On May 31, 1889, an earthen dam above South Fork collapsed and sent a massive flood down the already swollen Little Conemaugh River valley. In fifty-seven minutes, water from Lake Conemaugh traveled fourteen miles toward Johnstown, at times forming a wall seventy to seventy-five feet high and reaching speeds of forty miles per hour. Entire communities were ruined in less than an hour, 2,209 people died, and about 27,000 were left homeless. Johnstown, founded in 1794, had grown into a steel town of Germans and Welsh, prospering after the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal was built in 1834 and after the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron Company arrived in the 1850s. The reservoir above the valley had originally been built to supply the canal, but after the railroad made the canal obsolete, the dam was abandoned, deteriorated, and was bought in 1879 by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club for use as a summer retreat. Many people in the valley worried about the dam's age and condition, and warnings reached Johnstown three times before it failed, but the dam had always held during high water. When it gave way at 3:15 p.m., telegraph lines were already down, no further warnings arrived, and the flood struck Johnstown just fifty-seven minutes later. The disaster brought together human progress, human complacence, human error, and a terrible rainstorm, and almost every family in the valley was affected.

East Taylor, Pennsylvania · USA