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The Johnstown Flood
At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.
Graced by David McCullough's remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in nineteenth-century America, of overweening confidence, of energy, and of tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.
302 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
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23331 people want to read
About the author
David McCullough
97 books11.3k followersDavid McCullough was a Yale-educated, two-time recipient of both the Pulitzer Prize (Truman; John Adams) and the National Book Award (The Path Between the Seas; Mornings on Horseback). His many other highly-acclaimed works of historical non-fiction include The Greater Journey, 1776, Brave Companions, The Great Bridge, The Wright Brothers, and The Johnstown Flood. He was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the National Humanities Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in addition to many other awards and honors. Mr. McCullough lived in Boston, Mass.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,221 reviews
September 23, 2022
*2209 - killed
*750 - unidentified dead
*99- families totally wiped out
*1600- homes destroyed
These are just a few of the horrific statistics resultant from the Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889 which is one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history. My favorite historian, David McCullough, provides a complete description of the event, beginning with the biggest storm in the area's history on May 30 to the aftermath which took years of recovery.
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a steel town, was located in a valley fourteen miles below an earthen dam erected by the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, a private retreat for the wealthy from nearby Pittsburgh. The club had dammed the area on the mountain to create a large lake for their recreational pleasure and repairs were done periodically as the dam was not structurally sound. The people of Johnstown were in constant fear that the dam would break and when the huge rain storm of May 30 struck the area, their fears became reality. A mountain of water approximately 45 feet high thundered down the valley and Johnstown was doomed.
There is so much in this book that it is impossible to give it justice in a review........the loss of families, unbelievable rescues, miraculous escapes, bravery, blame, and the aftermath of the flood. McCullough has done amazing research and, as with all his books, the descriptions will grip the reader. I highly recommend this amazing book.
Note: The GR page indicates that I have read this book twice, which I have not.
*750 - unidentified dead
*99- families totally wiped out
*1600- homes destroyed
These are just a few of the horrific statistics resultant from the Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889 which is one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history. My favorite historian, David McCullough, provides a complete description of the event, beginning with the biggest storm in the area's history on May 30 to the aftermath which took years of recovery.
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a steel town, was located in a valley fourteen miles below an earthen dam erected by the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, a private retreat for the wealthy from nearby Pittsburgh. The club had dammed the area on the mountain to create a large lake for their recreational pleasure and repairs were done periodically as the dam was not structurally sound. The people of Johnstown were in constant fear that the dam would break and when the huge rain storm of May 30 struck the area, their fears became reality. A mountain of water approximately 45 feet high thundered down the valley and Johnstown was doomed.
There is so much in this book that it is impossible to give it justice in a review........the loss of families, unbelievable rescues, miraculous escapes, bravery, blame, and the aftermath of the flood. McCullough has done amazing research and, as with all his books, the descriptions will grip the reader. I highly recommend this amazing book.
Note: The GR page indicates that I have read this book twice, which I have not.
March 28, 2016
"The Johnstown Flood (or Great Flood of 1889 as it became known locally) occurred on May 31, 1889. It was the result of the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam situated on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA, made worse by several days of extremely heavy rainfall. The dam's failure unleashed a torrent of 20 million tons of water (4.8 billion U.S. gallons; 18.2 million cubic meters; 18.2 billion litres) from the reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh. With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equalled that of the Mississippi River,[2] the flood killed 2,209 people[3] and caused US$17 million of damage (the equivalent of about $425 million in 2012 dollars)." - Wikipedia.
Those are the facts and figures. In The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough gives you all as well as the heart and soul of this heinous catastrophe.
Behind the numbers and stats, and even the human tragedy, there is an evil lurking here. This horror probably wouldn't have happened if not for a "let them eat cake" attitude by an elite few who wanted to maintain their Summer-fun pleasure palaces on a dammed lake perched precariously above a small town in a narrow valley below.
The book on the whole reads like a newspaper feature article or Op-Ed piece that comes out a few weeks after a contentious event where more questions than answers arise after the dust settles. It posits hypotheticals, wondering aloud all the what-ifs the public has been asking.
These days your average joe would be hard pressed to give correct details on the Johnstown Flood. The event is fading into memory as time passes and other tragedies occur. McCullough, who excels at these history snippets (See, this and his 1776 for proof. I highly recommend both,) does an excellent job of recreating the scene, dredging up the past and hosing it off to look, smell, sound and feel as fresh and as horrid as the day it happened.
Those are the facts and figures. In The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough gives you all as well as the heart and soul of this heinous catastrophe.
Behind the numbers and stats, and even the human tragedy, there is an evil lurking here. This horror probably wouldn't have happened if not for a "let them eat cake" attitude by an elite few who wanted to maintain their Summer-fun pleasure palaces on a dammed lake perched precariously above a small town in a narrow valley below.
The book on the whole reads like a newspaper feature article or Op-Ed piece that comes out a few weeks after a contentious event where more questions than answers arise after the dust settles. It posits hypotheticals, wondering aloud all the what-ifs the public has been asking.
These days your average joe would be hard pressed to give correct details on the Johnstown Flood. The event is fading into memory as time passes and other tragedies occur. McCullough, who excels at these history snippets (See, this and his 1776 for proof. I highly recommend both,) does an excellent job of recreating the scene, dredging up the past and hosing it off to look, smell, sound and feel as fresh and as horrid as the day it happened.
February 7, 2017
What a magnificent story of impending doom, all that could be easily avoided were it not for human greed and lack of caring about the "working person" by 19th-century capitalists that built the dam and the mills as well as the managers than ran the town's industry as well as the town itself. An excellent museum of the flood is in Johnstown, too, with a chilling electronic diorama of the disaster as it unfolded. One of my best friends is now a sociologist teaching at UP-Johnstown, where his dissertation on the deindustrialization of the steel industry earned him an interview in the early days of academic positions starting to be hard to come by, and he cinched it! Many of his students are sympathetic to his most radical critique of society as their parents and grandparents had lost those steel mill jobs that were, as typical, replaced by "McJobs" - low income, few/no benefits or security, etc..
December 27, 2024
David McCullough did incredible research to write The Johnstown Flood. On May, 31, 1889, Memorial Day, an earthen dam broke and killed over 2,000 people in and around Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Similar to other tragedies, there were many opinions before the disaster on whether the dam was safe. Once trouble was apparent, the ability to communicate the potential for disaster was severely hampered.
Once the tragic event occurred, news reporters and photographers descended upon Johnstown and many “facts” were not verified before being published.
Interesting, insightful book with leadership lessons and errors that unfortunately have been repeated with other disasters.
Similar to other tragedies, there were many opinions before the disaster on whether the dam was safe. Once trouble was apparent, the ability to communicate the potential for disaster was severely hampered.
Once the tragic event occurred, news reporters and photographers descended upon Johnstown and many “facts” were not verified before being published.
Interesting, insightful book with leadership lessons and errors that unfortunately have been repeated with other disasters.
July 21, 2020
First book by a fine historical author. It is a good recounting of the famous Johnstown, PA flood in 1889. Way to many names and details and recounting of the same thing over and over again. A good book but not an easy book to read due to a laborious style. I have a lot of his books and can only hope that he gets better at a narrative story style. He does lay out the problem with the dam in Johnstown, as well as those probably responsible for the dam failure -the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, whose members are a Who's Who of Gilded Age elites. And yet, the main culprit was the weather and the sheer amount of rain that came down, coupled with bad timber management, a poor rebuild of the damn, and South Fork's rather casual lack of concern with the problem that had been growing for years. Total devastation and I was living back home in PA when the 2nd Johnstown Flood occurred in 1977 and despite all the new engineering that went into making sure the 1889 flood would not happen again, Mother Nature and the topography of the land just cannot seem to stop flooding there. Informative book, but I wonder if in later years the author might have written a more easily readable book.
July 20, 2013
This book should be read by every American. Every human. I don't really say that often, but this book is incredibly important. McCullough is an absolute treasure. He tells this story with such detail and authenticity, and yet makes it compelling, harrowing even, and utterly human. He is objective and fair, and thorough without slipping into tedium. The parallels to the Katrina disaster are haunting, beyond just the natural disaster and flooding elements. The socio-economic disparities that marked the line between who died and who didn't, the regular warnings ignored by the populace because of their yearly repetition without any actual events, and the response of the nation of generosity and outrage. This book, written in 1968 about events in 1889, is proof that we are repeating the history we haven't learned.
May 23, 2024
― “Most of the people in Johnstown never saw the water coming; they only heard it; and those who lived to tell about it would for years after try to describe the sound of the thing as it rushed on them.”
― David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood
Home to extremely diverse climates, the United States is highly vulnerable to a wide range of natural disasters. Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and blizzards can take lives, cause enormous damage, and destroy the infrastructure of communities. Who can forget the wildfire that destroyed Paradise California in 2018 or the massive destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina? The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is estimated to have taken the lives of between 6,000 and 12,000 fatalities. The United States sees an average of 800 tornadoes each year; 75 percent of the world’s tornadoes occur in the United States.
The city of Johnstown had been built into a river valley on the Appalachian Plateau of southwestern Pennsylvania. The Little Conemaugh and the Stony Creek Rivers, which merged to form the Conemaugh River at the western end, drained a large watershed into the rivers from mountains above. At least once a year, one or both of the rivers overflowed into the streets sending the town’s residents scurrying to protect what they could of their homes and belongings.
Floods were a fact of life for residents of this community in the nineteenth century. Some of these floods were caused when heavy snows melted too quickly in the spring. Other floods could be caused at any time of the year whenever a heavy rain fell over the area. When heavy rains fell in the late afternoon of May 31, 1889, people were gathered in the upper stories of their homes, waiting out the worst of it, just as they had done many times before.
