Visited the Johnstown Flood National Memorial today.
Posted by
CovingtonCat
Aug 25 '12, 17:15
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I knew a fair amount about the dam break and flood but seeing the valley where the lake was and the remains of the dam was interesting. The Park Service has a nice little visitor center with a very dramatic film about the event. I kept wondering how a disaster caused by ineptness rated a National Park site. Then a ranger told us John Murtha was responsible (his district included Johnstown) for this and another nearby (Allegheny Portage Railroad NHS). You have to really want to go to the Johnstown site because it's a bit off the beaten path (who goes to Johnstown these days?). There were maybe 20 other people there when we were there. The ranger says they get steady visitors but I did overhear one joke to another about being laid off. She also told us that until recently the Park Service had been cutting back vegetation in the valley where the lake had been because it helped visitors imagine the size of the lake. However, there's a new naturalist involved that's convinced the Service to let Nature take over so eventually the vally will go back to how it was before the dam was first built 150 years ago. Seems to me that when that happens there'll be nothing there any longer to keep the Park Service around.
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