Blog

May 17, 2023

Editorial

Luminarias glow at the Johnstown Flood National Memorial on Wednesday, May 31,

Luminarias glow at the Johnstown Flood National Memorial on Wednesday, May 31, 2023.

This has been a banner year so far for efforts to preserve and pass on the story of one of the most significant historical events ever to happen in the Johnstown area.

Volunteers lit candles on May 31, the 134th anniversary of the 1889 Johnstown flood, in memory of the 2,209 people who died when the South Fork Dam broke and let 20 million tons of water rush downstream.

The annual ceremony at the National Park Service's Johnstown Flood National Memorial featured luminarias – 2,209 glowing candles placed inside white paper bags, each of which had the name of a flood victim written on it, a stark visualization of the scale of the tragedy.

"Whatever form the name is in, it really makes that connection that that was a human being living in Johnstown that lost their life on May 31," Doug Bosley, the memorial's chief of interpretation, told our Dave Sutor. "It really kind of makes it hit home when you think of all those individual lives that were cut short that day. It makes you think a little bit more about your own humanity and how things can change in an instant."

Among the volunteers who participated in the luminaria ceremony were Forest Hills Elementary School students, who wrote the flood victims’ names on the paper bags, and members of Boy Scouts of America Troop 2025 in Richland Township, who helped light the candles.

The troop's scoutmaster, Todd Shaffer, said: "It's neat to teach the history of Johnstown to the scouts. It's a good way to teach what happened here."

Meanwhile, leaders at the Johnstown Flood Museum in downtown Johnstown are celebrating the museum's 50th anniversary and looking forward to the next half-century, which Johnstown Area Heritage Association President Richard Burkert told Sutor is "going to be great for this organization."

The museum, 304 Washington St., is undergoing renovations including roof and window repairs. New exhibits are being developed that will tell the story of the flood.

"Even today," Burkert said, "there's a great deal of interest with the Johnstown Flood, and each generation kind of reinterprets that story, what it means to them. … It's one of these evergreen subjects – something that will always be of interest to people."

Among the people interested in the flood story are a trio of playwrights from the United Kingdom who became inspired to explore the history of a city they’d never heard of before, located thousands of miles from their home, as Eric Knopsnyder reported for The Tribune-Democrat late last month.

"The Incredible True Story of the Johnstown Flood," despite its title, is a fictionalized retelling of the disaster by Andrew Whyment, Adam Foster and Lee Anderson, of London- based Squint Theatre, whose sources included David McCullough's famous 1968 book "The Johnstown Flood." The play was published as part of an anthology in February.

Whyment told Knopsnyder that he and his co- authors read McCullough's book and "discovered that there was a theater company in town on the night of the flood in 1889 and they were caught up in the disaster. … That sort of catalyzed an idea, which is, essentially, ‘Imagine if that theater troupe, a little bit like us in 1889, decided to hang around and turn their experience into a play.’

"Those were the seeds that unlocked the writing process for us."

Another fictionalized telling of the flood story – the 1926 silent film "The Johnstown Flood" – was restored and revived in May at the State Theater of Johnstown.

A one-night-only special screening was held as a fundraiser for JAHA and the Johnstown Flood Museum.

The film, which had top-notch special effects for the era, was remastered from the original 35mm nitrate film and converted into digital form by prominent film restorers Robert Harris and James Mockoski, as Sutor reported.

"A major impetus for us was to scan in 4K this original, nearly hundred-year-old print so that audiences today could really see what a film looked like projected in that era, not through dupes, but through an original," Harris said.

Also in May, officials celebrated a recreation milestone years in the making – the completion of the Path of the Flood Trail all the way from the ruined dam to downtown Johnstown, following the path the water took in 1889.

Runners competing in the 14-mile race in this year's Path of the Flood Historic Races on May 27 started their journeys at the dam for the first time ever, and race director Mark Voelker had them pause for a moment to reflect on the site's history before they took off.

We salute all of these efforts and others to preserve the flood story, and look forward to more such work to come in the future, including at a renovated, revitalized Johnstown Flood Museum.

A single candle flickered through the darkness Wednesday night in memory of Casper Wehn at the Johnstown Flood National Memorial.

There were lights too for Maggie A. Harris, Mrs. Blough, W.F. Dow and a person known to history only as "Clark child #7." All told, 2,209 luminarias – with names written on the white bags – glowed in honor of the people who died during the Johnstown Flood on May 31, 1889.

Johnstown Magazine is a positive and forward-thinking monthly publication for the people of our region.

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