bath houses for changing clothes and for storing tools were along the roadway beyond the stone dam. The dirt they removed was placed below the repaired dam and formed a parking lot for autos.
Across the creek in a wooded area they had a picnic table.
My brother Jim wore glasses when little and he remembers that Elmer Summers, who was the eldest of the Summers boys, smoked cigarettes. He would borrow Jim's glasses and by focusing the sun rays light his smoke. The boy in the picture was young Dick Mason.