On May 31, 1889, the ill-maintained South Fork Dam in central Pennsylvania collapsed due to torrential rains. The flood that swept through Johnstown and the surrounding area resulted in the deaths of over 2200 people and property damage worth $17 million—$475 million in today’s dollars. One-third of the victims were unidentifiable and interred in a mass grave at Grandview Cemetery on a hill overlooking the city. Although the tragedy occurred 130 years ago, it continues to influence American popular culture. In this paper, I will first examine the marble and granite memorial erected at the site of the mass grave in 1892, and then review several depictions of and references to the flood in American literature, film, and song from 1889 to 2017.
About the presenterPatricia M. Radecki
Patricia Radecki is Professor of English at Nassau College, SUNY, where she teaches composition, applied linguistics, and folklore—as well as helps coordinate ESL curriculum. In addition to the topic of death in American culture, her research interests include Old Regular Baptist hymnody and the Bible as literature.