To create a navigable channel through the Long Sault rapids and to allow hydroelectric stations to be established immediately upriver from Cornwall, Ontario, and Massena, New York, Lake St. Lawrence was created behind a dam. This required the condemnation and acquisition by the government of all the properties of six villages and three hamlets in Ontario; these are now collectively known as The Lost Villages. The area was flooded on July 1, 1958, creating the lake. There was also inundation on the New York side of the border, and the village of Louisville Landing was submerged.