Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1889-08-31
lPranks ofthe Conemaugh Flood

Franks ofthe Conemaugh Flood
The stupendous power of water was
never mo re forcibly illustrated than in
the Conemaugh valley. As the liquid
sparkles in the dew drop. when con-
gealed clinks merrily in the glass and
invites the weary aud heavily laden to
rest and refreshment. as it sings in the
tea kettle a song that to tie expsctant
hungry man is sweetsr than the sweet
est notes from tae most successful diva,
it gives no hint OF the strength it ex.
hibits when its particles are combined
and made mad at the criminal careless
ness of man. A correspondent OF the
Globe-Democrat has recently been
going over the path plowed by the fool
from the South Fork dam and what he
saw he tells in terms that are graphic.
He describes where in one place a
locomotive. that probably weiglsl MOI
less than sixty tons. had beea picSe
up by the resistless tide at the Psnnsyl-
yania roundhousa a11 carried a dis
tanca of two and n half miles and
thrown down on Vine street, in JONAS
town, and then he moralizes: ICY
clones have overturned engines. and
floods have novel than from their
tracts. bat where is thsre precedent
for such a trip?n This engine was not
rolled along as powders aro rolled
smooth on the bottom of soma rapidly
running stream, for it was NOV dis
mantled and ruined. as it wolll sce3-
sarily have been hal such been us ex-
periencs. 1t was picked up Ike an
egg-shell. and rushed along with tao
rest OF the endless wrecks OF hou ses, OF
factories AMI everything elso taas
seemed firm and stable.
With the iron tracks and ties. 80
thoroughly im5eidsl in the roal bal
last that it seemed as ii nothing but
an earth CONFUSION like that sustained
at Charleston could move them. tia
floods toye1 as if they had bssn moth
ing but spiders webs spanning half a
dozen frail strawi. In one spot the
waves lifted one side OF the track with
a gradual slope until the ties stood al
most perpendicular ani with the rails
in position formed what a. distance
looked like powerful picket fence.
There is spot in the bal of the
river" says the correspondent,
where gigantic granite bowldsr
stood eight feet in diam eter AM five
feet high. Its general shape was
rounded so that any ordinary object
striking it would glance Of. A wave
struck that bowldsr and split it in two,
carrying part of it adozan rolls down
stream"
There are acres OF territory in the
Couemaugh valley from which all soil
has been as thoroughly stripped as If a
river had flowed over it for million
years. The soil is not only gone, but
the earth and rocks in places to a
depth of six, eight and ten feet
Streets there were in this valley whose
length was measured by the mile.
There were shade trees OF halt a cel-
tury's growth on each side and be-
meath them were located beautiful
houses. One of the streets in particu-
lar as boulevard has made the valley
famous. There is no vestige of it left;
not board or brick to mark a house,
not stone to indicate a foundation
wall. not root TO tell where once
grew an elm or maple. Everything
was swept away and the country there
is as barren of vegetation or possibili-
ties of vegetation rs the bottom OF q
coal mine. This tremendous Titan Of
the Conemaugh laughed at gravita-
tion's laws as giant would laugh at
the resistance OF an atom.