In the 1960s, the U.S. government acquired nearly an entire Connecticut village for a reservoir; one woman remained under a life-tenancy agreement

For decades, the quiet farming community of West Thompson in northeastern Connecticut lay beside the Quinebaug River, where spring snowmelt and heavy rain periodically caused damaging floods. In the 1960s, however, the village faced a very different future. To reduce flood damage across the wider Quinebaug River basin, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring homes, farms and businesses for the West Thompson Reservoir. This project would permanently transform the landscape.

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