Heavy rains brought the South Fork dam above the city of Johnstown to the brink of collapse. When the structure finally gave in, a 12-meter high (40 ft) wall of water rushed down from the mountain.

“You cannot tell the story of the Johnstown Flood without talking about the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, Lake Conemaugh and what was the South Fork Dam,” Manley says. Remove the ads ...

So when the South Fork Dam failed on May 31, 1889, the resulting wave that caused over 2,000 fatalities had a direct effect on the jobs in steel mills and coal mines. “The people of Johnstown ...

He touches on the concerns of residents who worried that the dam holding the South Fork Hunting Club’s giant lake in the mountains north of Johnstown might burst, which it did in May 1889 ...