As residents of Johnstown prepared for their long wait, there was activity at the South Fork dam just 14 miles above the town. The earthen dam held back Lake Conemaugh, the pleasure lake created by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, a prestigious club which included such famous men as Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon. Those who were at the dam feared the dam would fail and were working frantically to prevent it. Their fears were justified; the dam contained 20 million tons of water before it finally gave way.
― “The water charged into the valley at a velocity and depth comparable to that of the Niagara River as it reaches Niagara Falls. Or to put it another way, the bursting of the South Fork dam was about like turning Niagara Falls into the valley for thirty-six minutes.”
― David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood
When the dam finally gave way, a great wave of water measuring 35-40 feet high rushed down the valley uprooting trees and demolishing houses and businesses in its path. By the time the wall of water hit Johnstown, residents could not even see the water for all the debris it contained. Later, residents would see homes and roofs floating past them, sometimes with people on top of the debris.
The force of the flood swept several locomotives weighing 170,000 pounds as far as 4,800 feet. Several bridges were washed out, but when the debris reached the Railroad Company’s Stone Bridge, debris piled up 40 feet high and over 30 acres. Perhaps sparked by hot coals from stove, the debris caught fire and burned for weeks. Four square miles of downtown Johnstown were destroyed.
Given the number of visitors in the area at the time of the flood, it was impossible to determine an accurate death toll. The official death toll was 2,209; many bodies were never found. The flood took the lives of approximately 100 entire families. More than 300 men and women were widowed. At least 1,600 homes were destroyed. The cleanup took more than 5 years.
News of the catastrophe spread across the nation and around the world. Nearly $4 million (approximately $130 million in today’s dollars) was collected for the Johnstown relief effort within the U.S. and foreign countries. Clara Barton of the newly organized American Red Cross, arrived in Johnstown with a team of 50 doctors and nurses on June 5, 1889. It was the first major peacetime disaster relief effort for the Red Cross.
While some readers might find it difficult to read about tragedies such as this, I find that stories such as these increase my capacity for empathy. David McCullough does an excellent job of describing the events of this tragic day and its impact on the lives of those affected.
― David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood
Home to extremely diverse climates, the United States is highly vulnerable to a wide range of natural disasters. Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and blizzards can take lives, cause enormous damage, and destroy the infrastructure of communities. Who can forget the wildfire that destroyed Paradise California in 2018 or the massive destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina? The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is estimated to have taken the lives of between 6,000 and 12,000 fatalities. The United States sees an average of 800 tornadoes each year; 75 percent of the world’s tornadoes occur in the United States.
The city of Johnstown had been built into a river valley on the Appalachian Plateau of southwestern Pennsylvania. The Little Conemaugh and the Stony Creek Rivers, which merged to form the Conemaugh River at the western end, drained a large watershed into the rivers from mountains above. At least once a year, one or both of the rivers overflowed into the streets sending the town’s residents scurrying to protect what they could of their homes and belongings.
Floods were a fact of life for residents of this community in the nineteenth century. Some of these floods were caused when heavy snows melted too quickly in the spring. Other floods could be caused at any time of the year whenever a heavy rain fell over the area. When heavy rains fell in the late afternoon of May 31, 1889, people were gathered in the upper stories of their homes, waiting out the worst of it, just as they had done many times before.
As residents of Johnstown prepared for their long wait, there was activity at the South Fork dam just 14 miles above the town. The earthen dam held back Lake Conemaugh, the pleasure lake created by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, a prestigious club which included such famous men as Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon. Those who were at the dam feared the dam would fail and were working frantically to prevent it. Their fears were justified; the dam contained 20 million tons of water before it finally gave way.
― “The water charged into the valley at a velocity and depth comparable to that of the Niagara River as it reaches Niagara Falls. Or to put it another way, the bursting of the South Fork dam was about like turning Niagara Falls into the valley for thirty-six minutes.”
― David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood
When the dam finally gave way, a great wave of water measuring 35-40 feet high rushed down the valley uprooting trees and demolishing houses and businesses in its path. By the time the wall of water hit Johnstown, residents could not even see the water for all the debris it contained. Later, residents would see homes and roofs floating past them, sometimes with people on top of the debris.
The force of the flood swept several locomotives weighing 170,000 pounds as far as 4,800 feet. Several bridges were washed out, but when the debris reached the Railroad Company’s Stone Bridge, debris piled up 40 feet high and over 30 acres. Perhaps sparked by hot coals from stove, the debris caught fire and burned for weeks. Four square miles of downtown Johnstown were destroyed.
Given the number of visitors in the area at the time of the flood, it was impossible to determine an accurate death toll. The official death toll was 2,209; many bodies were never found. The flood took the lives of approximately 100 entire families. More than 300 men and women were widowed. At least 1,600 homes were destroyed. The cleanup took more than 5 years.
News of the catastrophe spread across the nation and around the world. Nearly $4 million (approximately $130 million in today’s dollars) was collected for the Johnstown relief effort within the U.S. and foreign countries. Clara Barton of the newly organized American Red Cross, arrived in Johnstown with a team of 50 doctors and nurses on June 5, 1889. It was the first major peacetime disaster relief effort for the Red Cross.
While some readers might find it difficult to read about tragedies such as this, I find that stories such as these increase my capacity for empathy. David McCullough does an excellent job of describing the events of this tragic day and its impact on the lives of those affected.
September 13, 2016
Please read the GR book description. I will not repeat what is there. It is to the point and absolutely correct concerning the book's content, the author's manner of writing and what future generations should take note of. Look at the last sentence one more time:
“It (the flood) also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.”
In my view this sentence could be improved upon. We, as citizens and thinking individuals, must not shirk out own responsibilities; it is up to each and every one of us to ensure that adequate precautions and sound decisions are made. If something goes wrong it is inexcusable to blame others with the excuse “it’s their job" or "they should have taken care of that"! It is our job to see that those in power perform their jobs correctly or have them removed! In addition, when humans take actions affecting forces of nature we must take careful forethought. This is stated in the book and needs to be emphasized.
The book is thorough, but easy to follow. It never becomes dry. Dates and figures are interestingly woven into the telling. McCullough gives the necessary background information so a reader can understand the events accurately, concluding with a balanced analysis of who was at fault. Those who suffered, those who died (the accepted death count is set at over 2209 individuals) are drawn in such a way that one empathizes. One is given enough personal details so one can do this. The danger is that when one reads about a calamity involving many people those who suffer become a mass with whom one cannot identify with. This does not happen here. One gets both the clear facts and one feels compassion.
I particularly liked that McCullough points out the inaccuracies of what has been told before. The calamity has become a legend and erroneous claims have been made.
I can very much recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Edward Hermann. He simply reads the lines in a clear and factual manner with an excellent speed. No dramatization, which is fine by me. The facts and sequence of events are riveting in themselves. Hermann reads with a tone that shows his own interest. When one listens rather than reads one has no map, but such is easily accessible on internet. Here are two:
1. http://images.google.fr/imgres?imgurl...
2. http://images.google.fr/imgres?imgurl...
Another very good book by McCullough. I have no complaints. I thoroughly enjoy McCullough’s way of writing. He has a whole team of employees helping him with each book. This doesn’t bother me in the least. His name stands on the cover and he is responsible for the final result. I have given it four rather than five stars simply because I prefer biographies more than a book about an event.
John Adams 5 stars
Truman 5 stars
Mornings on Horseback 5 stars
The Wright Brothers 4 stars
“It (the flood) also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.”
In my view this sentence could be improved upon. We, as citizens and thinking individuals, must not shirk out own responsibilities; it is up to each and every one of us to ensure that adequate precautions and sound decisions are made. If something goes wrong it is inexcusable to blame others with the excuse “it’s their job" or "they should have taken care of that"! It is our job to see that those in power perform their jobs correctly or have them removed! In addition, when humans take actions affecting forces of nature we must take careful forethought. This is stated in the book and needs to be emphasized.
The book is thorough, but easy to follow. It never becomes dry. Dates and figures are interestingly woven into the telling. McCullough gives the necessary background information so a reader can understand the events accurately, concluding with a balanced analysis of who was at fault. Those who suffered, those who died (the accepted death count is set at over 2209 individuals) are drawn in such a way that one empathizes. One is given enough personal details so one can do this. The danger is that when one reads about a calamity involving many people those who suffer become a mass with whom one cannot identify with. This does not happen here. One gets both the clear facts and one feels compassion.
I particularly liked that McCullough points out the inaccuracies of what has been told before. The calamity has become a legend and erroneous claims have been made.
I can very much recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Edward Hermann. He simply reads the lines in a clear and factual manner with an excellent speed. No dramatization, which is fine by me. The facts and sequence of events are riveting in themselves. Hermann reads with a tone that shows his own interest. When one listens rather than reads one has no map, but such is easily accessible on internet. Here are two:
1. http://images.google.fr/imgres?imgurl...
2. http://images.google.fr/imgres?imgurl...
Another very good book by McCullough. I have no complaints. I thoroughly enjoy McCullough’s way of writing. He has a whole team of employees helping him with each book. This doesn’t bother me in the least. His name stands on the cover and he is responsible for the final result. I have given it four rather than five stars simply because I prefer biographies more than a book about an event.
John Adams 5 stars
Truman 5 stars
Mornings on Horseback 5 stars
The Wright Brothers 4 stars
December 5, 2018
WOW - what a book. I really liked it though it was extremely difficult to read.
The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water. With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled the average flow rate of the Mississippi River, 2,209 people, according to one account, lost their lives, and the flood accounted for US$17 million of damage--about $463 million in 2017 dollars.
