BGuthrie Photos: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial

PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FLOOD_160531_011.JPG: May 31, 1889: The valley in front of you once cradled a scenic lake. Held back by an earthen dam just below here, Lake Conemaugh stretched more than two miles up the valley to your left. The lake was the heart of an exclusive resort where sailboats caught the mountain breezes, and anglers pursued trophy fish. Everything changed on May 31, 1889. At 3:15 p.m., after record rainfall, the South Fork Dam gave way. In minutes the lake was gone, and in less than an hour a devastating wall of churning water and debris hit the city of Johnstown 14 miles downstream. The death toll exceeded 2,200. Johnstown Flood National Memorial, established by Congress in 1964, commemorates the tragic Johnstown Flood by preserving the remains of the South Fork Dam. Exhibits and programs in the Visitor Center describe the flood's origin and destructive power. A trail from the Visitor Center leads to viewpoints of the historic dam and lakebed. "The scene of destruction presented was unparalleled in the annals of American history...." -- Rev. David J. Beale, A survivor of the Johnstown Flood, 1890
2. FLOOD_160531_016.JPG: 1:00pm -- The First Telegraph: At 7:00am on May 31, 1889 the waters of Lake Conemaugh stood only 6 feet from the top of the dam. By 8:00am the water had risen another two feet. At 12:00pm, rain was pounding down as the first telegraph message warning Johnstown of the impending danger was being written. By this time, the water had reached the top of the dam. The winds, rain and raging river rapids had taken down all the telegraph lines from Mineral Point tower to Johnstown. William Pickerill, the telegraph operator at Mineral Point, told Emma Ehrenfeld, the South Fork telegraph operator, that the only salvation "would be to take the message and try to dispatch it to Conemaugh by foot messenger."
3. FLOOD_160531_022.JPG: 1:52pm -- The Second Telegraph: At 12:30pm, water was rushing through the spillway at nine feet per second and was starting to go over the top of the dam. Spectators to this scene could only image what would happen next. One of them was Col. Elias J. Unger, who had recently retired as a hotel manager in Pittsburgh and become the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club's president and manager. He later recalled, "I saw the way it was rising, it wouldn't be very long until it would get full. I couldn't tell how much water was coming; I came to the conclusion that I would cut an extra waste way, and sent for the Italians (13 Italian workers who were working at the club at the time) and the tools and went right to work." On the west-side of the dam, "the face of the embankment there was solid ground, and I knew it couldn't wash that out right away. The people there protested against it, they said 'If you cut that waste weir there, you will ruin the whole business,' and I said, 'it won't matter much; it will be ruined anyhow if I can't get rid of this water.' " Another telegraph message was clearly necessary. This time it was a Pennsylvania Railroad ticket agent at South Fork who would get a message to be sent to the Mineral Point telegraph tower. Like the first message, in order to get the telegraph to Johnstown and then on to Pittsburgh, someone would have to traverse a terrible storm, carrying the message the soon would bring death.
4. FLOOD_160531_028.JPG: 2:45pm -- The Third Telegraph: The powerful rain continued into the afternoon and around 2:00pm a large chunk near the center of the earthen dam washed away. Thirty minutes after the second message was sent, Emma Ehrenfeld, the South Fork telegraph operator, sent another warning to Johnstown. Not knowing if it would make it to the next telegraph office in Mineral Point, Emma put it on the wire at 2:25pm. The message did go through and reached East Conemaugh at 2:33pm. At 2:44pm, telegraph agent Frank Deckert received the message in Johnstown and telephoned Hettie Ogle, at the Western Union office in Johnstown. At about 3:00pm, she notified the Pittsburgh office of the danger at the South Fork Dam. It would be the last message she would ever send. Postscript: In the June 14, 1889 edition of the Johnstown Tribune, Editor George T. Swank reported that he received a phone call from Ogle about the dam around 3:15pm on May 31st. Sadly, the dam had broken at 3:10pm. He wrote, "The town sat down with its hands in its pockets to make the best of a very dreary situation. All... had got out of reach of the flood that could, and there was nothing to do but wait; and what impatient waiting it was anyone who has... watched the water rising, and night coming on, can imagine..." Western Union Agent Hettie Ogle and her daughter died in the flood, their bodies never to be recovered.
5. FLOOD_160531_047.JPG: Calm Before the Storm Robert L Hunt, Altoona, Pennsylvania, 2007
