Lou’s View
THAT DAM ISLAND
By Lou Bernard
Want to hear a neat local fact about Dam Island?
Of course you do.
In case you just got here, let me give a little context. Dam Island is the island near the dam. Duh. In the Susquehanna River, on the east end of Lock Haven, lies the Grant Street Dam. Just upstream from the dam is a small island, in the middle of the river. That’s Dam Island.
I had occasion to go out on Dam Island about 2009, and that’s when I learned about it, though I don’t think I’ve ever written about it before. I took a canoe out there with two friends in the summer of 2009, and discovered it to be a beautiful little spot. There are trees and plants growing all over it, and a nice little miniature lagoon in the middle, which we paddled into with the canoe.
So. The neat fact about Dam Island?
It doesn’t exist.
I discovered this after my canoe trip, when I had the idea to camp out there. I began looking for the owner, someone to ask permission. I checked the county maps, and Dam Island isn’t on them. I checked with the city, who also had no information—They get their property information from the county, who apparently get it from the Psychic Friends Network. I dug into every document I could find, making a royal pain of myself at all the government buildings, until one guy is the GIS office answered my question.
Legal-wise, Dam Island doesn’t technically exist. It’s not owned by anyone. It lies on the city limit, half in Lock Haven and half in Woodward Township, but has no official owner. How can this be, you ask? Because it’s not considered land—-It’s a part of the riverbed.
Looking at the old maps from the 1800s, this island is never pictured before 1889. That’s when it was created—During the 1889 flood, a bunch of debris piled up in that location, and then deteriorated to form a small ecosystem. Plants and trees grew, birds lived there, and it became its own little island. But it was never officially incorporated as property, and is legally considered the riverbed.
Even the name, Dam Island, is only a nickname, casually stated because of its proximity to the Grant Street Dam. Compare to Boom Island, further up the river—Boom Island is near Lock Haven University, a man-made island once used for logging. That is the official name, and it is legally owned. It is the property of the Boom Island Land Owners Association. If I wanted to buy it (Or, more likely, camp there) that’s who I would contact. Dam Island has no official owner, no official name, and isn’t on the local property maps—Check yourself if you don’t believe me. You can find the properties online at https://clintonpamapping.maps.arcgis.com/.
So by now, you’re probably questioning whether you could go out there and declare it your own country. Way ahead of you on that one—I thought of this ten years ago. As it turns out, to declare your own country, you have to have a consistent population, some form of government, and a currency, and then be recognized by some other government. So I could go out there, declare stones as currency, and call myself the king, but I’d still need an ongoing population. The minute I left for supplies, I’d lose my country, and honestly this all sounds like too much work.
I’m always entertained by these weird geographical quirks, and this one seemed worth writing about. Maybe one of these days, I’ll get back out there on a raft or something. Hey, if you want to come out, build a shelter, and help me to found Lou-Land, be my guest.
