Johnstown Flood National Memorial

View down the mountain from the visitor center at the Johnstown Flood Memorial

July 1, 2017

Day 2 found us driving to the city of Johnstown about 40 minutes from the RV park. Johnstown is located deep in a valley with steep sides. Streets are winding and switch back on themselves to keep the roads from being too steep. Neighborhoods look terraced, each road taller than the next. 

The history of the great flood is what brought us to Johnstown and to nearby Stoystown the source of all that water.
Stoystown was home to the South Fork Fishing and Country Club in the late 1800's. That exclusive club was attended by wealthy and influential businessmen from nearby Pittsburgh.  The club had a lake that was created by the South Fork Dam, an earth filled structure. The dam had fallen into disrepair in the 8 years since it was built. Several days of heavy rain in late May of 1889 weakened it further. Despite late repair efforts it collapsed on the afternoon of May 31.

The water rushed 14 miles to Johnstown at an estimated speed of 40 miles per hour sweeping away every thing in its path. People, houses, animals and even a passenger train joined the flood down the mountain. That mass of water destroyed the town of Johnstown killing 2209 people and destroying 1600 homes. 
The estimated 20 million tons of water took only 10 minutes to reach Johnstown. 

To me the saddest thing of all was a fire that started in a massive pile of debris that was blocked by a stone railroad bridge. That fire killed 80 survivors of the flood before rescuers could get to them with tools to free them from the wreckage. Police and fire stations, hardware stores and personal garages, basically any source of equipment had been washed away. 

Clean up and rebuilding started almost immediately. The terrible job of identifying the victims was nearly impossible. There are 777 graves in Grandview Cemetery, with markers that say unknown.
Donations came in from all over the country.

Clara Barton, at age 67, and 5 members of the American Red Cross worked to provide supplies and shelter to those who had lost everything. The Philadelphia Red Cross provided medical relief. The great flood was the first major peacetime relief effort of the Red Cross. 

It took another 5 years for the city to rebuild, but recovery took a lot longer. I can't imagine there was anyone in Johnstown that was not personally touched by the event.

In the early 1960's author David McCullough interviewed survivors of the flood about their experiences. 70 years later their voices broke as they cried while telling their stories. 

The  Johnstown Flood National Memorial is at the site of the South Fork Dam and clubhouse. The Visitor Center exhibits recordings of those interviews. 

There were several contributing factors to the flood and massive loss of life.
*South Fork Dam had deteriorated due to poor maintenance.
*That  May had been very wet. Heavy rain in the days before the collapse created severe pressure on the dam. The screens on the dam became clogged. There were no sluice pipes for controlled water release. The only way for water to leave was over the top of the dam, leading to catastrophic failure.
*Johnstown was a flood prone city. The dam had partially collapsed twice before, flooding homes with 2-3 feet of water. The Little Conemaugh River had flooded many times in the past. When warned of an impending breach of the dam most people in town moved themselves, furniture and personal items to the second floor and attics of their homes and prepared to wait for the water to recede. 

I have ordered David McCollough's book the Johnstown Flood to learn more about the aftermath of the disaster and rebuilding of the city.

It was poor planning on our part to visit the Flight 93 Memorial and the Johnstown Flood National Historic Site on consecutive days. We are glad to have seen both but if you are planning a similar trip I would advise doing something less emotionally charged in between the visits.

On a lighter note.

Johnstown is Hockeyville USA.  The are several cities designated Hockeytown by Kraft foods but Johnstown was the first.  We are reminded that the movie Slapshot was filmed here. 

Inclined Plane 

The city also has the worlds steepest Vehicular Incline Plane. The funicular, built in 1891 is included in the National Register of Historic Places. It was built after the great flood of 1889 and was intended as a means to escape to higher ground in the event of another flood.  

It has been used for that purpose twice.
Today the Incline Plane provides a means of transport up and down the mountain. We rode to the top with a man who biked to work everyday and returned home via the Incline Plane.

View form the top of the hill above the Inclined Plane

The views are spectacular, worth the terrifying 90 seconds of vertical lift.
There is a gift shop, an ice cream stand, and a great Italian restaurant at the top called Asiago. 

July 3, 2017

We are deep in Pittsburgh Country.  Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins logos and colors are everywhere. 
Fred wore his Yankee hat proudly when we attended a game in PNC Park. 

