Confusing to the uninitiated are the five villages, which make up the Town of Montague: Turners Falls, Montague Center, Millers Falls, Lake Pleasant and Montague City. The Town had its origins in the village of Montague Center (1754), which strangely enough no longer is the town’s “center�. That distinction is now belongs to Turners Falls (1868), site of the current town hall (left) and governmental functions and the town’s commercial center. For most people, the name Turners Falls probably evokes a vision of a “Great Falls� not unlike those which were said to have existed prior to the construction of the first dam in 1798, where migrating salmon were “so plentiful that one could walk across the river on their backs.� A dam (below) and canal, constructed at Turners Falls to harness the hydropower of the Connecticut River for industrial use, put an end to the free flow of the “Great Falls� of Turners Falls. Today, scientists at the Northeast Anadromous Fish Research Center and engineers at Northeast Utilities are busy searching for the most effective ways to restore anadromous fish (shad and salmon) to the Connecticut River, including constructing fish ladders. Montague “City� is anything but a city, and it never quite achieved its anticipated fame as the “Bagdad of the West�. The strategic importance of Montague City, with its locks and canal, to navigation up the Connecticut River was short lived because the advent of steam locomotives eventually rendered river transport unprofitable. Lake Pleasant (right), while a beautiful lake, is no longer the summer resort that achieved its fame in the late 19th century as a mecca for spiritualists and others seeking recreation. That ended when the lake became a public water supply in the early twentieth century. Finally, the mills of Millers Falls no longer are the backbone of this village that they once were.