Sep 29, 2006 — This weekend the tiny town of Forestport, southeast of Boonville, is celebrating its past - the history of a boozy, brawling town of outlaws. At the end of the 19th century, town leaders sabotaged the Forestport feeder canal, a part of the Erie Canal system, not once, not twice, but three times. At the time, it was called "the most damnable conspiracy" in the history of the state of New York. It was the stuff of whispered rumors and legend in Oneida County, until an amateur geneologist and career journalist stumbled into the heart of the conspiracy. David Sommerstein has the story behind Michael Doyle's book, The Forestport Breaks.