REMEMBERING the JOHNSTOWN FLOOD, LEST WE FORGET

The gravestones in the Unknown Plot at Grandview Cemetery are without names…only numbers, marking unidentifiable people, most of whom died in a space of about 20 minutes when more than 20 million tons of water and tangled debris, accumulated over the course of a 14-mile descent down the mountain, came crashing down on the good people of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Outside of September 11, 2001, it’s the worst man-made disaster in American history, yet relatively few people even know it ever happened. To be sure, it didn’t help that unprecedented rains covered the area the night before, but as events would unfold, the world would come to understand that this was more than a natural disaster.

It’s hard to imagine that 2,209 people perished on the Friday afternoon of May 31, 1889, all in the path of the enormous wave that most had no idea was coming. Oh sure…many worried about the great earthen dam up the mountain, but most thought it could never happen…not to them anyway. In fact, just the day before, the downtown streets of Johnstown were chock-full of people taking in the Memorial Day parades.

It would be a half-dozen years before Johnstown began to resemble itself again. After the initial shock, anger took hold of the Johnstown residents. They knew that this was more than Mother Nature. But while lawsuits bubbled up over the years here and there, no one, or no entity, was ever held responsible for the Johnstown Flood. Carnegie, on his own dime, built a new library where the old one once stood. The Carnegie Public Library, finished in 1892, is now the home of the Johnstown Flood Museum, open daily. The Johnstown Flood National Memorial, operated by the National Park Service, offers a great view of where Lake Conemaugh once lived. The break in the dam, separated by two abutments that visitors can walk out to, provides further perspective on what happened up there in the mountains on that terrible day. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club is still there, and stands in a small town that became St. Michael. Some of the cottages, once occupied by members of the club, also survive.

The graves in the Unknown Plot are marked by numbers; there are no names. No. 25: Unknown female, about 15 years. No. 17: Unknown. Man about 50 years. Short hair, smooth face. No. 66: Small child, about one year.

Lest We Forget...