Reply #11: Robber barons and the Johnstown flood (interesting article) [View All]

http://www.jaha.org/FloodMuseum/clubanddam.html

The South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club counted many of Pittsburgh's leading industrialists and financiers among its 61 members, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Mellon, and Philander Knox. (click here for a complete list of club members).

The club did engage in periodic maintenance of the dam, but made some harmful modifications to it. They installed fish screens across the spillway to keep the expensive game fish from escaping, which had the unfortunate effect of capturing debris and keeping the spillway from draining the lake's overflow. They also lowered the dam by a few feet in order to make it possible for two carriages to pass at the same time, so the dam was only about four feet higher than the spillway. The club never reinstalled the drainage pipes so that the reservoir could be drained.