Franklin F. Snyder
grass grows real high. At the villages they clear an area around so that if they have
a fire, it won't get into their huts. But there was always some funny story about this
fire. You got the impression they felt that someone had started it. It wasn`t an
accident. I don't know that anybody got hurt. But you could really see the smoke
and flames. But that safari was quite a deal.
Lake Barcroft Dam
In addition to these large dam jobs from time-to-time, I'd work on some local
problems for somebody. I guess it must have been spread out over 10-15 years, I
was involved in the problems of the Lake Barcroft Dam. I don't know whether
you're familiar with that or not. There must have been during that period of time,
four real large storms that hit that area. The first couple of jobs involved lawsuits
by people downstream. Holmes Run goes on down through Alexandria past the big
Army installation.
Q ..
Cameron Station?
A
Cameron Station. This creek runs right on the edge of Cameron Station before it
becomes Cameron Run. They've rebuilt that whole area. I haven't been down to
see it, but there was a railroad trestle there that blocked the flow of the creek. When
there was a big storm, why, the water would backup and almost overflow,
sometimes it did overflow the railroad tracks. It would back up a side channel in
upstream of the railroad tracks, and there was development in there. Those people
sued Lake Barcroft saying they had caused their damage.
The dam at that time had wooden gates that were hinged at the third point so that
they would tip just when the water overflowed. People would sue and say that they
opened up the gates improperly and flooded them downstream. The work was for
the law firm of Boothe, Dudley, Koontz--the man I worked for was Armistead
Boothe. The law firm, started by his father, who had been a high state official.
Armistead is one of the few lawyers that I respected. Armistead, he was one, and
I`ve known one other that I admire. But he was the defending attorney on this Lake
Barcroft stuff. He always wanted to know the truth. He didn't want any bias one
way or the other. He wanted to know what happened, then he would decide whether
he would use me or not. But he never wanted you to fudge your figures to favor his
lawsuit. He wanted to know what, to the best of your ability, what the situation
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