PNC Park has River Views.

The stadium is beautiful with great views of boat traffic on the Alleghney River. The Roberto Clemente Bridge in the background is closed to motor traffic when there is a game scheduled. It makes a wide walkway into the stadium and is lined with street performers, vendors and fans. Definitely a party atmosphere. We enjoyed the game as well as the Pirate music and "Hoist the Colors" rally cry. Big skull and crossbones flags are welcomed in the stands.
Pittsburgh looks like a great city with lots to see and do. We will plan enough time to explore it more when when the Behemoth brings us this way again.

Johnstown Flood National Memorial
733 Lake Rd
South Fork, PA

Johnstown Inclined Plane
711 Edgehill Dr
Johnstown, PA

Flight 93 National Memorial

June 29, 2017

Our second stop on the trip west is in New Florence Pennsylvania. We chose the area because it is at the center of 3 National Park Service sites that we want to visit. 

We arrived at Mirror Lake RV Park in mid afternoon and were directed to a site that backed right up to a trout stream.  It was a delightful spot.

We asked for restaurant advice from the park manager and were directed to Dave and Carol’s Roadhouse in the nearby Ligonier. It was a great Birthday dinner and bonus! Fred discovered Iron City Ale.

Ligonier is a small city with a vibrant downtown full of shops
and restaurants and a city park complete with gazebo. We never found the time to stop and walk around but it looked like fun.

The Flight 93 Visitor Center sits high on a hill and can be seen from miles away.

The next day we drove to rural Shanksville Pennsylvania, about an hour away.
Shanksville is the site of the Flight 93 National Memorial.
It is a tribute to the 40 passengers and crew of the plane that left Newark, New Jersey that morning and at 1003 overwhelmed hijackers causing the plane to crash into the countryside.

We started our tour at the Visitor Center where exhibits brought back all of the memories of September 11, 2001.

We watched the newscasts of that terrible day and remembered where we were and what we were doing when the world changed.

We listened to the voices of passengers as they called their family members to say goodbye with tears running down our faces.

We looked at artifacts from the debris field and imagined the horror that those passengers felt, wondering if we would have the courage to do the same.

View from the trail. The white structure is the wall of names  The boulder is at the tree line beyond it.

The Visitor Center sits on a hill overlooking the crash site. The views from the windows and outdoor observation deck are incredible. There is a winding trail down to the debris field which is marked by a large boulder. The path passes the place where family members observed the recovery effort and built a temporary memorial.

Near the boulder we found the Wall of Names. The wall is made up of 40 tall white marble tablets, each one inscribed with the name of a passenger or crew member. The Visitor Center and the Wall of Names are both positioned in the flight path of flight 93.

Fred reading the Wall of Names

Beyond the debris field is a Memorial Plaza that leads to a Visitor Shelter where exhibits explain the construction of the monument.

This boulder was added to mark the crash site.

We were told that the crash site was once a strip mine. I would never have recognized that. The entire area has been landscaped and planted with grasses and wildflowers native to Pennsylvania.

Native grasses and wildflowers cover the old strip mine.

The trail on the other side of the Visitor shelter was closed for maintenance on the day of our visit.
That trail called an Allee passes 40 groves of trees and over a wetland area via the Wetlands Bridge.

There are plans to build a Tower of Voices. This tower will contain 40 chimes. Construction is anticipated to begin within the next 2 years.

The Flight 93 Memorial is a well thought out design full of symbolism and personal stories. The families of the victims were very involved in the planning. That involvement kept the Memorial focused on the heroic efforts of the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
We are glad to have gone but needed some time to recover after the experience.

Driving home we noticed signs for the Glessner Covered Bridge and took a 20 mile detour to find it.

Glessner covered bridge 

The one lane bridge constructed in 1881 crosses the Stonycreek River. It reminded us of some that we have seen in Vermont and New Brunswick, Canada. We enjoyed a brief stop and then a drive home on unpaved country back roads. The views from the top of the mountains and deep into the valleys are spectacular. They helped to soothe our sadness.

Flight 93 National Memorial
6424 Lincoln Highway
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
open daily 9-5

Glessner Covered Bridge
Covered Bridge Road
Shanksville, Pennsyvania
Be careful we ended up with a flat tire on the dirt roads.

