The Johnstown Flood Revisited in Pennsylvania

The Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889, that occurred after heavy rain swept across the central United States into Pennsylvania, was both the Hurricane Katrina and the Indonesian tsunami of its time. It claimed 2,209 lives, and in that respect is still the worst natural disaster in American history. Victims were washed three hundred miles west to Ohio, and found as late as 1911. Reporters from over a hundred publications covered the story. Aid came from every US state and eighteen foreign countries, at a time before the Internet and fast travel made the world a global village.

Johnstown lies on a level flood plain where Little Conemaugh River from the northeast, and Stony Creek from the south, meet to form the Conemaugh River. Like many Eastern mountain towns, it appears suddenly over the crest of a hill, or around a curve, depending on the route. In, and around, Johnstown, are many visual reminders of the flood that bring accounts of its destruction to life.

A day tour starts with a visit to the Johnstown Flood National Memorial visitor center near the village of St. Michael, six miles from Johnstown. From the US 219 freeway, exit at Pennsylvania Route 869. This road becomes Locust Street in the village. Turn left at Lake Road and follow the signs to the center. It overlooks the South Fork of the Little Conemaugh, at first dammed to form a lake that would feed the Pennsylvania State Canal system. Before the project could be finished, railroads made the canals obsolete.

On the way, watch for a sign that reads "North Abutment Trail Head." This trail leads over the former spillway, screened by the dam's last owner, The South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, to keep stocked game fish from escaping. (The screens also collected debris and reduced the spillway's effectiveness as an emergency drain.) The trail continues onto the north half of what was the 72 foot high dam. (You'll appreciate the walk more if you see the visitor center's exhibits first.)

Below the visitor center, with a view of the valley that was Lake Conemaugh, is a house where lived Elias Unger, president of a company contracted to maintain the dam. On the morning of May 31, he assembled work crews who in the rain frantically tried to reduce pressure on the dam by unclogging the spillway and digging a second spillway at its western end.

Lake Conemaugh was two miles long, one mile across at its widest point, around 60 feet in average depth, and held about twenty million tons of water.

Back in St. Michael, on Locust Street, is another sign that reads "South Abutment Picnic Area." Turn there. At this road's end is a trail that leads down the hillside to the Little Conemaugh River. Here the river is shallow, and the ends of the former dam tower over it. From here, it's easy to see how big Lake Conemaugh was, and picture that much water roaring with the force of Niagara Falls towards Johnstown.

Also watch for a sign at Locust and Main Streets that reads "1889 Historic Downtown." It's easy to miss, and doesn't fully indicate what's there. On Main Street, the former South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club clubhouse will be on your right. It's normally open to visitors, but was closed for restoration when I was there in June 2007.

Past the clubhouse, both on Main Street and Cottage Lane, are eight cottages -- actually good-sized houses -- once owned by club members. All are still private residences. They're surrounded by the village, but were waterfront property when the lake was full.

In Johnstown, the stone bridge across the Conemaugh River noted in accounts of the disaster as the place where 80 people died in a crushed mass of buildings, trees, and earth, still stands. A paved trail leading to it, parallel to the river, begins near Point Stadium, at the corner of Route 56 (Roosevelt Boulevard) and Washington Street. There's a Pennsylvania state historic site marker, and other markers along the trail that document the history of flood control projects along the three rivers. Even with modern safeguards in place, Johnstown occasionally floods; as it did in March 1936 when runoff from melted snow combined with spring rains, and in July 1977 when a line of storms lingered over western Pennsylvania.

Alma Hall on Main Street, and the Franklin Street United Methodist Church at the corner of Locust Street, withstood the wave of water and debris. Alma Hall was Johnstown's tallest building in 1889 and housed many made homeless by the distater. The church spilt the wave, sending part south and the rest north towards the stone bridge. Like several other surviving buildings, it became a temporary morgue. Both are a short walk from the Johnstown Flood Museum, administered by the Johnstown Area Historical Association, at the corner of Washington Street and Museum Place.

Daniel J. Morrell was president of the Cambria Iron Works, Johnstown's largest employer. He often urged the South Fork club to make repairs needed to preserve the dam's integrity, and later joined the club to stay close to the situation. He died four years before the dam failed. Bethlehem Steel bought the Cambria Works facility in 1923. It closed in 1992, but several buildings that made it though the flood remain near Roosevelt Boulevard just north of the stone bridge, in a part of town still known locally as Morrellville.

Grandview Cemetery, where a section lined with rows of plain white markers holds the graves of over 750 unidentified flood victims, is off Menoher Avenue (Pennsylvania Route 271). From the center of Johnstown, follow Menoher to Fort Geneva Avenue. Turn right, and right again on Millcreek Road. The entrance is three streets down, at Bucknell Avenue. No signs direct the visitor, but the section is towards the middle of the cemetery and easy to find.

"Head for the hills, the dam has burst," my mom would say whenever drains filled and water that spilled onto our front yard. Later I discovered that you didn't to be from Pennsylvania, like Mom was, to appreciate the flood's impact. It's part of American legend and has been the subject of a documentary narrated by Richard Dreyfus, a book by David McCullough, and an episode of PBS-TV's "The American Experience."

With the inevitable comparisons to Katrina and New Orleans in mind, it's interesting to note that, five days after the Johnstown Flood -- and decades before FEMA -- plans to rebuild the town were taking shape, and molten metal flowed at the Cambria Iron Works.

On the Internet:

http://www.nps.gov/jofl
National Park Service pages for the Johnstown Flood National Historic Site

http://www.jaha.org/FloodMuseum/history.html
The Johnstown Flood Museum, within the Johnstown Area Heritage Association web site

http://www.explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=524
The Point Park state historic marker, at the head of the stone bridge trail

http://www.jaha.org/DiscoveryCenter/steel.html
More on the Cambria Iron Works