6. FLOOD_160531_066.JPG: George Hetzel, Fisherman on the Conemaugh, 1887 The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club commissioned George Hetzel to produce this painting, also known as Rocky Valley and Scenes on the Connoquenessing in 1887. Wealthy industrialists from Pittsburgh including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon were members of this exclusive club that sat fourteen miles above Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The painting was commissioned to hang in the clubhouse, the gathering point for members and their families. Hetzel was the founder of the Scalp Level School, a loose affiliation of Pittsburgh based artists who specialized in landscape paintings. Club member Joseph Woodwell, a son of a prominent Pittsburgh businessman, was also part of this group of artists. Like Hetzel, he was commissioned to produce a painting for the clubhouse. Drawn to the natural beauty of the area, Hetzel spent summers in [the] later part of the 19th century painting the creeks and valleys around Johnstown. Like Hetzel, the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club had an appreciation of nature and enjoyed its solitude as an escape from city life in Pittsburgh. The painting was delivered to the club, by Hetzel personally, in July of 1887 and hung in the parlor for almost two years until May 31, 1889, when the South Fork Dam broke causing the Great Johnstown Flood. After the flood, the club abandoned the clubhouse, cottages and grounds. On February 25, 1904, at an auction of clubhouse contents, Fisherman on the Conemaugh was purchased by Johnstown native George M. Wertz. Wertz served as sheriff of Cambria County and was a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate and the US House of Representatives. Roger Hager, retired attorney and grandson of Wertz, donated Fisherman on the Conemaugh to the Johnstown Flood National Memorial in 2010.
7. FLOOD_160531_074.JPG: Historic Mineral Point Church Bell: As preparations were taking place for the 125th Anniversary of the Johnstown Flood, the Johnstown Flood National Memorial unexpectedly was honored to receive the donation of the church bell of the Mineral Point United Methodist Church. The church closed on December 29, 2013, to merge with another congregation. The historic bell has quite a connection with the Johnstown Flood. When the South Fork Dam failed, the waters of "Lake Conemaugh" coursed through South Fork, PA, and then were stopped momentarily at the Conemaugh Viaduct. When the viaduct collapsed, the water was unleashed once again with a renewed fury and then struck the town of Mineral Point. According to David McCullough, "the... water swept through in such a way that it left almost nothing to suggest that there had ever been such a place as Mineral Point." In 1890, Rev. Dr. David J. Beale, flood survivor and minister of Johnstown's First Presbyterian Church, published a book, Through the Johnstown Flood: By a Survivor. He wrote, "The pastor of the M.E. Church of that place [Mineral Point] informs me that when his church building was moved from its foundation, the bell began to toll and continued to strike a singular dirge until the edifice went to pieces." The bell was recovered in Woodvale, about eight miles west of Mineral Point. According to a 1946 newspaper article, it is said that this historic bell continued to toll as it flowed along with the rest of the flood wave on its collision course for Johnstown. The bell was reinstalled in the rebuilt church in 1890. The bell also survived a 1945 fire. The bell is now part of the collection of the Johnstown Flood National Memorial. On May 31, 2014, as part of the 125th Anniversary, the bell was run at 3:10pm, signifying the time when the South Fork Dam failed on Friday, May 31, 1889. Members of the Mineral Point church were on hand to assist with the ringing of the bell.
8. FLOOD_160531_186.JPG: The South Fork Dam: You are now standing on what remains of the South Fork Dam. Completed in 1853, the dam was made chiefly of earth. Layers of clay one-foot-thick or less were built up one by one. Each layer was covered with a skim of water, or "puddled," to help it settle and harden. Five large outlet pipes were installed under the dam to discharge water safely. Slopes were faced with stone. The dam's only inadequacy was its spillway (on the other side) which was too small. Although well-engineered for its time, years of neglect and unsound alterations had made the dam unsafe. By 1889, the water control tower had burned down, and the iron outlet pipes had been removed, making it impossible to control the lake level. Earlier breaches in the dam had been improperly filled with stone, dirt, brush, and even manure. The dam had settled and sagged at the center, inviting a washout. In addition, fish screens had reduced the capacity of the spillway to handle overflow. On May 31, 1889, under the force of rising floodwaters, the dam gave way, creating the gaping hole in front of you. From here the flood wave thundered 14 miles downstream to Johnstown, killing more than 2,200. "The dam itself, or the parts of it which were left standing, showed undoubtedly that it was well and thoroughly built...." -- American Society of Civil Engineers, January 15, 1890 The South Fork Dam 1853: Artist's conception of a cross section of the South Fork Dam in 1853, the year it was completed. By the time of the flood, the dam had changed. The control tower had burned, the outlet pipes had been scrapped, and the stone culvert had been filled in. Remains of the culvert are often visible from this viewpoint.
9. FLOOD_160531_198.JPG: The railroad tracks run at the bottom of where the lake would have been
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Wikipedia Description: Johnstown Flood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Johnstown Flood disaster (or Great Flood of 1889 as it became known locally) occurred on May 31, 1889. It was the result of the failure of the South Fork Dam situated 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA, made worse by several days of extremely heavy rainfall. The dam's failure unleashed a torrent of 20 million tons of water (18.1 million cubic meters/ 4.8 billion gallons). The flood killed over 2,200 people and produced US$17 million of damage. It was the first major disaster relief effort handled by the new American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton. Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries.