The American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton and with 50 volunteers, undertook a major disaster relief effort. Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries. After the flood, survivors suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam's owners. Public indignation at that failure prompted the development in American law changing a fault-based regime to strict liability.
On May 28, 1889, a low-pressure area formed over Nebraska and Kansas. By the time this weather pattern reached western Pennsylvania two days later, it had developed into what would be termed the heaviest rainfall event that had ever been recorded in that part of the United States. The U.S. Army Signal Corps estimated that 6 to 10 inches (150 to 250 mm) of rain fell in 24 hours over the region.[10] During the night, small creeks became roaring torrents, ripping out trees and debris. Telegraph lines were downed and rail lines were washed away. Before daybreak, the Conemaugh River that ran through Johnstown was about to overwhelm its banks.
On the morning of May 31, in a farmhouse on a hill just above the South Fork Dam, Elias Unger, president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, awoke to the sight of Lake Conemaugh swollen after a night-long heavy rainfall. Unger ran outside in the still-pouring rain to assess the situation and saw that the water was nearly cresting the dam. He quickly assembled a group of men to save the face of the dam by trying to unclog the spillway; it was blocked by the broken fish trap and debris caused by the swollen waterline. Other men tried digging a ditch at the other end of the dam, on the western abutment which was lower than the dam crest. The idea was to let more water out of the lake to try to prevent overtopping of the crest, but without success. Most remained on top of the dam, some plowing earth to raise it, while others tried to pile mud and rock on the face to save the eroding wall.
John Parke, an engineer for the South Fork Club, briefly considered cutting through the dam's end, where the pressure would be less, but decided against it as that would have ensured failure of the dam. Twice, under orders from Unger, Parke rode on horseback to the nearby town of South Fork to the telegraph office to send warnings to Johnstown explaining the critical nature of the eroding dam. But the warnings were not passed to the authorities in town, as there had been many false alarms in the past of the South Fork Dam not holding against flooding. Unger, Parke, and the rest of the men continued working until exhausted to save the face of the dam; they abandoned their efforts at around 1:30 p.m., fearing that their efforts were futile and the dam was at risk of imminent collapse. Unger ordered all of his men to fall back to high ground on both sides of the dam where they could do nothing but wait. During the day in Johnstown, the situation worsened as water rose to as high as 10 feet (3.0 m) in the streets, trapping some people in their houses.
Between 2:50 and 2:55 p.m. the South Fork Dam breached.[13] A LiDAR analysis of the Conemaugh Lake basin reveals that it contained 14.55 million cubic meters (3.843 billion gallons) of water at the moment the dam collapsed. Modern dam-breach computer modeling reveals that it took approximately 65 minutes for most of the lake to empty after the dam began to fail. The first town to be hit by the flood was South Fork. The town was on high ground, and most of the people escaped by running up the nearby hills when they saw the dam spill over. Some 20 to 30 houses were destroyed or washed away, and four people were killed.
Continuing on its way downstream to Johnstown, 14 miles (23 km) west, the water picked up debris, such as trees, houses, and animals. At the Conemaugh Viaduct, a 78-foot (24 m) high railroad bridge, the flood was momentarily stemmed when this debris jammed against the stone bridge's arch. But within seven minutes, the viaduct collapsed, allowing the flood to resume its course. However, owing to the delay at the stone arch, the flood waters gained renewed hydraulic head, resulting in a stronger, more abrupt wave of water hitting places downstream than otherwise would have been expected. The small town of Mineral Point, one mile (1.6 km) below the Conemaugh Viaduct, was the first populated place to be hit with this renewed force. About 30 families lived on the village's single street. After the flood, there were no structures, no topsoil, no sub-soil – only the bedrock was left. The death toll here was approximately 16 people. In 2009, studies showed that the flood's flow rate through the narrow valley exceeded 420,000 cubic feet per second (12,000 m3/s), comparable to the flow rate of the Mississippi River at its delta, which varies between 250,000 and 710,000 cu ft/s (7,000 and 20,000 m3/s).
The village of East Conemaugh was next. One witness on high ground near the town described the water as almost obscured by debris, resembling "a huge hill rolling over and over".[14] From his idle locomotive in the town's railyard, the engineer John Hess heard and felt the rumbling of the approaching flood. Throwing his locomotive into reverse, Hess raced backward toward East Conemaugh, the whistle blowing constantly. His warning saved many people who reached high ground. When the flood hit, it picked up the locomotive and floated it aside; Hess himself survived, but at least 50 people died, including about 25 passengers stranded on trains in the town.
Before hitting the main part of Johnstown, the flood surge hit the Cambria Iron Works at the town of Woodvale, sweeping up railroad cars and barbed wire in its moil. Of Woodvale's 1,100 residents, 314 died in the flood. Boilers exploded when the flood hit the Gautier Wire Works, causing black smoke seen by the Johnstown residents. Miles of its barbed wire became entangled in the debris in the flood waters.
Some 57 minutes after the South Fork Dam collapsed, the flood hit Johnstown. The residents were caught by surprise as the wall of water and debris bore down, traveling at 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) and reaching a height of 60 feet (18 m) in places. Some people, realizing the danger, tried to escape by running towards high ground but most people were hit by the surging floodwater. Many people were crushed by pieces of debris, and others became caught in barbed wire from the wire factory upstream and/or drowned. Those who reached attics, or managed to stay afloat on pieces of floating debris, waited hours for help to arrive.
A contemporary rendition of the scene at the Stone Bridge (1890)
At Johnstown, the Stone Bridge, which was a substantial arched structure, carried the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Conemaugh River. The debris carried by the flood formed a temporary dam at the bridge, resulting in the flood surge rolling upstream along the Stoney Creek River. Eventually, gravity caused the surge to return to the dam, causing a second wave to hit the city, but from a different direction. Some people who had been washed downstream became trapped in an inferno as the debris piled up against the Stone Bridge caught fire; at least 80 people died there. The fire at the Stone Bridge burned for three days. After floodwaters receded, the pile of debris at the bridge was seen to cover 30 acres, and reached 70 feet (21 m) in height. It took workers three months to remove the mass of debris, the delay owing in part to the huge quantity of steel barbed wire from the ironworks. Dynamite was eventually used. Still standing and in use as a railroad bridge, the Stone Bridge is a landmark associated with survival and recovery from the flood. In 2008, it was restored in a project including new lighting as part of commemorative activities related to the flood.
The total death toll was calculated originally as 2,209 people, making the disaster the largest loss of civilian life in the United States at the time. This number of deaths was later surpassed by fatalities in the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, as pointed out by David McCullough in 1968 (pages 266 and 278), a man reported as presumed dead (not known to have been found) had survived. In 1900, Leroy Temple showed up in Johnstown to reveal he had not died but had extricated himself from the flood debris at the stone bridge below Johnstown and walked out of the valley. Until 1900, Temple had been living in Beverly, Massachusetts. Therefore, the official death toll should be at 2,208.
Ninety-nine entire families died in the flood, including 396 children. 124 women and 198 men were widowed, 98 children were orphaned. One third of the dead, 777 people, were never identified; their remains were buried in the "Plot of the Unknown" in Grandview Cemetery in Westmont.
It was the worst flood to hit the U.S. in the 19th century. Sixteen hundred homes were destroyed, $17 million in property damage levied (approx. $497 million in 2016), and 4 square miles (10 km2) of downtown Johnstown were completely destroyed. Clean-up operations continued for years. Although Cambria Iron and Steel's facilities were heavily damaged, they returned to full production within a year and a half.[1]
Working seven days and nights, workmen built a wooden trestle bridge to temporarily replace the huge stone railroad viaduct, which had been destroyed by the flood. The Pennsylvania Railroad restored service to Pittsburgh, 55 miles (89 km) away, by June 2. Food, clothing, medicine, and other provisions began arriving by rail. Morticians traveled by railroad. Johnstown's first call for help requested coffins and undertakers. The demolition expert "Dynamite Bill" Flinn and his 900-man crew cleared the wreckage at the Stone Bridge. They carted off debris, distributed food, and erected temporary housing. At its peak, the army of relief workers totaled about 7,000.
One of the first outsiders to arrive was Clara Barton, nurse, founder and president of the American Red Cross.[1] Barton arrived on June 5, 1889, to lead the group's first major disaster relief effort; she did not leave for more than 5 months. Donations for the relief effort came from all over the United States and overseas. $3,742,818.78 was collected for the Johnstown relief effort from within the U.S. and 18 foreign countries, including Russia, Turkey, France, Great Britain, Australia, and Germany.
Frank Shomo, the last known survivor of the 1889 flood, died March 20, 1997, at the age of 108.
My personal feeling is that McCullough is one of the very best historical literature writers ever. I went from a person that did terrible in my coursework of history to someone who likes it quite a lot.
There are quite a lot of places that one can do research for my review of this book.
A favorite book my family had when I was very young was called Heart Throbs, which was a compilation of poems, stories and quotes from many different people (like 500) then they were put into an issue every two years. My sister and I both remembered a story about Johnstown, called "One Mother in the Johnstown Flood." As I wipe the tears from my face from this book, they were one family of hundreds. Very moving.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water. With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled the average flow rate of the Mississippi River, 2,209 people, according to one account, lost their lives, and the flood accounted for US$17 million of damage--about $463 million in 2017 dollars.
The American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton and with 50 volunteers, undertook a major disaster relief effort. Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries. After the flood, survivors suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam's owners. Public indignation at that failure prompted the development in American law changing a fault-based regime to strict liability.
