The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was a Pennsylvania corporation which operated an exclusive and secretive retreat at a mountain lake near South Fork, Pennsylvania for more than fifty extremely wealthy men and their families. The club was the owner of the South Fork Dam, which failed during an unprecedented period of heavy rains, resulting in the disastrous Johnstown Flood on May 31, 1889.
The failure released an estimated 20 million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh, wreaking devastation along the valley of South Fork Creek and the Little Conemaugh River as it flowed about a dozen miles downstream to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where the confluence of the Little Conemaugh and Stonycreek River forms the Conemaugh River, a tributary of the Allegheny River.
It was the worst disaster event in U.S. history at the time, and relief efforts were among the first major actions of Clara Barton and the newly-organized American Red Cross which she led. The death toll from the 1889 flood was approximately 2,209, about 1/3 of whom were individuals who were never identified.
Despite some years of claims and litigation, the club and its members were never found to be liable for monetary damages. The corporation was disbanded in 1904 and the real estate assets were sold by the local sheriff at public auction, largely to satisfy a pre-existing mortgage on the large clubhouse.
Read more about South Fork Fishing And Hunting Club: Dam and Club History, Major Flaws Regarding The Dam, Club Members, The Flood, Aftermath, South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club Historic District, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words south, fork, fishing, hunting and/or club:
“While the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“They take unbelievable pleasure in the hideous blast of the hunting horn and baying of the hounds. Dogs’ dung smells sweet as cinnamon to them.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“Of course we women gossip on occasion. But our appetite for it is not as avid as a man’s. It is in the boys’ gyms, the college fraternity houses, the club locker rooms, the paneled offices of business that gossip reaches its luxuriant flower.”
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)