Midwest Art

July 31, 2010

Johnstown, PA.


ll

The story of the 1889 Johnstown flood holds a certain fascination for us , perhaps because the names are so familiar – names that we’ve heard all of our lives , the great industrialists and financiers who built Pittsburgh. Carnegie , Frick , Pitcairn, Knox , Phippps, Scaife and Mellon were among the 61 members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club which owned the lake and 160 acres of adjacent land.

The lake was originally constructed as a reservoir to provide water for a section of the Pennsylvania canal.   However  before it could be used for this purpose the canal was rendered obsolete by the railroad system. Over the next 21 years the top of the dam crumbled and drainage pipes were removed from beneath the dam. When the club bought the land the dam was in need of costly repairs. They chose to patch instead of repair. The drainage pipes which could have been used to ease pressure on the dam walls were never replaced. The top of the dam was built up with loose fill and then the water was allowed to rise above a structurally safe point. The spillway which should have kept the lake at a safe level was blocked by a debris catching fish screen because the club didn’t want their game fish escaping down the river.

After the dam failed , flooding Johnstown with 20 million tons off water , killing over 2000 people and causing 17 million dollars in property damage , the club members abandoned the property. None of them ever returned to Johnstown and the property was sold at a sheriff’s sale. Individual members contributed small amounts to help the people of Johnstown but neither they or the club ever admitted to any responsibility for the disaster. No lawsuit against the club or any member was successful. 

More pictures- http://cid-4ce32117b0082fb8.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Johnstown%20%5EJPA

July 25, 2010

Leaving Pittsburgh

020a
 
CCC cabins. Few people realize the scope of the CCC. The program put into place by President Roosevelt during the depression to employ young men. At it’s peak in1935 , 2,600 camps employed 500,000 young men.  We’re most familiar with the work that was done in state and national parks but it also included these projects:


  • more than 3,470 fire towers erected;

  • 97,000 miles of fire roads built;

  • 4,235,000 man-days devoted to fighting fires;

  • more than 3 billion trees planted;

  • 7,153,000 man days expended on protecting the natural habitats of wildlife; 83 camps in 15 Western states assigned 45 projects of that nature;

  • 46 camps assigned to work under the direction of the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture Engineering;

  • more than 84,400,000 acres of good agricultural land receive manmade drainage systems; Indian enrollees do much of that work;

  • 1,240,000 man-days of emergency work completed during floods of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys;

  • disease and insect control;

  • forest improvement — timber stand inventories, surveying, and reforestation;

  • forest recreation development — campgrounds built, complete with picnic shelters, swimming pools, fireplaces, and restrooms

    The cabins above , in Raccoon Creek State Park, were in  disrepair with leaking roofs and missing chinking in the logs. They were built from wormy chestnut trees that had died from blight. These trees are now almost extinct  but they once covered acres of the eastern US, an estimated 3 billion trees. We’re so happy that we , along with other volunteers and park employees, were able to save the cabins.

    More pictures here-http://cid-4ce32117b0082fb8.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Leaving%20Pittsburgh
  • About Me

    My photo
    We have been fulltiming in our motorhome since 1993. We've traveled through all 50 states and most of the Canadian provinces.It's a great life!