On May 28, 1889, a low-pressure area formed over Nebraska and Kansas. By the time this weather pattern reached western Pennsylvania two days later, it had developed into what would be termed the heaviest rainfall event that had ever been recorded in that part of the United States. The U.S. Army Signal Corps estimated that 6 to 10 inches (150 to 250 mm) of rain fell in 24 hours over the region.[10] During the night, small creeks became roaring torrents, ripping out trees and debris. Telegraph lines were downed and rail lines were washed away. Before daybreak, the Conemaugh River that ran through Johnstown was about to overwhelm its banks.
On the morning of May 31, in a farmhouse on a hill just above the South Fork Dam, Elias Unger, president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, awoke to the sight of Lake Conemaugh swollen after a night-long heavy rainfall. Unger ran outside in the still-pouring rain to assess the situation and saw that the water was nearly cresting the dam. He quickly assembled a group of men to save the face of the dam by trying to unclog the spillway; it was blocked by the broken fish trap and debris caused by the swollen waterline. Other men tried digging a ditch at the other end of the dam, on the western abutment which was lower than the dam crest. The idea was to let more water out of the lake to try to prevent overtopping of the crest, but without success. Most remained on top of the dam, some plowing earth to raise it, while others tried to pile mud and rock on the face to save the eroding wall.
John Parke, an engineer for the South Fork Club, briefly considered cutting through the dam's end, where the pressure would be less, but decided against it as that would have ensured failure of the dam. Twice, under orders from Unger, Parke rode on horseback to the nearby town of South Fork to the telegraph office to send warnings to Johnstown explaining the critical nature of the eroding dam. But the warnings were not passed to the authorities in town, as there had been many false alarms in the past of the South Fork Dam not holding against flooding. Unger, Parke, and the rest of the men continued working until exhausted to save the face of the dam; they abandoned their efforts at around 1:30 p.m., fearing that their efforts were futile and the dam was at risk of imminent collapse. Unger ordered all of his men to fall back to high ground on both sides of the dam where they could do nothing but wait. During the day in Johnstown, the situation worsened as water rose to as high as 10 feet (3.0 m) in the streets, trapping some people in their houses.
Between 2:50 and 2:55 p.m. the South Fork Dam breached.[13] A LiDAR analysis of the Conemaugh Lake basin reveals that it contained 14.55 million cubic meters (3.843 billion gallons) of water at the moment the dam collapsed. Modern dam-breach computer modeling reveals that it took approximately 65 minutes for most of the lake to empty after the dam began to fail. The first town to be hit by the flood was South Fork. The town was on high ground, and most of the people escaped by running up the nearby hills when they saw the dam spill over. Some 20 to 30 houses were destroyed or washed away, and four people were killed.
Continuing on its way downstream to Johnstown, 14 miles (23 km) west, the water picked up debris, such as trees, houses, and animals. At the Conemaugh Viaduct, a 78-foot (24 m) high railroad bridge, the flood was momentarily stemmed when this debris jammed against the stone bridge's arch. But within seven minutes, the viaduct collapsed, allowing the flood to resume its course. However, owing to the delay at the stone arch, the flood waters gained renewed hydraulic head, resulting in a stronger, more abrupt wave of water hitting places downstream than otherwise would have been expected. The small town of Mineral Point, one mile (1.6 km) below the Conemaugh Viaduct, was the first populated place to be hit with this renewed force. About 30 families lived on the village's single street. After the flood, there were no structures, no topsoil, no sub-soil – only the bedrock was left. The death toll here was approximately 16 people. In 2009, studies showed that the flood's flow rate through the narrow valley exceeded 420,000 cubic feet per second (12,000 m3/s), comparable to the flow rate of the Mississippi River at its delta, which varies between 250,000 and 710,000 cu ft/s (7,000 and 20,000 m3/s).
The village of East Conemaugh was next. One witness on high ground near the town described the water as almost obscured by debris, resembling "a huge hill rolling over and over".[14] From his idle locomotive in the town's railyard, the engineer John Hess heard and felt the rumbling of the approaching flood. Throwing his locomotive into reverse, Hess raced backward toward East Conemaugh, the whistle blowing constantly. His warning saved many people who reached high ground. When the flood hit, it picked up the locomotive and floated it aside; Hess himself survived, but at least 50 people died, including about 25 passengers stranded on trains in the town.
Before hitting the main part of Johnstown, the flood surge hit the Cambria Iron Works at the town of Woodvale, sweeping up railroad cars and barbed wire in its moil. Of Woodvale's 1,100 residents, 314 died in the flood. Boilers exploded when the flood hit the Gautier Wire Works, causing black smoke seen by the Johnstown residents. Miles of its barbed wire became entangled in the debris in the flood waters.
Some 57 minutes after the South Fork Dam collapsed, the flood hit Johnstown. The residents were caught by surprise as the wall of water and debris bore down, traveling at 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) and reaching a height of 60 feet (18 m) in places. Some people, realizing the danger, tried to escape by running towards high ground but most people were hit by the surging floodwater. Many people were crushed by pieces of debris, and others became caught in barbed wire from the wire factory upstream and/or drowned. Those who reached attics, or managed to stay afloat on pieces of floating debris, waited hours for help to arrive.
A contemporary rendition of the scene at the Stone Bridge (1890)
At Johnstown, the Stone Bridge, which was a substantial arched structure, carried the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Conemaugh River. The debris carried by the flood formed a temporary dam at the bridge, resulting in the flood surge rolling upstream along the Stoney Creek River. Eventually, gravity caused the surge to return to the dam, causing a second wave to hit the city, but from a different direction. Some people who had been washed downstream became trapped in an inferno as the debris piled up against the Stone Bridge caught fire; at least 80 people died there. The fire at the Stone Bridge burned for three days. After floodwaters receded, the pile of debris at the bridge was seen to cover 30 acres, and reached 70 feet (21 m) in height. It took workers three months to remove the mass of debris, the delay owing in part to the huge quantity of steel barbed wire from the ironworks. Dynamite was eventually used. Still standing and in use as a railroad bridge, the Stone Bridge is a landmark associated with survival and recovery from the flood. In 2008, it was restored in a project including new lighting as part of commemorative activities related to the flood.
The total death toll was calculated originally as 2,209 people, making the disaster the largest loss of civilian life in the United States at the time. This number of deaths was later surpassed by fatalities in the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, as pointed out by David McCullough in 1968 (pages 266 and 278), a man reported as presumed dead (not known to have been found) had survived. In 1900, Leroy Temple showed up in Johnstown to reveal he had not died but had extricated himself from the flood debris at the stone bridge below Johnstown and walked out of the valley. Until 1900, Temple had been living in Beverly, Massachusetts. Therefore, the official death toll should be at 2,208.
Ninety-nine entire families died in the flood, including 396 children. 124 women and 198 men were widowed, 98 children were orphaned. One third of the dead, 777 people, were never identified; their remains were buried in the "Plot of the Unknown" in Grandview Cemetery in Westmont.
It was the worst flood to hit the U.S. in the 19th century. Sixteen hundred homes were destroyed, $17 million in property damage levied (approx. $497 million in 2016), and 4 square miles (10 km2) of downtown Johnstown were completely destroyed. Clean-up operations continued for years. Although Cambria Iron and Steel's facilities were heavily damaged, they returned to full production within a year and a half.[1]
Working seven days and nights, workmen built a wooden trestle bridge to temporarily replace the huge stone railroad viaduct, which had been destroyed by the flood. The Pennsylvania Railroad restored service to Pittsburgh, 55 miles (89 km) away, by June 2. Food, clothing, medicine, and other provisions began arriving by rail. Morticians traveled by railroad. Johnstown's first call for help requested coffins and undertakers. The demolition expert "Dynamite Bill" Flinn and his 900-man crew cleared the wreckage at the Stone Bridge. They carted off debris, distributed food, and erected temporary housing. At its peak, the army of relief workers totaled about 7,000.
One of the first outsiders to arrive was Clara Barton, nurse, founder and president of the American Red Cross.[1] Barton arrived on June 5, 1889, to lead the group's first major disaster relief effort; she did not leave for more than 5 months. Donations for the relief effort came from all over the United States and overseas. $3,742,818.78 was collected for the Johnstown relief effort from within the U.S. and 18 foreign countries, including Russia, Turkey, France, Great Britain, Australia, and Germany.
Frank Shomo, the last known survivor of the 1889 flood, died March 20, 1997, at the age of 108.
My personal feeling is that McCullough is one of the very best historical literature writers ever. I went from a person that did terrible in my coursework of history to someone who likes it quite a lot.
There are quite a lot of places that one can do research for my review of this book.
A favorite book my family had when I was very young was called Heart Throbs, which was a compilation of poems, stories and quotes from many different people (like 500) then they were put into an issue every two years. My sister and I both remembered a story about Johnstown, called "One Mother in the Johnstown Flood." As I wipe the tears from my face from this book, they were one family of hundreds. Very moving.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
October 14, 2024
Sehr detaillierter und doch mitreißender Bericht über ein unfassbar schreckliches und unnötiges Unglück, für das nie jemand gerade stehen musste.
September 16, 2018
It's David McCullough non-fiction, which in my experience is written well, inclusive to elemental tangents, and also tries to have chronological and historical record in as accurate a measure as it is possible. Amid witness research and dating too. He gives chapter and verse for events and actions in a way that doesn't settle himself and his own interpretations, opinions as central or a larger sideshow. Or any more than a vague side leaning to practical causes and their effects. That's 5 star.
This particular tragedy in the way that it occurred was because the earthen dam was not built nor was it maintained to any safe engineering degree. And it was a sign of the times that the horrid outcomes were not held monetarily or in most other ways held accountable in aftermath.
