Johnstown, PA

We visited Johnstown, Pennsylvania in March.  It is a small city known mostly for it's production of
iron, coal and steel.

 In 1860, the Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown was the leading steel producer in the United States, outproducing steel giants Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Through the second half of the 19th century, Johnstown made much of the nation's barbed wire.

On May 31st, 1889, the South Fork Dam located 14 miles upstream from Johnstown failed and caused what is known as the The "Great Flood" of 1889.  The dam was initially built by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as part of a cross-state canal system between 1838 and 1853, to create what was known as Conemaugh Lake and was fed by the Little Conemaugh River.  As transport by railroad became more popular than canal barge transport, the canal was abandoned by the commonwealth and was sold to Pennsylvania Railroad.  The dam and the lake were part of the purchase and were sold off by PRR to private buyers.

A group of spectators purchased it and altered it to become a private resort lake for the wealthy of Pittsburgh.  Some of the modifications included lowering the dam so that the top would be wide enough for a road and putting a fish screen in the spill way that would prevent fish (and debris) from escaping into the river below.  This made the dam much more vunerable, not to mention the pipe system below the dam to help control flow had been sold off as scrap metal when it was initially abandoned.  They built cottages and a club house for what came to be known as the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an exclusive and secretive mountain retreat.

After a terrible rain storm hit dropping an estimated 6-10 inches of rain over the entire region and causing rivers and streams to breach their banks, the eroding dam finally failed at 3:10pm, allowing 20 million tons of water from the lake to come cascading down the river below.  It took 40 minutes for the lake to drain.

Some 57 minutes after the South Fork Dam collapsed, the flood hit Johnstown. The inhabitants of Johnstown were caught by surprise as the wall of water and debris bore down on the village, traveling at 40 miles per hour and reaching a height of 60 feet in places. Some, realizing the danger, tried to escape by running towards high ground. But most people were hit by the surging floodwater. Many people were crushed by pieces of debris, and others became caught in barbed wire from the wire factory upstream.

At Johnstown, the Stone Bridge, which was a substantial arched structure, carried the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Conemaugh River. The debris that was carried by the flood formed a temporary dam, stopping further progress of the water.  Some people who had been washed downstream became trapped in an inferno as debris that had piled up against the Stone Bridge caught fire, killing at least 80 people. The fire at the Stone Bridge burned for three days. Afterwards, the pile of debris there covered 30 acres, and reached 70 feet in height. The mass of debris took three months to remove, because of the masses of steel wire from the ironworks binding it. Dynamite was eventually used to clear it.  The total death toll was 2,209, making the disaster the largest loss of civilian life in the United States at the time.

The Johnstown Inclined Plane was completed in 1891 to serve as an escape route for future floods, as well as a convenient mode of transportation for the residents of the new communities situated above the valley.

Here we are at the Heritage Discovery Center in Johnstown.  It's a neat little children's museum that has fun activities that incorporate the city's life story.

For such a little and unknown place, it sure was packed with interesting history.