NYFalls.com Talk

I'm taking a guess that this was a one time some sort of water turbine. As you'll see from the pictures it was covered in a spray of water so it was hard to tell what was underneath. I discovered it while taking pictures of Stottville Falls. I heard the sound of water behind me, turned around, and saw the machinery. Quite apparently the water still flowed to the machine, I'm guessing because of all the recent rain overflowed whatever normally kept water out of the penstock.

Even so I though it made quite a picture, combining the 'ruins' theme with flowing water. You can see the foundations from the mill that either fell apart or were torn down around the machine. Check out how the concrete foundation was formed to let the belt from the iron wheel pass through the foundation to whatever the machine drove above it. GPS 42.286577 -73.736320.

View from above, which better shows the arrangement of the parts of the machine. Unfortunately the large sheave on the left is broken at the bottom - sort of dashes any hopes of restoring it to working condition. But you can see the connecting shaft, bearing supports, and the penstock.

Another view from the 'downstream' side. If you look intently you can make out some of the workings hidden under the spray of water. Also a better view of the water overflowing out of the top of the machine.

You won't see the turbine from the road. To find it, you'll need to hop the guard rail opposite the trailer park and walk towards the falls. At the falls, scramble down the embankment and you'll see the machine. Odds are it probably won't be spewing water all over as the high water conditions during my visit were rather unusual. It appeared the area used to be an old road, at least up to the falls. I saw no 'posted' signs. In fact, the area looked like the area had been visited at some intervals from the faint trails that lead to the falls and the area around it.

I was riding my bike when I found this, so I wasn't all that concerned with parking. You might find a spot on Town Garage Road just after turning off of Atlantic Ave/County Route 20. I don't think Atlantic Avenue is wide enough at the falls to park a car, but it might work if you have a rather small car.

Here's a shot from Google satellite view. I marked the turbine location with a white dot. There's a dam downstream from the falls. You can see it from Atlantic Ave as you come into Stottville, but the shoulder is very narrow there with hardly enough room to park a motorcycle.

Wow. That's pretty interesting. I have been in that area a few times to find a place to capture the falls from and no idea that turbine was there. Interesting to see so much of the hardware still in place. Thanks for posting this.