11/21/2023
Hope you like history lessons! Here’s a little throwback to about three weeks ago when Gabi and I visited the site of the Austin Dam disaster.
The dam was built in 1909 and catastrophically failed on September 30th, 1911. The dam was built by the Bayless Papermill in order to provide a better water source during series of drought. This gravity dam measured 50 ft tall and 540 feet long and back in that day cost $86,000 to build. (Roughly $2.9 million in today’s money)
The original structure was designed to be 30 ft thick overall and to have a vertical concrete slab underneath the dam to prevent water seeping through the soil underneath where the dam sat. During construction however, the dam was constructed at 20 ft thick and also the vertical concrete slab was deemed too expensive and scrapped from the project. These were direct orders from the paper mill’s owner.
Back then Pennsylvania did not have any regulations or requirements for dam construction. With these changes apparent however, the dam was encouraged to the residents of Austin as “The Dam that could not break” by the owner.
Problems at the dam became apparent shortly after construction was completed. Water had channeled its way underneath the dam and the dam had bowed more than 36 ft from the amount of pressure of the water it was holding. Cracks in the concrete became visible and got progressively worse. The bowing in the dam was alleviated by blowing a 13 ft hole in the dam to allow water to escape. The public was also concerned of the cracking but were assured that it was normal because of the drying concrete.
After a week of heavy rain on September 30th, 1911, the dam was two feet below over flow level. Yet the pressure was too much and the dam failed. Part of the structure slid around 50 feet down the valley and another part opened up like a door allowing all the impounded water to rush down the narrow valley. The wall of water completely destroyed the paper mill and continued and wreaked havoc on the town of Austin. The town was devastated. 78 people lost their lives and the town was left with around $10 million in property damages. This disaster was the second largest in the state behind the Johnstown Flood and inspired legislation in 1913 for the state to regulate dam construction.
Later on in Austin, the paper mill and dam were subsequently rebuilt. Yet, the mill was lost in a fire in 1933 and the dam failed again in 1942. Luckily, no loss of life happened with the second failure.
Overall, it was a fun day learning some of Pennsylvania’s history during our visit and hope you enjoyed the little lesson.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Dam_failure_(Pennsylvania)
