

South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club - mikemajzoub
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Fork_Fishing_and_Hunting_Club

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67726e
I'm not asking along the lines of the usual "this isn't tech" \- It's just
nothing jumps out at me about the article. Can someone explain the
significance?

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markolschesky
Wow. I'm not OP but I'm really amazed to see a story about the Johnstown Flood
on the front page of Hacker News. I'm originally from the area and I even
wrote a large research paper about this when I was in college.

The short story is that many of the rich elite of the late 1880s would
vacation near a man made dam in South Fork PA. The hills of the Alleghenies
are ominous with a water migration route that leads straight into downtown
Johnstown, which was then a bustling steel town. On May 31, 1889 a historic
rain caused the dam to fail. This caused a wall of water to crash upon
Johnstown, leading to 2209 deaths and what was effectively the destruction of
the city. It was one of the first big stories in the post-antebellum nation
and also was one of the first disasters which the American Red Cross and Clara
Barton were onsite to help with.

The common story and moral derived from said story is that the rich patrons
that owned the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club did not maintain the dam
which caused the dam to fail which was responsible for the fatalities caused
by the flood. Lawsuits were dismissed as the flood was thought to have been an
"act of God". It could be seen today (and was when now-famous historian David
McCullough wrote his book about this 1968) as being indicative of how rich and
the 1% lead to the direct damage and destruction of the lower class.

As someone who has researched it, there is far more to it than that. But,
kinda cool to see it posted here.

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smoyer
I live up in Boalsburg (near State College) and have visited both the museum
and the remains of the dam. The article really doesn't do the scope of the
destruction justice. Many of the pictures show an entire small city reduced to
matchsticks ... except the individual matchsticks are 2x4s.

I have to believe the guy that salvaged the drain-pipes is the most likely
criminal in the whole affair. You _do_ have to wonder about rich people who
buy a dam that's been leaking during its entire existence.

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delsarto
There is a big deal made of this in "The Men Who Built America" [1] which I
started watching because it came up on Netflix. Maybe it is new there and
people have started watching it

[1]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2167393/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2167393/)

