Johnstown, PA, off of Highway 219--August 31, 2012

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Johnstown Flood National Memorial

We didn't remember that this horrible flood happened so many years ago. On May 31, 1889 water burst from an earthen dam holding back 20 tons of water, which was 450 feet above the steel mill town of Johnstown. It killed at least 2,209 people in 10 minutes as it roared down the narrow valley sweeping everything in its path. Much of the debris (from homes, machinery, freight cars, telegraph poles, railroad tracks, etc.) were bound together by the barbed wire from the mills and caught on a rock railroad bridge in town. The mass covered 45 acres, which mixed with machine oil then caught fire killing 80 more. An additional 40 people lost their lives as typhoid followed after the flood.

Clara Barton at age 67 arrived with 50 members of her staff of doctors and nurses, which was the first test of the newly-formed Red Cross. She set up hospital tents and distributed food and clothing.

All of this devastation was caused when wealthy men from Pittsburgh, including Mellon and Carnegie, bought an old reservoir for use as a summer retreat. They repaired the earthen dam, raising its height and that of the lake, but did nothing to reinforce or maintain it. So after a couple of decades and some heavy rains, it just gave way.

For additional information, see www.nps.gov/jofl.

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Photos

912-34 Today coal trains cross the mellow river
Today, coal trains cross over the flood path as though nothing ever occurred here