It's hard for me, a flat lander, to understand the unconcern for living in a hole between mountains and river systems, to tell you the truth. That goes for some "pretty" places in Europe too.
Go high if you want to look at hills and water in combination. Or even for just water views alone.
It's a sad story- from all sides. And yet people build mansions and every mode of abode not 150 feet from oceans today in numerous hurricane alleys. Who lets them and allows it? $$$$
This particular tragedy in the way that it occurred was because the earthen dam was not built nor was it maintained to any safe engineering degree. And it was a sign of the times that the horrid outcomes were not held monetarily or in most other ways held accountable in aftermath.
It's hard for me, a flat lander, to understand the unconcern for living in a hole between mountains and river systems, to tell you the truth. That goes for some "pretty" places in Europe too.
Go high if you want to look at hills and water in combination. Or even for just water views alone.
It's a sad story- from all sides. And yet people build mansions and every mode of abode not 150 feet from oceans today in numerous hurricane alleys. Who lets them and allows it? $$$$
February 19, 2009
I picked up this, the first of McCullough's three "civil engineering" micro-histories, to scratch my itch of a notion that the flood was a seminal event in US history.
Turns out that notion was only half right. The Johnstown Flood was a seminal event. The cataract was terrible and awesome and one of a kind. But the story has mostly faded from history. Unlike other national disasters (eg, the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9/11), this one didn't blossom into a nation-rallying justification for kicking ass. The deluge brought only suffering, death, and dislocation. (The people responsible never faced court damages or even apologized.) And as with the pain of a messy breakup, or a shot to the balls, we decided the best thing was to simply move on, put the event behind us, forget it ever happened. As we will now try to forget the inundation of New Orleans.
Long way of saying, thank you David McCullough, for interviewing the now-deceased survivors before they died, and reviewing the newspaper accounts, and packaging it into an entertaining and readable narrative for modern-day-armchair-disaster tourists like me.
Turns out that notion was only half right. The Johnstown Flood was a seminal event. The cataract was terrible and awesome and one of a kind. But the story has mostly faded from history. Unlike other national disasters (eg, the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9/11), this one didn't blossom into a nation-rallying justification for kicking ass. The deluge brought only suffering, death, and dislocation. (The people responsible never faced court damages or even apologized.) And as with the pain of a messy breakup, or a shot to the balls, we decided the best thing was to simply move on, put the event behind us, forget it ever happened. As we will now try to forget the inundation of New Orleans.
Long way of saying, thank you David McCullough, for interviewing the now-deceased survivors before they died, and reviewing the newspaper accounts, and packaging it into an entertaining and readable narrative for modern-day-armchair-disaster tourists like me.
April 29, 2023
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam broke and sent the contents of Lake Conemaugh careening down the valley toward Johnstown, Pennsylvania, stripping away everything in its path. David McCullough recounts what happened before and after this preventable disaster. As in many tragedies, those in charge were warned ahead of time, and remediations suggested, but these remedies were ignored. This account tells of the contributing factors of business decisions, scientific principles, weather, and a club of wealthy people who were not interested in taking advice. The author analyzes the entire sequence of events – from the history of the dam’s construction to the aftermath of the disaster. It is a detailed account that focuses on personal stories as well as the larger picture. The incredible power of natural forces is vividly described. It was one of the first times the Red Cross participated in civilian relief efforts for a disaster. Recommended to those interested in 19th century US history and tragic incidents that bring out both the best and worst of human nature.
April 3, 2020
"If I were the biggest liar on earth, I could not tell you half."
Timely reading, this masterful and pleasing account of an unavoidable disaster that cost thousands of lives. In 1889, not now, people.
McCullough is such a joy to read, jargon-free, free of tiring analysis, he simply and sympathetically presents things as they are, rare for historical works these days. Having grown up in western Pennsylvania, his first book must have been close to his heart. Myself, I'd always heard about the Flood, my mother having grown up in Johnstown, but I never had a clear sense of just how fucking horrible it was! The sad part was, an entire town was destroyed and 2000+ people died in the flood (the descriptions here of the wall of water and debris as culled from eyewitnesses is worse than anything you'll read this week!) when the South Fork dam broke, but it didn't need to be. That's McCullough's main point in the end: if humans want to try and tame nature, go for it, but you better know what you're doing. Oh, and don't leave your fate in the hands of the wealthy either. The so-called "betters", which included, amazingly, Andrew Carnegie, who had a summer resort at the dam did almost nothing to make sure the dam, which had threatened to burst for decades, wouldn't burst.
McCullough neatly ties these heinous oversights and apathies to the trend at the time of a lashing back against the wealthy and American bastardy in general, the stirrings of labor unrest, and the then unimpeachable "rabble" making their voices heard.
Timely reading, this masterful and pleasing account of an unavoidable disaster that cost thousands of lives. In 1889, not now, people.
McCullough is such a joy to read, jargon-free, free of tiring analysis, he simply and sympathetically presents things as they are, rare for historical works these days. Having grown up in western Pennsylvania, his first book must have been close to his heart. Myself, I'd always heard about the Flood, my mother having grown up in Johnstown, but I never had a clear sense of just how fucking horrible it was! The sad part was, an entire town was destroyed and 2000+ people died in the flood (the descriptions here of the wall of water and debris as culled from eyewitnesses is worse than anything you'll read this week!) when the South Fork dam broke, but it didn't need to be. That's McCullough's main point in the end: if humans want to try and tame nature, go for it, but you better know what you're doing. Oh, and don't leave your fate in the hands of the wealthy either. The so-called "betters", which included, amazingly, Andrew Carnegie, who had a summer resort at the dam did almost nothing to make sure the dam, which had threatened to burst for decades, wouldn't burst.
McCullough neatly ties these heinous oversights and apathies to the trend at the time of a lashing back against the wealthy and American bastardy in general, the stirrings of labor unrest, and the then unimpeachable "rabble" making their voices heard.
July 4, 2022
Published over 50 years ago, The Johnstown Flood was David McCullough’s first book, but it carries his storytelling charm and the detailed, exhaustive research that he has become known for and that has characterized all of his subsequent books.
On May 31, 1889, following days of unprecedented rainfall, the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, sent a wall of water thundering down the mountain, obliterating virtually everything in its path and enveloping the town. The flood took 2,209 lives and caused damages in excess of $17 million or about $534 million in 2022 money. McCullough methodically documents the events and circumstances occurring before, during and after the disaster, with details and human stories that are simply jaw-dropping at times.
The South Fork Dam was originally built to enhance the Western Division of the Main Line Canal, which was designed to provide a direct, nonstop link from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Ironically, shortly after the dam was finished in 1852, the canal became obsolete when an all-rail route was completed. The dam sat unmaintained until it was purchased by a group of Pittsburgh’s wealthiest moguls to create a hunting and fishing resort. For years following the flood, people blamed the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club for its negligence in rehabilitating the old dam and its cavalier attitude toward the people in the valley below. Still, the people of Johnstown themselves had grown numb to warnings about the dam over the years and most had become unbelieving and complacent.
The individual stories that McCullough relates during the flooding are compelling, with survival or death hinging on a single decision made such as grabbing onto a specific tree or choosing to remain on the third floor of a building. Following the flood, the whole panoply of human behaviors played out, everything from heroic rescues and humanitarian aid in staggering proportions to bogus news stories and charlatans attempting to capitalize on the tragedy. McCullough’s overarching theme as he painstakingly re-creates the tragedy in this very readable, nail-biting narrative is the lesson that there is danger in assuming “that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.”
On May 31, 1889, following days of unprecedented rainfall, the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam upstream of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, sent a wall of water thundering down the mountain, obliterating virtually everything in its path and enveloping the town. The flood took 2,209 lives and caused damages in excess of $17 million or about $534 million in 2022 money. McCullough methodically documents the events and circumstances occurring before, during and after the disaster, with details and human stories that are simply jaw-dropping at times.
The South Fork Dam was originally built to enhance the Western Division of the Main Line Canal, which was designed to provide a direct, nonstop link from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Ironically, shortly after the dam was finished in 1852, the canal became obsolete when an all-rail route was completed. The dam sat unmaintained until it was purchased by a group of Pittsburgh’s wealthiest moguls to create a hunting and fishing resort. For years following the flood, people blamed the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club for its negligence in rehabilitating the old dam and its cavalier attitude toward the people in the valley below. Still, the people of Johnstown themselves had grown numb to warnings about the dam over the years and most had become unbelieving and complacent.
The individual stories that McCullough relates during the flooding are compelling, with survival or death hinging on a single decision made such as grabbing onto a specific tree or choosing to remain on the third floor of a building. Following the flood, the whole panoply of human behaviors played out, everything from heroic rescues and humanitarian aid in staggering proportions to bogus news stories and charlatans attempting to capitalize on the tragedy. McCullough’s overarching theme as he painstakingly re-creates the tragedy in this very readable, nail-biting narrative is the lesson that there is danger in assuming “that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.”
