The Rich Men's Dam
In 1889 a dam owned by an exclusive club for the wealthy collapsed and killed more than 2,000 people. Not one member was ever held liable.
High in the hills above Johnstown, Pennsylvania sat a private lake — the summer playground of an exclusive club whose members included some of the richest men in America. The dam that held it back had been patched and neglected for years. On May 31, 1889, it gave way.
The Wall of Water
Twenty million tons of water roared down the valley and into Johnstown, smashing the town to splinters in minutes. More than 2,200 people died. Whole families were erased.
The dam was a rich men's convenience. The bill came due downstream.
No One Paid
The club's members were never held legally responsible. Courts treated the disaster as an act of God. The survivors received charity — not justice.
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More than two thousand died. The men whose lake drowned them paid nothing.
You've Seen the File.
A neglected dam owned by the wealthy drowned an entire town, and no one was held responsible. An act of God, or a cover for the powerful?
The Johnstown Flood — David McCullough
McCullough's classic account of the disaster and the men who let it happen.
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