De Soto National Memorial

Conquistador Hernando De Soto was an experienced explorer by the time he landed in Florida's Tampa Bay in May of 1539. He had spent years under the governorship of Pedrarias Davila exploring and plundering areas of what is now Peru and Central America.
He had set sail from Cuba with 9 ships containing an army of 600 soldiers, craftsmen and 12 members of the clergy to conquer a portion of the new unexplored world called la Florida. The vessels also brought horses, war dogs and pigs to the new world. De Soto and his crew are thought to have made landfall at Piney Point and set up camp at Uzita, a native American village on the Manatee River.
Piney Point, where the expedition is said to have come ashore is where the National Memorial is today.
The park is located on the river, just beyond a residential neighborhood. You will know when you are getting close because the street signs have the image of a conquistadors helmet on them.
The De Soto National Memorial has a Visitor Center with plenty of parking. Near the Visitor Center you will find Camp Uzita, a recreation of the Uzita Village that De Soto and his troops occupied after landing. In the Winter months Park Rangers and volunteers dress in period costume to demonstrate daily activities of life in that time period.

Fred the Conquistador

During the off season you can see exhibits of armor and weapons inside the Visitor Center. It was very interesting to try on armor and helmets. The helmets were huge. We thought that the Spanish explorers must have had very large heads, but then realized there was a fabric hat that went underneath the helmet and a neck piece that held it up.  It must have been unbearable in the Florida Summer to wear heavy European clothing covered up by chain maille and solid armor. Those shiny metal helmets would have been like an oven.
Fred enjoyed a long conversation with the Park Ranger on duty about the halberd weapon and its similarity to a current fire fighting tool. It was interesting to learn that the halberd is still in use by the Swiss Guard at the Vatican.

Boardwalk through the mangroves

We watched a 20 minute film at the Visitor Center that described De Sotos fruitless search for gold and other material riches through what is now Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas.

The National Memorial site includes a 1 mile Nature Trail. The trail begins to the right of the Visitor Center. As you approach the water you can see across the Manatee River to Tampa Bay with the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. This is a lovely spot for picnicking and boat watching.
The Nature Trail is very easy walking along the water and through a forest of black, red and white mangroves on packed sand and boardwalk. The Spanish moss and ball moss hanging from the trees are like lace curtains as you walk along the trail.

There are points of interest along the way that include native plants labeled with their names as well as how they would have been used by indigenous people.

The nature trail

We also found a shell midden, a tabby house ruin (tabby is an old kind of concrete made of burned oyster shells), a cross, and the Holy Eucharist Monument.  The Holy Eucharist Monument is also called the Hernando De Soto Catholic Memorial. It was originally exhibited at the World's Fair in New York in 1969 before finding a home at Piney Point.

Henando De Soto Catholic Memorial

The cross was erected as a memorial to the 12 catholic priests who traveled with De Soto.  The cross and Holy Eucharist monument are owned by the Catholic Diocese of Venice who used to own the land where they sit. That land called Riverview Pointe Preserve is now owned by Manatee county. It has been registered as a National Historic Place and is administered by the county and the National Park service. There was once a 9 foot bronze statue of De Soto here but it was removed due to vandalism. It is currently on display at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton.

Memorial cross

Near these monuments is a nice stretch of sandy beach. There were many party boats anchored here. Boaters had grills out and were cooking an afternoon dinner, flying frisbees and playing with their dogs. There was a nice selection of Caypso music drifting over the water. We stopped to speak to a couple whose poodles were enjoying the sand and water but nobody offered us a beer so we continued our walk.  Next trip we will remember to bring the picnic basket.

We found the party beach. Every waterfront National Park seems to have one.

The De Soto National Monument is the start of The De Soto Trail, a 34 stop Florida driving tour of locations connected to the expedition.
De Soto's quest for riches and personal glory was devastating to many of the native peoples his expedition encountered. The spread of disease and superior weaponry killed many. Although his dream was never accomplished and he died on the journey Hernando De Soto is remembered as the first European explorer to travel and document what is now the Southern United States and to cross the Mississippi River.

Ball moss in the mangroves

The De Soto National Memorial
8300 De Soto Memorial Highway
Bradenton, Florida
(941) 792-0458