September 1, 2024
Some quotes I want to keep:
"When the water was up in the spring, the lake covered about 450 acres and was close to seventy feet deep in places. The claim, in 1889, was that it was the largest man-made lake in the country, which it was not. But even so, as one man in Johnstown often told his children, it was a mighty body of water to be up there on the mountain." (page 41)
"When there were warnings of trouble up the mountain, very few took them to heart. The dam always held despite the warnings. People got tired of hearing about a disaster than never happened. And after all, was not the dam owned by some of the most awesome men in the country? If there was anything to worry about certainly they would know about it." (page 66)
"The water by now, from one end of town to the other, was anywhere from two to ten feet deep. It was already higher than the '87 food, making it, by noon at least, Johnstown's worst flood on record." (page 82)
The dam broke at 3:10pm. "[John G.] Parke estimated that it took forty-five minutes for the entire lake to empty, but others said it took less, more in the neighborhood of thirty-six or thirty-seven minutes. In any case, later studies by civil engineers indicated that the water charged into the valley at the velocity and depth comparable to that of the Niagara River as it reaches the Niagara Falls. Or to put it another way, the bursting of the South Fork dam was about like turning Niagara Falls into the valley for thirty-six minutes." (page 102)
Photo source: Johnstown Flood National Memorial
"When the water was up in the spring, the lake covered about 450 acres and was close to seventy feet deep in places. The claim, in 1889, was that it was the largest man-made lake in the country, which it was not. But even so, as one man in Johnstown often told his children, it was a mighty body of water to be up there on the mountain." (page 41)
"When there were warnings of trouble up the mountain, very few took them to heart. The dam always held despite the warnings. People got tired of hearing about a disaster than never happened. And after all, was not the dam owned by some of the most awesome men in the country? If there was anything to worry about certainly they would know about it." (page 66)
"The water by now, from one end of town to the other, was anywhere from two to ten feet deep. It was already higher than the '87 food, making it, by noon at least, Johnstown's worst flood on record." (page 82)
The dam broke at 3:10pm. "[John G.] Parke estimated that it took forty-five minutes for the entire lake to empty, but others said it took less, more in the neighborhood of thirty-six or thirty-seven minutes. In any case, later studies by civil engineers indicated that the water charged into the valley at the velocity and depth comparable to that of the Niagara River as it reaches the Niagara Falls. Or to put it another way, the bursting of the South Fork dam was about like turning Niagara Falls into the valley for thirty-six minutes." (page 102)
Photo source: Johnstown Flood National Memorial
September 19, 2020
Not every environmental catastrophe is the complete fault of nature. The greedy hand of mankind is usually involved as it was in the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889.
Most of the people in Johnstown never saw the water coming; they only heard it. And those who lived to tell about it would for years after try to describe the sound of the thing as it rushed on them.
The South Fork Dam in Pennsylvania was originally part of the cross-state canal system, which was so vital to commerce in the early 19th century. But once the railroads came along, the canals were no longer needed so the dam was sold to the railroad interests who in turn sold the dam to private interests. Sounds rather like today, doesn't it? These "private interests" were investors and speculators, mostly from the steel industry. They wanted a private reservoir for their vacations, where they could fish and boat without the intruding working class citizens bothering them. Since they didn't live near the area, they also didn't spend the money and the time to keep the dam in a safe condition. In the last days of May 1889, the largest rainfall event ever to hit the region caused the waters of the private lake to destroy the dam. Not to overflow it, but to simply "push it all out at once". That meant disaster for the little towns and communities down the hill.
The Town of Mineral Point was obliterated. Shaved off. Only bare rock was left. When the massive wave hit Johnstown, it was up to 75 feet high and was carrying houses, boulders, animals and everything else as it hit the first homes. The giant wave was so strong, it was actually rolling over itself, so that any living thing caught in the waters had no chance at all. In fact, when they eventually found some bodies, much later, they had been pounded deep down into the mud. Those were the lucky deaths. Others clung to debris or rolling homes, only to pile up against the town's bridge. There, despite the rain and water, fires broke out and survivors burnt to death.
Entire families, entire generations, were killed. Parents, grandparents, in-laws, children. And this was the age of large families, so six, seven, eight, nine children drowned or burnt to death. There were some survivors. A grandmother somehow survived, even though her scalp had been torn off from her forehead to the nape of her neck. A father and his son were swept downstream for four miles before they managed to leap to shore, only to later discover the mother and six other children had died. One man was swept from his home on to a spinning roof which carried him across the town where he was ejected headfirst...into his own office.
It was the worst death toll from a natural disaster in the United States until the Galveston Hurricane. Even after the waves died down, the rain continued to pour down upon survivors who had no shelter, no food, no fresh water, no dry clothes, and no medical supplies. In Pittsburgh, word came of the disaster and groups moved upstream to start the rescues. However, thousands ended up making the journey but did so without any sort of plan, which only created more of a burden for the few survivors.
You can imagine the outcome, regarding culpability. The bigwigs escaped with nary a hand slap. The Johnstown Flood did, however, lead to American law being changed from one of fault-based to one of strict liability. Little consolation to the thousands who died.
It is so easy to read a David McCullough book. He is a historian who writes for us, matter-of-factly without great histrionics or agendas. The reader already knows there is a disaster, no surprise, so the telling of it makes all the difference. After finishing the book, I realized that not much has changed. Today, one can make the correlation between an act of nature (Covid-19) and the lack of leadership worldwide resulting in hundreds of thousands of death. The bigshots don't care and they never will.
Book Season = Spring (always question authority)
Most of the people in Johnstown never saw the water coming; they only heard it. And those who lived to tell about it would for years after try to describe the sound of the thing as it rushed on them.
The South Fork Dam in Pennsylvania was originally part of the cross-state canal system, which was so vital to commerce in the early 19th century. But once the railroads came along, the canals were no longer needed so the dam was sold to the railroad interests who in turn sold the dam to private interests. Sounds rather like today, doesn't it? These "private interests" were investors and speculators, mostly from the steel industry. They wanted a private reservoir for their vacations, where they could fish and boat without the intruding working class citizens bothering them. Since they didn't live near the area, they also didn't spend the money and the time to keep the dam in a safe condition. In the last days of May 1889, the largest rainfall event ever to hit the region caused the waters of the private lake to destroy the dam. Not to overflow it, but to simply "push it all out at once". That meant disaster for the little towns and communities down the hill.
The Town of Mineral Point was obliterated. Shaved off. Only bare rock was left. When the massive wave hit Johnstown, it was up to 75 feet high and was carrying houses, boulders, animals and everything else as it hit the first homes. The giant wave was so strong, it was actually rolling over itself, so that any living thing caught in the waters had no chance at all. In fact, when they eventually found some bodies, much later, they had been pounded deep down into the mud. Those were the lucky deaths. Others clung to debris or rolling homes, only to pile up against the town's bridge. There, despite the rain and water, fires broke out and survivors burnt to death.
Entire families, entire generations, were killed. Parents, grandparents, in-laws, children. And this was the age of large families, so six, seven, eight, nine children drowned or burnt to death. There were some survivors. A grandmother somehow survived, even though her scalp had been torn off from her forehead to the nape of her neck. A father and his son were swept downstream for four miles before they managed to leap to shore, only to later discover the mother and six other children had died. One man was swept from his home on to a spinning roof which carried him across the town where he was ejected headfirst...into his own office.
It was the worst death toll from a natural disaster in the United States until the Galveston Hurricane. Even after the waves died down, the rain continued to pour down upon survivors who had no shelter, no food, no fresh water, no dry clothes, and no medical supplies. In Pittsburgh, word came of the disaster and groups moved upstream to start the rescues. However, thousands ended up making the journey but did so without any sort of plan, which only created more of a burden for the few survivors.
You can imagine the outcome, regarding culpability. The bigwigs escaped with nary a hand slap. The Johnstown Flood did, however, lead to American law being changed from one of fault-based to one of strict liability. Little consolation to the thousands who died.
It is so easy to read a David McCullough book. He is a historian who writes for us, matter-of-factly without great histrionics or agendas. The reader already knows there is a disaster, no surprise, so the telling of it makes all the difference. After finishing the book, I realized that not much has changed. Today, one can make the correlation between an act of nature (Covid-19) and the lack of leadership worldwide resulting in hundreds of thousands of death. The bigshots don't care and they never will.
Book Season = Spring (always question authority)
December 29, 2015
There is something about this book that completely captivated me. Perhaps it was my morbid curiosity, about the details of how the South Fork dam was improperly maintained, how it broke, and the ensuing rush of a wall of water down the valley. Although Johnstown was completely demolished, there were enough survivors to help recreate much of the chronology of events. There are plenty of stories from individuals about life and death decisions, sometimes successful rescues, and sometimes unsuccessful. The story is at times riveting, as people are trapped inside houses that are uprooted and swept to a position against a strong bridge. And then a fire broke out, threatening all the people trapped in the maelstrom.
The dam was earthen, meaning that it was primarily made of dirt. Originally it was well constructed, and could have survived if properly maintained. The dam was repaired at one point in time, but the work was not planned or overseen by any engineers at all. So, when torrential downpours raised the water level, it was an accident waiting to happen. The dam was owned by a sporting and fishing club, whose members were among the richest and most elite in the country (Andrew Mellon, Andrew Carnegie, and the like). It was very interesting how the media pinned much of the blame on these people. The media regarded the upper economic class to be irresponsible, and to have little regard for the well-being of the working class who populated Johnstown. But the truth is that everybody who had a connection to the dam assumed that somebody else, someone knowledgeable and responsible, had overseen the repairs. And, most of the townspeople thought that the chiefs of industry would have overseen the work on the dam. There were, of course, a few people who had inspected the dam and realized that it was dangerous. But these people were ignored.
David McCullough is a historian who has written a number of books; all the ones I have read so far are excellent. He not only recites the facts, but he also tells the stories of the people in a dramatic way, and he interprets the lessons that we can draw from the tragedy. The main lesson, as described by the author, is that we cannot always assume that people act responsibly.
I did not read this book. I listened to the audiobook. Edward Herrmann does a very good job as a narrator.