History:

Founded in 1793 by Swiss immigrant Joseph Johns, Johnstown began to prosper with the building of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal in 1836 and the arrival of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron Works in the 1850s. By 1889, Johnstown was a town of Welsh and German immigrants. With a population of 30,000, it was a growing industrial community known for the quality of its steel.

The high, steep hills of the narrow Conemaugh Valley and the Allegheny Mountains range to the east kept development close to the riverfront areas, and subjected the valley to large amounts of rain and snowfall. The area surrounding the town of Johnstown was prone to flooding due to its position at the confluence of the Stony Creek and Little Conemaugh River, forming the Conemaugh River, and to the artificial narrowing of the riverbed for the purposes of development.

South Fork Dam and Lake Conemaugh:

High in the mountains, near the small town of South Fork, the South Fork Dam was originally built between 1838 and 1853 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as part of the canal system to be used as a reservoir for the canal basin in Johnstown. It was abandoned by the commonwealth, sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad, and sold again to private inte ...More...
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2016_PA_Johnstown_FloodR: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial -- Exhibit: 125 Years of Remembering the Johnstown Flood (37 photos from 2016)
- 2016_PA_Johnstown_FloodA: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial -- 127th Anniversary (46 photos from 2016)
- 2012_PA_Johnstown_FloodC: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial -- Club (36 photos from 2012)
- 2012_PA_Johnstown_FloodA: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial -- 123rd Anniversary (53 photos from 2012)
- 2012_PA_Johnstown_Flood: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial (95 photos from 2012)
- 2009_PA_Johnstown_Flood: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial (44 photos from 2009)
- 2005_PA_Johnstown_Flood: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial (4 photos from 2005)
- 2003_PA_Johnstown_FloodC: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial -- Club (1 photo from 2003)
- 2003_PA_Johnstown_Flood: PA -- Johnstown Flood Natl Memorial (12 photos from 2003)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [History 1800s (excl wars)] [Park (National Park Service)]
2016 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Seven relatively short trips this year: two Civil War Trust conference (Gettysburg, PA and West Point, NY, with a side-trip to New York City), my 11th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Utah, Nevada, and California), a quick trip to Michigan for Uncle Wayne's funeral, two additional trips to New York City, and a Civil Rights site trip to Alabama during the November elections. Being in places where people died to preserve the rights of minority voters made the Trumputin election even more depressing. Number of photos taken this year: just over 610,000.
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