Tocks Island: The Homegrown Movement that Defeated the Delaware River Dam

Seminar summary

This seminar is presentation and discussion with retired journalist David C Pierce about his book Tocks Island: Dammed If You Do. The Homegrown Movement that Defeated the Delaware River Dam, which tells how a local movement prevailed, after years of epic struggle, in overturning a federally approved Delaware River dam and 37-mile-long reservoir for flood control, urban water supply, hydroelectric and recreation. The joint 72,000-acre projects encountered little initial opposition, other than that of Middle Smithfield, Pennsylvania resident Nancy Shukaitis, whose family was among those slated to lose their homes. With little experience as an organizer or public speaker, Nancy traveled throughout the four-state basin and to Washington, D.C., often as the lone voice of opposition at public hearings. She formed the Delaware Valley Conservation Association, recruiting Tocks region landowners to fight the projects. In 1967, Shukaitis was the first woman elected a Monroe County commissioner.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – charged by Congress with acquiring property and building the reservoir – was hampered by the slow pace of government funding to complete those purchases. The corps launched a temporary leasing program of properties it had already acquired. That program was cancelled after one year, but by then scores of “hippies” who had rented those homes refused to leave. This led to legal confrontations and a 40-month occupation. Growing opposition at the dawn of the modern environmental movement would change the course of local history.

How to attend this seminar

This seminar will take place online on Wednesday 13 November 2024 at 2pm.

The seminar is free to attend with no need to register in advance.

Speaker bio

David C. Pierce

David C. Pierce is a retired print-online journalist who worked for the Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He moved to the area in 1969, seven years after Congress approved the Tocks dam and 37-mile-long reservoir and four years after federal approval of a surrounding national recreation area.