The dam was earthen, meaning that it was primarily made of dirt. Originally it was well constructed, and could have survived if properly maintained. The dam was repaired at one point in time, but the work was not planned or overseen by any engineers at all. So, when torrential downpours raised the water level, it was an accident waiting to happen. The dam was owned by a sporting and fishing club, whose members were among the richest and most elite in the country (Andrew Mellon, Andrew Carnegie, and the like). It was very interesting how the media pinned much of the blame on these people. The media regarded the upper economic class to be irresponsible, and to have little regard for the well-being of the working class who populated Johnstown. But the truth is that everybody who had a connection to the dam assumed that somebody else, someone knowledgeable and responsible, had overseen the repairs. And, most of the townspeople thought that the chiefs of industry would have overseen the work on the dam. There were, of course, a few people who had inspected the dam and realized that it was dangerous. But these people were ignored.
David McCullough is a historian who has written a number of books; all the ones I have read so far are excellent. He not only recites the facts, but he also tells the stories of the people in a dramatic way, and he interprets the lessons that we can draw from the tragedy. The main lesson, as described by the author, is that we cannot always assume that people act responsibly.
I did not read this book. I listened to the audiobook. Edward Herrmann does a very good job as a narrator.
August 24, 2024
I finished my reread of this book on 8/23/24 as part of the McCullough Readalong I'm hosting on Booktube. We are reading all the history books of David McCullough in the order in which they were published. This was his first.
It is a great tragedy that so many people died or suffered due to a earthen dam failure. There was so much incompetence on the part of the dam owners over the years.
My original review, from 2023:
This is one of the most horrifying nonfiction books I've ever read yet it is full of information worth learning about and considering. Who knew that dam construction was so complex? Those water release valves in old earth dams are there for a reason.
The dam that created Conemaugh Lake in Pennsylvania didn't have water release valves because a former landowner decided to remove them and cart them off for resale or scrap metal, or something he apparently thought was important.
The new landowner, Benjamin Ruff, rebuilt the dam but didn't bother to get new water release valves installed. By the time the dam broke during a particularly rainy springtime, Ruff had been dead over two years already.
This was the first book written by David McCullough. It was published in 1968. I appreciated reading his comments in the introduction about his first attempt at researching for a nonfiction history book. It was a valiant effort and learning process for a worthy project. The world needed to learn more about this flood. This disaster is something the world should never forget.
It is a great tragedy that so many people died or suffered due to a earthen dam failure. There was so much incompetence on the part of the dam owners over the years.
My original review, from 2023:
This is one of the most horrifying nonfiction books I've ever read yet it is full of information worth learning about and considering. Who knew that dam construction was so complex? Those water release valves in old earth dams are there for a reason.
The dam that created Conemaugh Lake in Pennsylvania didn't have water release valves because a former landowner decided to remove them and cart them off for resale or scrap metal, or something he apparently thought was important.
The new landowner, Benjamin Ruff, rebuilt the dam but didn't bother to get new water release valves installed. By the time the dam broke during a particularly rainy springtime, Ruff had been dead over two years already.
This was the first book written by David McCullough. It was published in 1968. I appreciated reading his comments in the introduction about his first attempt at researching for a nonfiction history book. It was a valiant effort and learning process for a worthy project. The world needed to learn more about this flood. This disaster is something the world should never forget.
November 4, 2020
The history of the flood was interesting to read. There's a lot of good information here and David McCullough must have spent a lot of time doing research. Everything in this book is meticulously researched.
Looking back, I think this is David McCullough's first book. It's very ambitious. This flood has been incredibly well researched. It couldn't have been easy to dig up some of these newspaper excerpts, the law documents, etc.
However, this book read dryly. It's names, lists, quotes (often repetitive). There are three sections: the building of the dam, the flood and the aftermath/rebuilding. In each of these sections, there are gems and points of true interest. These points make this book worth reading. But it's too long, too detailed with names, lists and quotes.
I've read a later book by David McCullough and it was wonderful. I suggest that this book could have been edited down, and that the inclusion of all the minutiae is because this is the author's first book and he was learning the ropes of writing.
Well told, interesting period of history. Just too wordy.
Looking back, I think this is David McCullough's first book. It's very ambitious. This flood has been incredibly well researched. It couldn't have been easy to dig up some of these newspaper excerpts, the law documents, etc.
However, this book read dryly. It's names, lists, quotes (often repetitive). There are three sections: the building of the dam, the flood and the aftermath/rebuilding. In each of these sections, there are gems and points of true interest. These points make this book worth reading. But it's too long, too detailed with names, lists and quotes.
I've read a later book by David McCullough and it was wonderful. I suggest that this book could have been edited down, and that the inclusion of all the minutiae is because this is the author's first book and he was learning the ropes of writing.
Well told, interesting period of history. Just too wordy.
March 20, 2016
"It had been the 'horrible tempest,' with flood and fire 'come as a destruction from the Almighty.' It had been awful, but it had been God awful."
― David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood
I was wrapping a couple of my first edition, eBay book purchases with mylar and discovered my first edition 'The Johnstown Flood' had a bit of water damage to the spine. I took this as a positive portent (ex dīrīs diluvium?) it was time to read it. One couldn't find a better divination that it is time to read a book unless one stumbles upon a pressed butterfly in a Nabokov or dirty photo in a Henry Miller at the Library (which reminds me I need to start carrying butterflies and McGill postcards into public libraries regularly).
I'm not sure what if there is a specific word for the disaster history genre, but I've recently read The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, and now I've just finished a flood history, I've read about volcanoes (Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded) and earthquakes (A Crack in the Edge of the World), so now I just need plagues and pestilence histories and I'll be able to fill my disaster dance card (programme du décès?).
This is McCullough's first book, published in 1968. He was an early master of strong narrative histories. Having been trained at Yale in English and almost fumbled by grace, accident, talent or opportunity into historical writing. Once he started publishing, Mccullough has almost never been a disappointment to his publishers. He now reigns as one of the supreme masters of American popular biography, along with Walter Isaacson, Jon Meacham, Joseph Ellis and Doris Kearns Goodwin. These are the Costco historian set. They aren't always the 'best' or most rigorous historians, but there is a certain skill in being able to carry a story to the historically, unwashed masses. There are certainly better academic historians (Burlingame, etc), but McCullough's skill at telling a story and bringing his story-telling flair to the 1889 Johnstown Flood, makes the history of this very American disaster not just a moving story, but a very good social history.
― David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood
I was wrapping a couple of my first edition, eBay book purchases with mylar and discovered my first edition 'The Johnstown Flood' had a bit of water damage to the spine. I took this as a positive portent (ex dīrīs diluvium?) it was time to read it. One couldn't find a better divination that it is time to read a book unless one stumbles upon a pressed butterfly in a Nabokov or dirty photo in a Henry Miller at the Library (which reminds me I need to start carrying butterflies and McGill postcards into public libraries regularly).
I'm not sure what if there is a specific word for the disaster history genre, but I've recently read The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, and now I've just finished a flood history, I've read about volcanoes (Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded) and earthquakes (A Crack in the Edge of the World), so now I just need plagues and pestilence histories and I'll be able to fill my disaster dance card (programme du décès?).
This is McCullough's first book, published in 1968. He was an early master of strong narrative histories. Having been trained at Yale in English and almost fumbled by grace, accident, talent or opportunity into historical writing. Once he started publishing, Mccullough has almost never been a disappointment to his publishers. He now reigns as one of the supreme masters of American popular biography, along with Walter Isaacson, Jon Meacham, Joseph Ellis and Doris Kearns Goodwin. These are the Costco historian set. They aren't always the 'best' or most rigorous historians, but there is a certain skill in being able to carry a story to the historically, unwashed masses. There are certainly better academic historians (Burlingame, etc), but McCullough's skill at telling a story and bringing his story-telling flair to the 1889 Johnstown Flood, makes the history of this very American disaster not just a moving story, but a very good social history.
May 26, 2016
Could be subtitled Everything You Wanted to Know About the Johnstown Flood but Were Afraid to Ask.
Audiotape read by actor Edward Herrmann.
Here are some of my takeaways:
1. David McCullough deserves all of the praise heaped upon him. He is truly a great nonfiction writer for our time.
2. One of the one-star reviews complained about the boring opening. I'm guessing that person never finished the book. Looking into the details of what happened beforehand is necessary to understand how it happened. Not everyone is cut out to read good nonfiction.
3. People become complacent. They have trouble caring about the future. They are more worried about the moment. Whoever says "Live in the moment" needs to remind people that the future does arrive eventually. I believe we are hardwired through evolution to worry about being attacked at this moment and avoid doing what we have to protect our future. Witness climate change or security.
4. Part of the reason why the dam broke is that no one believed it could really happen to them.
5. Security is important. I have been involved in poor security in Vietnam. I was poorly trained and totally ignorant of what I was doing. Training by knowledgeable people is important. I apply this to the dam itself.
6. Good government is critical. I am totally weary of the government haters, libertarians, conservatives, and so on who think we can live without a good government. Most of the improvements in life came as a result of good government.
7. Let's repair our bridges. What are we waiting for? Are Republicans more interested in tax cuts for the rich?
8. My image of a flood is lots and lots of rain. Pretty soon it's up to my neck, and I scream. Then I see my neighbor in a rowboat with his two cats, two dogs, two birdies, and two children. I swim over to him and he hits me with a paddle. I dog paddle for a few minutes and then drown. In other words, I imagine a Noah style flood. I call this a dam disaster. That's "dam" with no "N".
9. Some train conductors rescued their passengers by leading them out to safety. One conductor fled for his life. Leaders are responsible for those under them. As a teacher, I was always willing to protect my student if anything went wrong. Captains go down with their ships unless they can be the last ones out.
