The Great Sacandaga Lake is a playland for boaters, swimmers and anglers, but beneath the surface lies a story of personal sacrifice for the greater good. A new documentary, "Harnessing Nature, Building the Great Sacandaga," tells that story that can now be ordered on thegreatsacandagalake.com.

The film, produced by the Sacandaga Lake Advisory Council, incorporates contemporary photographs alongside 8mm film shot while the land was being cleared and the Conklingville Dam was under construction. It also features interviews recorded in the 1980s with people who were children in the 1920s and remembered life before the reservoir, before the smell of smoke that filled the valley for years as homes were burned before their communities were purposely flooded.

Local historians contributed to the film, and more than 100 people dug into their personal archives to supply photographs.

Jason Kemper, director of the Saratoga County Planning Department and treasurer of the advisory council, said the idea for the documentary was sparked by the discovery of the 8mm film in the basement of the Hudson River Black River Regulating District, the state agency that manages the reservoir. The silent film was fragile, and the council's first step was to preserve it on DVD.

It was personal for Kemper, 42, who grew up in Northville and lives in Edinburgh.

"There is a lack of understanding in my generation of the sacrifice, and the work that was accomplished. In three years, for $12 million, they built three dams, 12 bridges (including the three-quarter-of-a-mile Batchellerville Bridge) and approximately 40 miles of road," he said.

Saratoga County historian Lauren Roberts began looking through images in the county collection. She wrote to Peter Pepe, a film producer in Glens Falls who recorded between 30 and 40 interviews with Sacandaga residents in the mid-1980s. Disappointed the interviews were never used, Pepe wanted to complete the documentary he started.

Much of the 80-minute film traces the history of the Sacandaga Valley, first frequented by Mohegan and Mohawk Indians who found rich hunting grounds in the swampy southern portion. During the French and Indian War in the mid-1700s, white settlers started establishing small communities that centered on logging or tanneries. The people in Pepe's 1986 interviews describe a close-knit rural life in the 11 villages that were either partially or completely submerged.

Workers at a Beecher Hollow factory made rakes that were shipped all over the world, and in Batchellerville, the Batcheller family built three mills that made wooden products — coffins, wooden pails, pegs — shipped worldwide. In Fish House, there were two hotels. Nearly every community, even those that were home to only a few dozen families, had a school and a general store. The Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad built Sacandaga Park, which had a carousel, midway, bowling alley and roller skating rink. On Sport Island, accessible by footbridge, W.C. Fields and Harry Houdini were among the performers who visited the Rustic Theater during the destination's heyday from the 1890s through the early 1920s. As many as 120,000 people visited during summer.

At the same time, the towns along the Hudson River, which is joined by the Sacandaga River in the valley, flooded nearly every year. Records show the idea of creating a reservoir to control the water was brought up several times in the state Legislature, starting in the 1860s, but it was voted down each time.

In 1922 the Hudson River Commission was created. Only two meetings were held — in Albany — that summer to discuss it. Minutes of the meetings show very few valley residents made the trip, and the ones who did said the commission's intentions were unclear. Only the FJ&G railroad filed a formal objection.

But the record and the recollection of the people reflect a sense of inevitability: The reservoir would be built, and there wasn't much they could do about it. The cities would be protected, and the rural farmers would lose their way of life, historian and author Patricia Nugent says in the film. The landowners were paid a market price for their property, but it wasn't enough to buy elsewhere, Nugent said, and by the late 1920s, after hearing for years the reservoir was coming, the farmers stopped keeping up their houses.

A ceremony was held March 27, 1930 to celebrate completion of the Conklingville dam. By July 7 of that year, the reservoir was mostly full. The water reached 760 feet above sea level.

Power companies fared the best in the project. Private companies covered 95 percent of the project cost. The hydroelectric plant at the Conklingville Dam generates enough electricity for 16,000 homes, according to the documentary.

The film dedicates a section of the documentary to the meticulous way the dead were handled. The commission relocated 22 cemeteries and moved 3,800 graves. In some cases, families chose where they wanted the remains reinterred, and watched while coffins were unearthed. For many others, the commission built new graveyards. In cases where the existing grave marker was illegible, they put in a new stone marked with the cemetery and row where it was found.

Although there have been rumors for years of submerged church steeples and graves, divers have confirmed very little remains at the bottom of the lake — only old iron bridges the workers pushed off their moorings. Aerial photographs used in the film show the old roads and tree stumps that lined the roadsides in the little villages. They appear, ghost-like, when the water is low.

lhornbeck@timesunion.com • 518-454-5352 • @leighhornbeck