STRATTON — Kenny Wing and Alan Burnell, authors of “The Lost Villages of Flagstaff Lake,” will host opening day at the Dead River Area Historical Society from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 2.

In 1928, the Maine legislature passed a bill condemning a 25-mile section of the upper Dead River Valley to inundation, destroying the villages of Flagstaff, Dead River and Bigelow. The bill authorized the construction of a dam at the river narrows at Long Falls and the subsequent creation of Flagstaff Lake. The properties in these towns were obtained by the process of eminent domain, and residents were forced to relocate. In the spring of 1950, Flagstaff Lake was officially created when the gates at Long Falls Dam were closed. It remains a controversial project today.

On the 60th anniversary of Flagstaff Lake, Kenny Wing and Alan Burnell wrote a book titled “The Lost Villages of Flagstaff Lake” chronicling the events leading to the creation of Flagstaff Lake. This book contains more than 200 exhaustively researched photographs that depict the people, buildings and events of these three villages prior to them being flooded by the creation of Flagstaff Lake. Most of the photographs have never been previously published.

Also on display in the museum are artifacts, manuscripts and photographs that have been donated or loaned by interested townspeople and descendants of original families of the Dead River Region. Collections from 1850 on include old carpentry and logging tools, china, glass, church organ, furniture from native families, a complete schoolroom, a memorial room to the “lost” towns of Flagstaff and Dead River, the lineage of several native families, and a host of memorabilia from native homesteads.

For more information call Mary Henderson at 246-2271.