Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-06-07

this country occurred i'm Pennsylvania on
Friday of last week. Its full history has
not yet been written and all the facts will
probably never be known. From 5000
to 10000 persons and perhaps more lost
their lives and property to the value of
oyer S5O,0O0,000 was destroyed.
The scene of the horrible affair was the
valley of the Conemaugh river, which
rises on the western slope of the Alle-
ghany mountains and flows down mar
row valley between high hills. In tri-
angular valley of four square miles area,
where Stony Creek empties into the riv-
er, stood the city of Johnstown, place
of over 10000 inhabitants. Both below
and above Johnstown the valley Is "
shaped and narrow. just below Johns
town the Pennsylvania railroad crosses
the valley on massive stone viaduct. In
the mountains up the valley, 10 miles
above Johnstown, the South Fork empties
into the Conemaugh, and four miles up
the valley of the fork stood the dam,
the breaking of which caused the devas-
tation. The body of water was known
as Conemaugh lake. 1t was about three
and a half miles long and from mile to
one and a quarter miles in width and in
some places 100 feet in depth. The lake
had been quadrupled in size by artificial
from 700 to 1000 feet wide, 80 feet in
thickness at the base and ITO feet in
height. At the junction of the South
Fork with the Conemaugh river stood the
town of South Fork with about 5000 in
habtants. Four miles further down on
the COnemaugh river was the town or
Mineral Point. 1t had 500 inhabitants,
ninety per cent of the houses being on
fiat and close to the river. Six miles fur
ther down was the town of Conemaugh.
1t contained $500 inhabitants. Woodvale,
with 2000 people, lay a mile below Cone
maugh in the fiat, and one mile further
down were Johnstown and its cluster of
sister towns-Cambria City and Cone
maugh borough, with a total population
of 0,000. On made ground and stretched
along right at the river verge were the
immense iron works of the Cambria Iron
and Steel Co. Still further down the val
ley were the towns of Sang Hollow and
Nineveh.
The heavy rains of last week poured
an immense body of water of the noun
tans into the dam. 1t burst and the great
mass swept down into the COnemaugh
valley. When it reached Johnstown it
bore the wreckage of the houses i'll the
several towns in the valley above and
this was carried on a stream of water over
40 feet high and the whole width of the
valley. so it swept on till it struck the
railroad viaduct below Johnstown. There
much of the wreckage was checked and
the raging waters, unable for the moment
to pass onward down the valley, turned
and formed huge whirlpool where
Johnstown stood, grinding the houses
which sheltered 10000 people, the people
themselves, and everything else which
in ha ri
der. TO add to the horrors of the situa-
ton the mass of debris piled against the
bridge caught fire from the natural gas
with which the city had been supplied
and burned to the leyel of the water. \
correspondent writing from Johnstown
OH Monday said: 1.-The area of the trian-
gular space where the awful whirlpool
revolved is said to be about four square
miles. The area of the space covered by
this smoking mass is sixty acres. The
surface of this mass is now fifteen feet
below the top of the bridge and about
thirty below the point on the bluff where
the surface of the whirlpool lashed the
banks. One ragged mass some distance
above the bridge rises several feet above
the general level, but with that exception
the surface of the debris is level. 1t has
burned off until it reached the water, and
!
lowers OF the fiat he writes ::
sit is as clean of debris and wreckage
as though there had never been IA build
ing on it. In reality it was the central
and busiest part of JohnstOwn. Build
ings, both dwellings and stores, covered
it thickly. Its streets were paved, and
its sidewalks of substantial stone. 1t had
street-car lines, gas and electric lights,
: and all the other improvements of sub
stantial city of $1,000 or 10000 inhabi-
tants. Iron bridges spanned the streams,
and the buildings were of substantial
= character. Not brick remains, not a
: stone nor a stick of timber in all this ter
ritory. There are not even hummocks
and mounds to show where wreckage
: might be covered with layer of mud.
They are not there. they are gone-every
building, every street, every sidewalk
and pavement, the street railways, and
< everything else that covered the surface
: of the EARTH has vanished as utterly as
though it had never been there"
| Wandering over this muddy plain one
can realize something of what must have
been the gigantic force of that vast whirl-
pool 1t pressed upon the town like some
huge milestone, weighing tens of thou
sands of tons and revolving with awful
velocity, pounding to powder everything
beneath. But the conception of the pow.
er of that horrible eddy of the flood must
5 remain feeble until that sixty acres of
: burning debris is inspected. 1t seem;
from little distance like any other mass
: of wreckage. though vastly longer thar
+: any ever before seen in this country. II
l must have been many times more ire
: mendous when it was heaped up twenty
b, feet higher over its whole area and be
; fore the fire levelled it off. But neither
: then nor now can the full terror of the
: flood that piled it there be adequately
S realized until trip across parts where
e the fire has been extinguished shows the
4 manner in which the stuff composing i
n is packed together. 1t is not heap o.
broken timbers lying loosely thrown to
gether in all directions. 1t is sole
mass. The boards and timbers whicl
4 made up the frame buildings are laid to
t gether as closely as sticks of wood in |
J. pile-more closely, for they are welded
e into one another until each stick is a
e solidly fixed in place as though all wer'