10. Perhaps the greatest blame for the flood rests with a "hunting and fishing" club for "gentlemen." That means rich people. They wanted the dam and cut down trees that allowed a greater runoff. There are consequences for environmental damage.
11. As I speak rising oceans are taking over the Florida everglades. What will it take for us to take steps to attack climate problems.
Audiotape read by actor Edward Herrmann.
Here are some of my takeaways:
1. David McCullough deserves all of the praise heaped upon him. He is truly a great nonfiction writer for our time.
2. One of the one-star reviews complained about the boring opening. I'm guessing that person never finished the book. Looking into the details of what happened beforehand is necessary to understand how it happened. Not everyone is cut out to read good nonfiction.
3. People become complacent. They have trouble caring about the future. They are more worried about the moment. Whoever says "Live in the moment" needs to remind people that the future does arrive eventually. I believe we are hardwired through evolution to worry about being attacked at this moment and avoid doing what we have to protect our future. Witness climate change or security.
4. Part of the reason why the dam broke is that no one believed it could really happen to them.
5. Security is important. I have been involved in poor security in Vietnam. I was poorly trained and totally ignorant of what I was doing. Training by knowledgeable people is important. I apply this to the dam itself.
6. Good government is critical. I am totally weary of the government haters, libertarians, conservatives, and so on who think we can live without a good government. Most of the improvements in life came as a result of good government.
7. Let's repair our bridges. What are we waiting for? Are Republicans more interested in tax cuts for the rich?
8. My image of a flood is lots and lots of rain. Pretty soon it's up to my neck, and I scream. Then I see my neighbor in a rowboat with his two cats, two dogs, two birdies, and two children. I swim over to him and he hits me with a paddle. I dog paddle for a few minutes and then drown. In other words, I imagine a Noah style flood. I call this a dam disaster. That's "dam" with no "N".
9. Some train conductors rescued their passengers by leading them out to safety. One conductor fled for his life. Leaders are responsible for those under them. As a teacher, I was always willing to protect my student if anything went wrong. Captains go down with their ships unless they can be the last ones out.
10. Perhaps the greatest blame for the flood rests with a "hunting and fishing" club for "gentlemen." That means rich people. They wanted the dam and cut down trees that allowed a greater runoff. There are consequences for environmental damage.
11. As I speak rising oceans are taking over the Florida everglades. What will it take for us to take steps to attack climate problems.
July 6, 2021
I think this book covered just about every known fact about the Johnstown flood. From the business innovations that built the town into a thriving metropolis, and the concerns that might have driven millionaires to vacation by a lake in the summer months to the exact change recovered from one corpse and the date of the last discovery of a corpse. Well, okay. It might have left out a few minor facts along the way, but I doubt that anything left out could materially add to the reader's understanding of the tragedy.
It starts out with an exhaustive history of the area and its settlement. Then follows a history of the dam is covered from its original purpose through its transition from a public utility to private property. Throughout those histories are sprinkled the business and personal histories of many different businessmen, engineers, politicians, farmers, and citizens. Finally, we get to the day of the tragedy. He chronicles that by drawing from numerous first-hand accounts as well as newspapers and official records. That is where it becomes intensely personal as we hear the accounts of survival and heroism. The aftermath is handled in much the same way. So it is filled with tidbits of human interest, such as the reunion of a father and daughter, the confusion, almost inability, of people to orient themselves in what were once familiar streets, and the strong purpose of the survivors to rebuild almost immediately.
I found it a very interesting read. Even the early parts had enough detail to give a complete picture yet moved quickly enough not to get bogged down.
Content warning.
Considering that it’s the story of 2,209 tragic deaths. It’s not really graphic. He manages to capture the horror of so many gruesome deaths by drowning, fire, and plague without being graphic just for shock value. It’s still hard to read, though, and may be too hard for some readers.
Early in the book, there is a brief discussion of the seamier side of town and the.
It starts out with an exhaustive history of the area and its settlement. Then follows a history of the dam is covered from its original purpose through its transition from a public utility to private property. Throughout those histories are sprinkled the business and personal histories of many different businessmen, engineers, politicians, farmers, and citizens. Finally, we get to the day of the tragedy. He chronicles that by drawing from numerous first-hand accounts as well as newspapers and official records. That is where it becomes intensely personal as we hear the accounts of survival and heroism. The aftermath is handled in much the same way. So it is filled with tidbits of human interest, such as the reunion of a father and daughter, the confusion, almost inability, of people to orient themselves in what were once familiar streets, and the strong purpose of the survivors to rebuild almost immediately.
I found it a very interesting read. Even the early parts had enough detail to give a complete picture yet moved quickly enough not to get bogged down.
Content warning.
Considering that it’s the story of 2,209 tragic deaths. It’s not really graphic. He manages to capture the horror of so many gruesome deaths by drowning, fire, and plague without being graphic just for shock value. It’s still hard to read, though, and may be too hard for some readers.
Early in the book, there is a brief discussion of the seamier side of town and the.
July 10, 2019
The Johnstown Flood is an amazing read. David McCullough has done a masterful job of giving both a history lesson with a compelling story. The flood is simple on its surface, but happened during complicated times of the Gilded Age period. This speaks of both the power of the elite, but also of the common man learning to live with impending disaster; becoming used it and ultimately ignoring it.
The Johnstown Flood does a remarkable job of explaining the paradox of the locals knowing the dam was not sound, yet the populace never really believing it would fail. This included the local elite also and they were men of power too.
David McCullough tells his narrative for the whole region by using a few local personal stories to illustrate the setting. Stories of who died or survived and how ridiculously lucky some of them truly were and how thin the line between luck and no luck could be. He talks of heroics of the day and the exhaustion that followed.
The Johnstown Flood is both David McCullough's first book and a tour-de-force of a read. This is one of the great disaster stories told.
The Johnstown Flood does a remarkable job of explaining the paradox of the locals knowing the dam was not sound, yet the populace never really believing it would fail. This included the local elite also and they were men of power too.
David McCullough tells his narrative for the whole region by using a few local personal stories to illustrate the setting. Stories of who died or survived and how ridiculously lucky some of them truly were and how thin the line between luck and no luck could be. He talks of heroics of the day and the exhaustion that followed.
The Johnstown Flood is both David McCullough's first book and a tour-de-force of a read. This is one of the great disaster stories told.
June 12, 2015
Zzzzzz....Some background is necessary, but do we really need to know the entire history of the frigging dam? (including the names and physical descriptions of all the people who so much as *glanced* at tlhe damn dam) and the physical make up of its dirt? Maybe so. But I don't want to read it. ......zzzzzzz......
September 26, 2017
The super-rich show typical hubris, not allowing any payment for damages they caused.
December 12, 2022
A harrowing account of the infamous Johnstown Flood of 1889, when an earthen dam broke and wiped out a Pennsylvania town. 2209 people were killed, countless others injured and lives were devastated. Much blame is cast on a wealthy and exclusive resort club, The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, which earlier had taken ownership of the dam (which had been built by the state) but didn’t maintain it properly.
The first couple of chapters give some background to the region and the people who lived there. A lot of information is presented about the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, the powerful men who ran it and how they acquired the dam. Although necessary, these chapters are a bit dry. Once the book gets into the start of the unprecedented storm that caused the disaster, the book becomes a compelling read. The details of what happened during the flood are horrific and difficult to read. There are a couple of maps in the front of the book which, although a bit crude, are very helpful. There are also photos which really show the devastation. (Of course there are more photos to be found on Google.)
As usual, David McCullough writes a powerful account of history. The book is a mere 268 pages, with a listing at the end of all the deceased and where they are buried.
The first couple of chapters give some background to the region and the people who lived there. A lot of information is presented about the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, the powerful men who ran it and how they acquired the dam. Although necessary, these chapters are a bit dry. Once the book gets into the start of the unprecedented storm that caused the disaster, the book becomes a compelling read. The details of what happened during the flood are horrific and difficult to read. There are a couple of maps in the front of the book which, although a bit crude, are very helpful. There are also photos which really show the devastation. (Of course there are more photos to be found on Google.)
As usual, David McCullough writes a powerful account of history. The book is a mere 268 pages, with a listing at the end of all the deceased and where they are buried.
February 8, 2019
At the confluence of Stonycreek and the Little Conemaugh rivers sits Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In the 1880s it was a thriving mining town, with over 30,000 residence.
The year 1889 was unnaturally rainy, not just in Pennsylvania but in much of the United States. On May 30th the dam above Johnstown broke, unleashing a force that would destroy the Conemaugh Valley and almost wipe out Johnstown. This was the worst natural disaster in American history up until that time, and it would be the first disaster the American Red Cross would take on.
In true McCullough fashion. He transports you to a place and time to feel, see, and live the experience. A brilliantly written book!
The year 1889 was unnaturally rainy, not just in Pennsylvania but in much of the United States. On May 30th the dam above Johnstown broke, unleashing a force that would destroy the Conemaugh Valley and almost wipe out Johnstown. This was the worst natural disaster in American history up until that time, and it would be the first disaster the American Red Cross would take on.
In true McCullough fashion. He transports you to a place and time to feel, see, and live the experience. A brilliantly written book!
September 15, 2013
A riveting telling of history. Once it gets going you can’t stop. You are there, reliving one of the greatest disasters of the 19th century. David McCullough expertly paints a picture of America entering the industrial age with its mix of ethnic backgrounds, emerging culture, farmers, shopkeepers, laborers and powerful elite. His vivid recounting of the flood and its impact is enthralling and heart-rending. Very highly recommended.
January 2, 2019
Great book from a great author, did not like the format (too formal ) but the story is very well documented and very well told . If you are into early American history or into natural disasters then this might be the book for you .
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