When the water was "up" in the spring, the lake covered over 400 acres (1.6 km²). The lake had a perimeter of 7 miles (11 km) to hold 20 million tons of water. The lake was about two miles (3 km) long, approximately one mile (1.6 km) wide, and 60 feet (18 m) deep near the dam. Lake Conemaugh at the club's site was 450 feet (137 m) in elevation above Johnstown. Members of the exclusive and secretive retreat in the mountains were over 50 wealthy Pittsburgh steel, coal, and railroad industrialists, including Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, Philander Knox, and Robert Pitcairn. Speculators had purchased the abandoned reservoir, made less than well engineered repairs to the old dam, raised the lake level, built cottages and a clubhouse, and created the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. It was abandoned by the state, sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad, and sold again to private interests. High in the mountains, near the small town of South Fork, the South Fork Dam was originally built between 18 by the State of Pennsylvania as part of the canal system to be used as a reservoir for the canal basin in Johnstown. The residents of Johnstown were accustomed to floods, but nothing like the events of May 1889 had ever occurred in anyone's memory. Major floods occurred in seven of the nine years between 18. Damaging floods followed at least once a decade until the 1880s. The first flood recorded by European settlers at Johnstown occurred in 1808. The area surrounding the town of Johnstown was already prone to flooding due to its positioning on the confluence of the Stony Creek and Little Conemaugh River, forming the Conemaugh River and due to the artificial straightening of these rivers for the purposes of development. The high, steep hills of the narrow Conemaugh Valley and the Allegheny Mountains range to the east have historically forced development close to the riverfront areas, and subjected the valley to large amounts of rain and snowfall. With a population of 30,000, it was a growing and industrious community known for the quality of its steel. By 1889, Johnstown was a town of Welsh and German immigrants.
Johnstown, Pennsylvania: a history of floodingįounded in 1794, Johnstown began to prosper with the building of the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal in 1834 and the arrival of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron Company in the 1850's.
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