pond in which to
catch fish.

The now famous dam was only a mud bank. For years it was a constant
menace to Johnstown and the Conemaugh Valley. It has long been only a
question of time when the calamity that has befallen these people should
befall them. It came at last because the arrogance of the purse and the
pleasure-seeking selfishness of wealth were blind to the safety of a
populous community.

The cause of the Johnstown disaster was wholly due to the South Fork
Fishing and Hunting Club. This club was specially chartered by the
Legislature, and notwithstanding there was some opposition at the time,
it was accorded the privilege of making an artificial lake and fish pond
by means of an embankment. The site chosen was the old dam on South Fork
Creek, about two miles above the village of South Fork, on the Conemaugh
river. This dam was built by the Pennsylvania Canal in 1830 as a feeder
to the canal below Johnstown. When the canal was finally abandoned,
after passing into the hands of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the
dam was sold to a private buyer for the very reasonable sum of $700. By
him it was afterwards conveyed to the Fishing and Hunting Club for
$1,400. This was about twenty years ago. The club spent $22,000 in
rebuilding the dam and erected a beautiful club house on the west bank
of the artificial lake. Beside the club house there are from twelve to
fifteen cottages, the summer residences of members of the club, all
built since the acquisition of the property twenty years ago. Ten of
these cottages are visible from the embankment where the break occurred.
It was a beautiful spot before the disaster, but this artificial lake in
its placid beauty was a menace to the lives and property of the people
in the Conemaugh Valley from its completion to its destruction.

The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was a very aristocratic and
exclusive organization. Not even Tuxedo puts on more airs. It was
composed of about seventy members, a baker's dozen of them Pittsburgh
millionaires.

These wealthy gentlemen and their associates never so much as recognized
the existence of the common clay of South Fork, except to warn all
intruders to keep off the land and water of the South Fork Fishing and
Hunting Club. Their placards still stare sight-seers in the face. One of
these reads:

PRIVATE PROPERTY.

ALL TRESPASSERS FOUND HUNTING OR FISHING ON
THESE GROUNDS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE
FULL EXTENT OF TH