SMETHPORT — Larry Julian will present the program, “The Story Behind the Dam,” that tells the story of the Kinzua Dam, Thursday at the annual fall dinner meeting of the McKean County Historical Society at the East Smethport United Christian Church.

Dinner is slated for 6 p.m.

The dam and Allegheny Reservoir, also known as Kinzua Lake, are located in Warren and McKean counties and in New York in Cattaraugus County. The Pennsylvania section is surrounded by the Allegheny National Forest. In New York, it’s the Allegany State Park and the Allegany Reservation of the Seneca Nation, a member of the Iroquois Nation.

While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the construction of the dam was necessary to prevent flooding of Pittsburgh, this controversial project, which began under the Eisenhower Administration in 1960, continued through completion after President John F. Kennedy turned down a Seneca request for halting the work.

The government took the Seneca land by eminent domain and proceeded to clear 10,000 acres of the Allegany Reservation, or approximately one-third of the land granted to the Seneca Nation in a treaty going back to George Washington’s time. One of Washington’s representatives and Chief Cornplanter signed the treaty that stated the U.S. government would never take the land.

Appeals by the Seneca Nation were unsuccessful.

Many cemeteries had to be relocated during the construction in the early 1960s.

“My mother was a Seneca and she lived on the reservation,” said Julian, who retired from the United States Secret Service. “I want to tell this story from the Senecas’ point of view.”