9. The Plutocrats Whose Luxury Resort Caused a Catastrophe
Industrialist Henry Clay Frick and a group of rich Pittsburgh magnates got together in 1880, and bought the South Fork Dam, which formed an artificial Lake Conemaugh in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Originally built by the Commonwealth to service a canal system, the earthen dam was abandoned when railroads superseded canals, and was sold to private interests. Frick and his fellows formed the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, a secretive and private resort for the wealthy based around the dam’s lake and shoreline. The club opened in 1881, and its well-heeled members mingled in its clubhouse and their cottages around the lake as they enjoyed the pleasures of nature.
The plutocrats, indifferent to consequences downstream, modified the dam, and lowered it to accommodate a road. To ensure that the lake never ran out of fish, a screen was placed in the spillway – a structure that allows controlled release of water from a dam. The screen not only stopped fish from leaving the dam, it also trapped debris that clogged the spillway. That was especially bad because when the dam was built, it had relief pipes and valves to lower water levels in an emergency. They were sold as scrap metal, and never replaced. Between that and the clogged spillway, there was no way to release water in case of an emergency. Such an emergency occurred on May 31st, 1889, and it killed thousands in what came to be known as the Johnstown Flood, after the chief town struck by the disaster.
