Olive, New York, named after the branch given to Noah during the biblical Great Flood, is a town that has maintained a strong unified place-identity, even as the town has been physically divided and socially tumultuous. 

While Olive has existed as a town since 1823, 1913 would mark a new Olive with the final evacuation notice to the residents of the Esopus Valley as it was to be flooded for the newly constructed Ashokan Reservoir. This project would displace the primary population centers of the town and would create a new barrier to unity with the added time it took to navigate around or across the reservoir. 

This project aims to analyze the phenomenon of this unified town identity by examining the media produced, events held, and programming established since that final exodus and interpret the ways in which it serves to unify the town and how it has evolved in the century since its original visage was flooded; particularly how it has prevented Olive from becoming nothing more than an administrative boundary.

By exploring this project, I hope you consider how the experiences of Olive compare to other communities who have been displaced from where they began, how a strong place-identity can impact even those who no longer live in the location, and what you can do to preserve the history and identity of your own community.