Johnstown Flood National Memorial natural resource condition assessment

Yetter, Susan; Bishop, Joseph; Hurteau, Sarah; Chamberlain, Sarah; Nassry, Machael; Ingram, Hannah; Brooks, Robert

Background and Context Johnstown Flood National Memorial (JOFL) is located in Cambria County in southwestern Pennsylvania. The park commemorates the tragic Johnstown flood of May 31, 1889 and preserves the remains of the South Fork Dam and portions of the Lake Conemaugh bed, as well as historic structures associated with the Johnstown flood. The South Fork Dam was originally constructed as a water source for the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal. Advances in railroad technology soon made the dam obsolete, it fell into disrepair and was later bought by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club who restored the dam and turned it into Lake Conemaugh, complete with stocked fish and resort houses along the shore to serve Pittsburgh industrialists, bankers, lawyers, and others who amassed great wealth during the Industrial Revolution. Farther downstream, Johnstown, housed the coal, iron, and steel factories, as well its workers and their families. Settled between two rivers with abundant natural resources in the surrounding hills, Johnstown owed much of its growth to its location. Unfortunately, the low-lying area and steep, narrow valley upstream also made the town prone to flooding. This coupled with the dam’s history of neglect and improper management caused Lake Conemaugh to rise to unprecedented levels during a period of heavy rains. Through the course of the morning and afternoon of May 31, 1889, the club’s president Colonel Elias Unger coordinated several unsuccessful attempts to prevent flooding and sent numerous warnings to the residents of Johnstown, all of which went unheeded. The South Fork Dam failed at ~3:10 p.m. sending a huge flood wave down the narrow valley and devastating anything in its path. By the time it reached Johnstown the flood wave was amass with houses, trees, railcars and other debris, which piled up at the stone bridge on the Conemaugh River. By nightfall, fuel leaking from the debris was ignited and the massive inferno became a death trap for the people inside. The final deathtoll from the flood was estimated at 2,209 people. The disaster horrified the nation, and newspaper coverage, photographs, songs, and other paraphernalia surfaced to both pay homage to the tragic loss but also to debate the classic conflict of man versus nature and ask the question of how it could possibly have been prevented. Johnstown Flood was designated a National Memorial on August 31, 1964 in order to commemorate the great loss of lives taken along the 15-mile flood path and instill the significance of the complex social and environmental factors that led to the destruction of the dam. The park is small, stretching across 178 acres and includes 1) the ruins of the South Fork Dam, 2) a small portion of the former lakebed, 3) the remains of South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club District, and 4) the Unger Farm, which includes the Unger House, the visitor center, the springhouse ruins, and the surrounding fields and orchard on the hillside above the dam. In addition, JOFL is significant in portraying the great sense of loss and providing visitors with a unique view of life before and after the flood through the museum collection of historical objects, the Clarke photo collection portraying life on the lake before the flood, the Morgue book containing a master list and descriptions of the deceased, and other archival collections.

Johnstown Flood National Memorial natural resource condition assessment

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