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David McCullough uses individual vignettes to introduce Johnstown, the surrounding area, and the South Fork Dam. Contrary to my initial opinion, much of the disaster does not seem to be based on corruption in McCullough’s depiction of the event. The South Fork dam itself was properly built. It was created in the standard manner of almost all dams, involving packed earth. The engineers did a competent job. The only problem was maintenance of the dam. The dam was part of a canal that soon became unproductive when a nearby railroad grew rapidly. Attention was soon diverted from the canal and dam to the more profitable and useful railroad. In nakindig’s post it is written, “Preparedness, or lack thereof, is of utmost importance to preventing disasters.” So perhaps the dam should have been maintained and prepared to prevent a disaster. I feel I can’t really place blame on people for focusing on the railroad more than the dam though. I don’t think anyone willfully plotted to let the dam’s condition disintegrate. There is only so much money and time that people necessarily have to concentrate on the most beneficial thing. I’m sure there were other dams built in a similar manner that were also not maintained, but since they did not break, they faded into obscurity. Also it is unclear whose responsibility it was to maintain the dam. The state, the federal government, the builders, people who used the canals, people’s whose homes might flood if the dam failed?
Many of contributing factors seem to be other issues. First, the area is prone to unexpected rains after windstorms; the locals call them “thunder-gusts” (20). Johnstown was built down in a valley, a place prone to flooding. More people moved to Johnstown—which created more possibility for a higher death toll—because it was a growing town. Since the beginning of the war, the west opening, and the Iron Company moving into town, Johnstown attracted many people, McCullough writes.
McCullough also contrasts the people in the Clubhouse with the factory workers in Johnstown. This seems to align with “The Wedge” discussed in this post. Like Emily said her post “The Power of Hardship to Unite,” this poor mass against a few rich people seems to be a stereotype of the Gilded Age. I thinks it is kind of limited to group people into two categories. There are so many varying ranges of wealth, and not all “poor” people are downtrodden, oppressed, and helpless nor are all “wealthy” people evil, selfish, and destructive, not to mention all the people not neatly captured in these two categories.