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History of the Johnstown Flood, Including All the Fearful Record, the Breaking of the South Fork Dam, Etc
History of the Johnstown Flood Including All the Fearful Record the Breaking of the South Fork Dam Etc Author:Willis Fletcher Johnson Subtitle: With Full Accounts Also of the Destruction of the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers and the Bald Eagle Creek General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1889 Original Publisher: J.H. Earle Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. ... more »When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. Twenty miles up Conemaugh creek, beyond the workingmen's villages of South Fork and Mineral Point, was Conemaugh lake. It was a part of the old and long disused Pennsylvania Canal system. At the head of Conemaugh creek, back among the hills, three hundred feet or more above the level of Johnstown streets, was a small, natural lake. When the canal was building, the engineers took this lake to supply the western division of the canal which ran from there to Pittsburgh. The Eastern division ended at Hollidays- burgh east of the summit of the Alleghanies, where there was a similar reservoir. Between the two was the old Portage road, one of the first railroads constructed in the State. The canal was abandoned some years ago, as the Pennsylvania road destroyed its traffic. The Pennsylvania Company got a grant of the canal from the State. Some years after the canal was abandoned the Hollidaysburgh reservoir was torn down, thewater gradually escaping into the Frankstown branch of the Juniata river. The people of the neighborhood objected to the existence of the reservoir after the canal was abandoned, as little attention was paid to the structure, and the farmers in the valley below feared that the dam would break and drown them. The water was all let out of that reservoir about three years ago. The dam above Johnstown greatly increased the small natural lake there. It was a pleasant drive from Johnstown to the reservoir. Boating and fishing parties of...« less