The bed of the stream at the site selected for the dam is composed of solidly packed gravel. It was not considered advisable to lay timbers on such a foundation, so a ditch about two feet deep and one and one-half feet wide was dug across the creek bed and filled with concrete, to which a heavy timber was securely bolted, to form the upstream sill for the super-structure. The downstream side was supported on a sill of heavy timber whose ends were embedded in the concrete walls, or abutments, at either end of the dam and whose middle portion was supported by posts, spaced six feet apart, which in turn rested on large blocks of concrete placed in the bed of the creek. This downstream sill was about two and one-half feet higher than the upstream sill. A horizontal floor of double plank extending twelve feet downstream from the upstream sill and supported by the concrete foundations under the downstream sill formed an apron for the water to fall on. This prevents back-washing under the dam. A double layer of heavy plank was then fastened on the two sills, forming a sloping face on the water side of the dam. On the upper edge of this plank-facing, at the crest of the dam, are placed flashboards, one foot high and extending the full length of the dam, thirty-six feet, but divided into six sections, each six feet long. Each of these sections is hinged by the lower edge to the crest of the dam, while the upper edge is held from tipping over by chains fastened to cast-iron lugs located about halfway down the planking. The chain is held in these lugs by pins which are connected by rod and chain to a capstan, or spindle, located at one end of the dam, and are so arranged that by turning the spindle the pins will be drawn successively, thereby letting the flashboards down one at a time. The idea of this arrangement is that, when a flood is rising, the capstan may be turned with a heavy lever crank, winding up the chain and pulling down the flashboards one at a time, to give more space for the flood to pass through so as to prevent the water upstream from the dam from rising too high. This plan has prevented the washing away of Mr. Miner’s power house on several occasions. [Illustration: Farm Power House on Oriskany Creek Dam in left background; tail-race in right foreground]