In 1899, the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club in Pennsylvania was an idyllic retreat for rich industrialists like Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon and Henry Clay Frick. The club was some fourteen miles above the industrial town of Johnstown on the Little Conemaugh River. Lake Conemaugh was the main attraction of the Club. It was two miles long, onw mile wide and 60 feet deep. A rickety dam held the lake in place, some four hundred and feet above the bustling town.
A powerful storm system started dumping heavy rains on the region around Johnstown on May 30, 1889. As the rain continued overnight, creeks became torrents and waters began to rise. There was concern that the dam at the Club might break, but most people in Johnstown did not worry about the fears. Throughout the day, bulletins about the stability of the dam were telegraphed downriver to the town.
At mid-afternoon, everyone’s worst fears were realized as the 72 foot dam gave way. Twenty million tons of water emptied into the steep walls on the Conemaugh Valley. A wall of water some 75 feet high and one half mile wide was racing down the Little Conemaugh River. The entire lake emptied into the valley of the river in just 36 minutes, flowing with the force of Niagara Falls.
The huge wave of water and debris smashed into Johnstown at 4:07 p.m., destroying most of the town as well as its neighboring communities. The center of town was wiped away. Survivors reported seeing a 35-foot wall of what appeared to them as debris, including uprooted trees, houses, train cars, animals and people crashing toward them. Much of the debris was trapped behind a stone bridge, which dammed the water into a lake 30 feet deep where much of the town had been. By nightfall, the debris would catch fire, and the conflagration would claim as many as 80 more victims who were trapped in the heap of rubbish and burned alive.
The story of the disaster was flashed around the country. The nation poured its heart out to the victims of the Johnstown flood, sending money, relief supplies and volunteers to the stricken area. Clara Barton and her newly formed Red Cross organization were instrumental in restoring the necessities of life to victims of the disaster.
Several factors contributed to the disaster: the dam was shoddily constructed; the hillsides in the river valley had been stripped clear of timber, limiting the capacity of the soil to trap the seven to ten inches of rainfall; a grate which had been placed across the dam’s spillway to prevent fish stocked in the reservoir from flowing over the dam became clogged with trees and other debris which increased stress on the earthen dam; heavy snowmelt had swelled the reservoir. More than 2,200 people died in the disaster. Bodies were still being uncovered as late as 1906. The 1889 flood led to vastly improved flood control and warning systems, but Johnstown would once again fall victim to a disastrous flood in 1977, when 77 people were killed.
