MILFORD, PA — A Delaware River dam’s defeat 13 years after its 1962 authorization by Congress—and the 70,000-acre site’s conversion to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area—will be the subject of a free program at 3 p.m. on Sunday, January 21 in the Foundation Room of the Columns Museum.

David C. Pierce, author of “Tocks Island: Dammed if You Do,” will present a journey through the trials and tribulations surrounding the Tocks Island project. Afterward, he will sign copies of the book, which will be available for purchase. 

Pierce, a retired journalist, moved to Stroudsburg in 1969 at age 14, as the contentious, sometimes bizarre and often heart-wrenching story played out across Pike, Monroe and Northampton counties in Pennsylvania and Sussex and Warren counties in New Jersey. 

He describes the Tocks Island saga as the most volatile regional news story of the 20th century.

For his book, Pierce interviewed people who lost their homes and businesses to forced government acquisition; he reviewed decades of newspaper and magazine stories, and researched libraries, state and national archives, historical societies and government property records and reports. He tracked down long-lost federal court documents and deed transfers at the National Archives that were never recorded in the counties where the property acquisitions took place. 

For more information, call the museum at 570/296-8126.