The South Fork Dam was a 931-foot-long dam made chiefly of earth, and although its ends remained intact where they joined the sides of the valley, a 300-foot section at its center disappeared when the waters of Lake Conemaugh roared through on May 31, 1889. On that rainy morning, Col. Elias J. Unger, president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, began supervising efforts to save the dam. Living in the house beside this exhibit, he and some 15 laborers first tried to dig an auxiliary spillway on the far end of the dam, then tried to raise the dam by plowing its crest and piling up the dirt. Nothing worked. At 3:15 p.m., the dam gave way, and the center seemed to “melt away” under the force of the flood as, in the words of one witness, “the entire lake began to move.”

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Croyle, Pennsylvania · USA