Aqua-Culture

1771

Eleazar Wheelock digs Hanover's first well. It is located near what will become Reed Hall. The well will remain in use until 1900.

1805

Hanover's first public water system is built. Hollowed logs pipe spring water from Velvet Rocks to tire village. The logs eventually rot.

1857

Because water from the village well is extremely hard, a bath house is built on the banks of Mink Brook and its soft water.

1868

A rumor flies that cuspidors are washed in the campus well.

1875

Out of a student population of 350 there are 100 cases of typhoid fever. The faculty promises to "spare no pains to improve the sanitary condition of the village." Nothing happens.

1890

A group of faculty builds its own sewage system. The waste empties into a swamp known as Crystal Lake.

1893

The Dartmouth complains that students depend upon a single cistern with one pump, "the frequent disappearance of whose handle necessitates a resort to a doubtful fluid, which animals would hesitate to drink."

1894

Using water from a new reservoir, dormitories are outfitted with showers. Students pay an additional 25 cents per year for their use.

1903

Reacting to an outbreak of typhoid fever at Cornell, the Trustees vote to acquire additional watershed. Holdings eventually total two square miles.

1904

Indoor plumbing comes to Thornton and Wentworth Halls. Several alumni write letters to the administration complaining that the students are going soft.

1914

A town ordinance bans cesspools.

1952

Alumni Magazine columnist Bill McCarter '19 reports that Hanover's four municipal sewer lines and four private sewer systems empty into the Connecticut.

1955

Chlorine is added to Hanover's water.

1958

After much public debate, fluoridation comes to Hanover.

1959

The Connecticut is declared swimmable after state and federal laws check the flow of sewage into the river.

1992

Managers at Hanover's sewage-treatment plant near the outlet of Mink Brook note that two forms of solid waste—rice and condoms—are especially in evidence when students are in town.

Room with a loo: aformer reading roomin Bartlett Hall showshow Dartmouth hastaken to water.