Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-06-06
FACTS ABOUT THE DAM.
1t Was a Gigantic Heap of Earth-No
MassIve masonry.

1t Was a Gigantic Heap of Esrth-No
Massive Masonry.
JoHNsTOWN, PA, Juue 5.-The inves-
LEGATIONS of reporter to-day show clearly
that the major part of whatever response.
bilities may belong to human agencies for
the calamity that has desOlated the Cone
maugh Valley must he placed upon the
South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club,
the association of wealthy Pittsburg gem
tlemen that has for four or five years pest
been endeavoriDg to establish a sports
mems paradise at Conemaugh Lake. When
they leased the lake they closed the waste
gates through which all the water that had
ever before accumulated in Oonemsugh
Lake had found a safe and speedy exit.
It is measurably certain that, had the
waste gates been maintained, the dam
would never have given way. They were
removed, it is said, because whenever they
we're opened the game fish with which the
lake was being stocked would escape The
fish have escaped all the same and the
lives of $4,000 human beings have gone
with them.
As to the dam itself, no description yet
printed gives any hint as to its character.
There is no massive masonry, nor any tre-
mendous exhibition of engineering skill in
designing the structure or putting it up.
There was no masonry at all, in fact nor
any engineering worthy of the name. The
dam was simply gigantic heap of earth
dumped &C oss the course of mountain
stream between two low hills. 1t was
faced on each side with layer OF heavy
rough stone loosely thrown together and
uncemented. This pile Of earth was, as
mas been stated, abo1t - feet high and
80 feet thick at the base. At the summit
it was leveled so as to be about 20 feet
wide. aud a wagon road crossed it. 1t was
an ordinary dirt road and there was no
rock or masonry beneath it. The
width of the stream at the bottom of
the dam was about 40 feet. At the top
the dam was about 400 feet long. II was
built straight across the gap and neither
face nor back was curved The slopes
were about the same on both face and
back. The dam was built many years
ago 10 create q reservoir for use as a feeder
to the Pennsylvania canal. The builders
placed in the 40-foot space at the bottom,
where the creek ran, FIVE huge pipes, each
Az large as n hogshesd. These were COW
cred by an arch of massive mason
ry, and were arranged to be opened or
closed by levers in tower that was built
in the center of the dam.
These five big pipes were calculated to
be large enough to carry all the surplus
water that could ever be poured into the
lake above tina. which could escape by the
regular exit, which was sluice way
around one corner Of the dam
at level Of eight or ten
feet below the top Of the dam. The
.luice way was really a new stream, the
water passing off through it, finding its
picturesquely winding course down the
hillside and running with the stream again
some distance below the dam. The sluice
way snd waste gates never failed to do the
work for which they were designed, and
there is no reason to suppose that they
would have failed to do so at the present
time and for the future, had they been
maintained as the builders contemplated
When the Pennsylvania canal was aban'