The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1889-06-13
TaE UONEMAUCH GORGE.

tragedy.
TIE CONEMAUGH GORGE.
Standing on the ragged edge of the
broken dam one is impressed with the
sudden change in the natural confor-
nation which made the destruction of
Johnstown possible. Above is the val
ley, with such gentle sweep that farm
ing lands came down to the waters
edge. So gradual is the fall that this
dam backed the water up the valley for
a distance of more than three miles.
The lake had for its greatest depth of
sixty feet width of nearly mile in
places.
But below the dam site all is differ
.ent. The formation is a gorge rather
than valley, with sides that rise so
abruptly that they call for practieed
mountain climbing. This gorge in
places is barely wide enough for the
river and railroad. Still preserving
this formation it widens little at sew
eral places, and there, in turn, where
the mining and manufacturing settle
ments of South Fork, Mineral Point,
ConemaUgh, Woodvale and finally
Johnstown, with it's business houses
and two-thirds of its residences in the
forks of the Conemaugh and the Stony
creek. All they way down from the
dam to Johnstown the route of the
wave was this alternately widening
and narrowing gorge. 1t is anything
J but straight path. Tortuous turns
abound. AT one place, known as the
Horse Shoe, there is more than half "a
circle. In the ten miles of the gorge
from the dam to JohDStown there are
twenty angles.
The character of the route explains
much that at first seems inexplicable
when the situation at Johnstown is
viewed. 1t tells why the wave main
tanned its heighth. 1t shows how it
gathered solid front of logs and
wreckage. When it struck the city
and plowed path straight through
The heart, it was something more than
a wall of water. It was solid mass.
1t came as if sent by catapult. The
rapid descent of the gorge gave ii
speed and force. The composite mass
held together even after it struck
JOhnstown. and the pathway is as il
hewn on lines run by an engineer. Or
feither side of this pathway are par
italy wrecked houses. In the path
way, not only vas the strongest build
ing laid low, but the wreckage was
; leveled as if a glacier had passed ovel
it. For mile and more the path
, way was plowed aud then the wave
} struck the Stony creek, spread out anC
, scattered, wrecking the weakel
structures and carrying them dow
stream, but leaving many stronge
buildings comparatively firm on thei
= foundations. The water was higl
enough to drown and the curren
fierce enough to do great damage al
I through the city, but no where did tn
wave grind its way as where it wen
S through the heart of the city when
i came out of the heart of the gorge.
S Another strange thing. The Cone
n maugh channel just at the upper edg
! of Johnstown, as it comes out of tn
n gorge, comes sharply to the right an
Y passes down by the side of the cit!
IS When the mass of water and wreckap
# came out Of the last section of I'll
70 gorge and reached JOhnstoWn, it disr,
It garded the channel, went over the le
bank and shot forward in the exal
direction the last portion of the gort
q had given it,and this direction it mali
lie tanned until it had passed entire
t. through the city and had reached Il
IT Stony Greek. Had the wave followt
IL the channel of the Conemaugh to Il
pr natural junction with Stony Creek, Il
Id loss of life would have been nOthIl
p like what it was. But when it left Il
ly channel and shot straight across Il
T. city to Stony Creek, it caught thou
ne ands in a triangle with this wave, Il
10 river and the creek for the base Al
T. sides. Had the wave come down Il
T. channel, thousands would have bet
or able to reach the high ground, who,
l. it was, were first cut off in their fig
Of and then carried down into the ma
I'd which lodged against the stone bridg
1t was as if some demonlac agen'
I'd had planned for the gretest destru
Y tion of human life possible at John
y town. First there was the gatheriI
: up of the wreckage in front as Il
l. wave came down the gorge. The
ID there was the tremendous impetl
l. gained as the mass descended, ar
ID finally there was the departure fro
IS the rivers course, and the irresistib
s. rush across the city, hemming in a
N who were between the two swolle
% streams and the path which the way
took for itself.
4 The latest estimates reduce great
IS the casualties at Johnstown. I'll
e number of deaths is now placed &
n 5000.