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Remainder of news story - 2005-02-22 21:43:47 One of the most haunting cemetaries I've ever seen is Grandview Cemetary in Johnstown, PA. Dedicated just a year or so before the great flood, there is an Arlington-like memorial to the unidentified victims, along with the "real" graves of many (over 2,000 people were killed at a time when the population was roughly 10,000). They're high up on a hill, never to have to endure flood waters again. The above article reminds me of it, I guess because the cemetary is described as being surrounded by hills.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-23 09:01:48 1 in 5 people killed?! Wow. I find it poignant that the victims were buried on a hill, far from the raging waters. Yes, Highland is very hilly and quite beautiful. There's a vista into a deep grassy valley in back, with a trail wending down to...somewhere, I've never explored it yet, and there are looping paths throughout the cemetery. Very peaceful and pretty. * * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-23 13:21:43 Yes, until Sept. 11, the Johnsontown flood (in the late 1890s) was the greatest loss of civilian life in a single day that this country has ever seen... All because of some Pittsburgh robber barons and their careless subsversion of a dam on their hunting club property in the hills above the city. I found the idea of burying the dead on high ground poignant, too. I just looked it up on the web -- the memorial is for the unidentified dead -- 700 in total. The bridge in the center of town ended up functioning as a dam as the floodwaters washed houses, people, train cars, etc. down the valley, the bridge held. Everything then collided with the bridge, collected there, and caught fire. It was a terrible, terrible disaster. That's where a lot of the unidentified bodies were eventually found. The museum website has a few survivor anecdotes. One woman sought refuge in an attic with her seven children and was forced to watch as each of the seven drowned. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-23 13:25:54 My goodness--I didn't know about that flood at all. I recently read a book called Rising Tide, a thrilling account of battling the whims of the Mississippi in a terrible 1920s flood, but I hadn't heard about the Johnsontown flood. Anna, do you mean the barons damaged the dam in some way? I'll have to look up more info on this historical event this evening, but thank you for bringing it to my attention. Very tragic.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-23 13:38:46 Here's a link to a picture of the memorial: http://www.westsylvania.com/cfm/attractions_detail.cfm?asset_id=34935 (sorry, I'm too lazy for html, plus, I should be working but this is more interesting). The club members included Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie, both of whom had homes on the man-made lake. The South Fork dam was originally created for a canal, but the canal either never worked out, or the company went out of business. Sometime between when it stopped being used as a retaining lake for the canal system and when the property was bought by the hunt club, the structure began to be undermined when the drain holes that relieved pressure on the dam were plugged up. The people who originally made that move accordingly lowered the height of the dam wall so that there wasn't too much weight for the dam to hold. The property was then bought as a get-away for the wealthy. The hunting club did some work on the dam to make it higher without re-adding the discharge system. This caused a dangerous strain on the dam. Then, when there was a serious rain, the dam gave way and sent all of the water rushing into the valley, which is surrounded by mountains on all sides. The mountains essentially acted, along with the bridge span clogged with debris, as a gigantic lake, with the city of Johnstown right at the bottom. At least that's my memory (it's been a while since I have heard the whole story).* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-23 13:40:17 Incidentally, Clara Barton & the new Red Cross ministered to their first major domestic disaster at Johnstown.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-23 13:44:53 Oh, my, how awful. I suppose the club wanted a bigger lake and so to heck with the cautious lowering-work done by the former dam maintainers. On a less serious level, this awful story reminds me just a little of the acclaimed recent movie North Fork, which I did want badly to see but missed. * * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2005-02-23 14:19:51 I wonder if the movie title is a conscious echo of the Johnstown disaster -- since the dam was called the "South Fork Dam"... I'll have to check it out.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2005-02-23 14:25:16 Ooh, that's weird. That sounds too likely not to be true. It seems particularly likely since the movie was set in that era: last bit of 19th century. [mini-review]: "North Fork (Michael Polish, 2003), a haunting, moody tale about a town about to be drowned by a dam, that luxuriates in what the New York Times calls the �lyrical, wonder-cabinet mysticism of the movie�s approach to the American past.�* * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: |