The Last of the Handmade Dams Turns 40: Bob Steuding Reflects
Update: 2025-10-07
Description
In 1985, Bob Steuding published The Last of the Handmade Dams: The Story of the Ashokan Reservoir, a historically rich account of the building of the Ashokan Reservoir—and the lives displaced in its wake. Forty years later, the book remains a cornerstone of Catskills regional history and the inaugural title from Purple Mountain Press.
In this episode, we visit Bob and Martha Steuding at their 18th-century stone farmhouse near the reservoir. Literary correspondent Rebecca Rego Barry sits down with Bob to reflect on a life rooted in place, the founding of Purple Mountain Press, and the emotional legacy of a dam that reshaped a landscape—and the lives within it.
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