Maybe not so much a single monument but all the sites related to the devastating Johnstown Flood of 1889 in Johnstown (and surrounding towns/areas), Pennsylvania, USA.
I'm feeling about ready to fall asleep and I am probably going to sign off for now but I will plan on sharing some information on this soon for you, Neelie. I've got some jam-packed days in front of me but I will plan on sharing. In general, a man-made earthen dam (South Fork Dam) held back the waters of Conemaugh Lake at South Fork, high in the hills/mountains of western/central Pennsylvania. Rich steel industrialists of the Steel Tycoon Era partly owned the lake and dam. The lake and surrounding clubhouses were a private club for rich people mainly from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA - -it was a lake retreat for them. Men like Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie. The club owners were repeatedly told that the dam needed upkeep and repair. They did nothing. The dam failed on May 31, 1889, in part, due to a massive rain storm but to a large degree the dam's condition couldn't hold the pressure. Witnesses said the dam didn't explode, it more just "melted away." And huge amounts of water swept downhill to the valley, wiping out small villages/towns along the way. The water took a full 45 minutes to arrive in Johnstown, twisting and turning through tight, narrow turns of the natural terrain of the land, where, by the time it hit Johnstown, the water was a massively-high wall of dark water filled with earth, trees, wreckage and dead bodies; an almost solid moving wall. And it also contained remains of a barbed wire factory. The barbed wire added horror for many people as they got caught on it with the water. A huge wall of all this ripped through the town in about ten minutes and slammed into a big stone bridge and the water/etc. stopped to a good degree, stopped by the bridge. But water also backwashed back upstream. Then many people stuck in this pile at the bridge - - they were trying to get out of the pile and due to oil in the refuse, the huge pile caught on fire -- burning many alive-but-trapped people to death. Witnesses could do little but listen to the death screams of people dying -- they couldn't get to the people in the fire pile to help them. About 2,200 people died in about ten minutes. (I believe that's approximately the death total but I'm unsure if that includes all the victims in the upper valley towns that got wiped out as the water rushed from the dam towards Johnstown.)
Walking and driving the area where all this happened - - sobering to me. I've been to the area about three times. Somehow this disaster has impacted me tremendously for a good portion of my life, ever since as a young teenager when I first saw a book about it.
(Oh -- and none of the owners of the dam were ever held accountable for anything about the disaster. They walked away scot-free, even though, in my opinion, it was all their fault for not maintaining the earthen dam.)
I guess I typed a lot more than I intended, ha! I believe that's a lot of the main points of the event. :)
This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at October 27, 2017 2:53 AM MDT
I cannot remember any historical monument that ever thrilled me.
I do remember the California Redwoods and the Rocky Mountains and Big Sur thrilling me to death when I was just turning 20 and just fresh out of the Mid-West never even being this far West. That was so memorable that the West has always felt like home to me.
It's a monument in the making. Wild mustangs. Seeing wild horses out west was something I will not forget. But, they are being rounded up and eventually will be gone and some talented soul will make a monument at one of many places to park and wait to see them on the drive across Washington State.
This post was edited by Baba at October 27, 2017 9:52 PM MDT
WelbyQuentin 