The Johnstown Flood

824 Words2 Pages

The Johnstown Flood Stained the history of the United States. Over 2000 victims died and even more injured. The flood has been blamed on many people since it happened. One group individually brought about the flood. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club made selfish changes threatening the effectiveness toward holding back a water overflow. The renovation made to the dam brought about the destruction killing many people and causing millions of dollars in damages.
On May 31, 1889 4.8 billion gallons of water rushed down the Conemaugh Valley through Johnstown from the Conemaugh Reservoir. The flood killed over 2000 people and cause over 17 million dollars in in damage (today 17 million is equivalent to about 225 million dollars.) The South Fork Dam creating the reservoir created the problem; The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania built the dam between 1838 and 1853. The Pennsylvania railroads acquired shipping priority over canals; through this Pennsylvania sold the canal and reservoir to the Pennsylvania Rail Road. Not having a need for the reservoir the Pennsylvanian rail road sold the land to speculators who wanted to build a resort. The speculators included Henry Clay Frick, Benjamin Ruff, and Andrew Carnegie. These men built a very exclusive resort and named it The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. At one point the club became known as the most exclusive club in The United States. Included in the building of the resort Frick wanted the dam to be lowered to allow for a road to be built on top. Lower dams could not hold excess water just in case the reservoir flooded.
Dams made from dirt are very weak and the South Fork dam was built entirely with dirt. From an engineering standpoint dams made with dirt needed to be built ...

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...t legally have to pay any money to damages from the flood; it was seen as an act of God. Despite this many club members gave money to aid the relief including Andrew Carnegie who donated a new library. () The high number of members caused the case to have a hard time finding evidence for a member behaving negligently. After these court cases the United States Adopted the Ryland which held a non-negligent liable for the damage caused by lands being unnaturally used. The case at this point never became revisited but should have been to achieve some closer for the victims.

Hendrick, Burten. Life of Andrew Carnegie. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co, 1932. Print.
McCullough, David. The Johnstown Flood. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968. Print.
Shappee, Nathan. The History Of Johnstown and the Great Flood of 1889. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg, 1940. Print.

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