What happens when the state considers people's homes, indeed whole communities, dispensable? In the late 1930s four towns in Massachusetts found out. These towns were deemed fit for destruction in order to quench a big city's thirst. The Quabbin Reservoir displaced twenty-five hundred people, their homes razed to the ground, their schools, farms, factories, hotels and town halls demolished, and an idyllic valley teeming with life was turned first into a wasteland, and then into the biggest drinking water reservoir of its time. In "Haunting the Quabbin: Inside Out," correspondent Sean Cole meets valley residents who were forcibly moved out. Their nostalgia for the homes of their parents and grandparents is so strong that they meet on a regular basis to share vivid memories. Nearly 70 years later, groups of them go once a year to hold a formal town meeting on what used to be a town common, a piece of land that is still above the water line. They elect town officers and recount stories of life as it used to be in their rural community. Through the voices of its former residents Cole captures the dramatic manner in which the Swift River valley was dismantled, and the effect on those who find the lost valley is still part of who they are and how they live. "Haunting the Quabbin: Inside Out" is about the importance of "home," and what it means to have lost not just your home but a whole way of life. PRSS satellite uplink 2/1/05, 2/3/05 "Haunting The Quabbin: Inside Out" may be considered "evergreen." For more information about this and other Inside Out Documentaries, please contact Namita Raina, National Program Administrator, WBUR Boston. (617) 353-8160 nraina@bu.edu

What happens when the state considers people's homes, indeed whole communities, dispensable? In the late 1930s four towns in Massachusetts found out. These towns were deemed fit for destruction in order to quench a big city's thirst. The Quabbin Reservoir displaced twenty-five hundred people, their homes razed to the ground, their schools, farms, factories, hotels and town halls demolished, and an idyllic valley teeming with life was turned first into a wasteland, and then into the biggest drinking water reservoir of its time. In "Haunting the Quabbin: Inside Out," correspondent Sean Cole meets valley residents who were forcibly moved out. Their nostalgia for the homes of their parents and grandparents is so strong that they meet on a regular basis to share vivid memories. Nearly 70 years later, groups of them go once a year to hold a formal town meeting on what used to be a town common, a piece of land that is still above the water line. They elect town officers and recount stories of life as it used to be in their rural community. Through the voices of its former residents Cole captures the dramatic manner in which the Swift River valley was dismantled, and the effect on those who find the lost valley is still part of who they are and how they live. "Haunting the Quabbin: Inside Out" is about the importance of "home," and what it means to have lost not just your home but a whole way of life. PRSS satellite uplink 2/1/05, 2/3/05 "Haunting The Quabbin: Inside Out" may be considered "evergreen." For more information about this and other Inside Out Documentaries, please contact Namita Raina, National Program Administrator, WBUR Boston. (617) 353-8160 nraina@bu.edu