Five Facts from the Johnstown Flood Museum in Johnstown, Pennsylvania

The Johnstown Flood Museum tells the story of the 1889 Johnstown flood, which killed 2,209 people, and the town’s triumphant recovery. The catastrophic flood of 20 million tons of water destroyed four square miles of downtown, leaving a prospering city a wasteland. News of the Johnstown flood was the second-biggest news story of the 19th century, after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

The museum shows how the disaster captured the popular imagination then, and how it profoundly affected American history. Exhibits show the cause of the disaster, its devastating effects, the town’s incredible recovery and the flood’s influence on popular culture. A multimedia map traces the path of the flood from Lake Conemaugh and the ill-fated South Fork Dam to Johnstown. Flood artifacts, photography and an original Oklahoma House used to shelter survivors are shown. The Oklahoma House is an early example of prefabricated housing originally used by settlers moving west, but was also used as relief housing for Johnstown flood survivors.

Tickets to the Johnstown Flood Museum include admission to several related attractions in the Johnstown Discovery Network. These are the Heritage Discovery Center, including the Iron & Steel Gallery; Wagner-Ritter House & Garden; and Johnstown Children’s Museum.

Here are five facts from the Johnstown Flood Museum:

Tree Impales Home. An iconic image of the Johnstown flood damage shows the Schulz house on its side, impaled by an enormous, uprooted tree. Incredibly, all six people in the house survived. People would climb out on the tree to get their picture taken.

American Red Cross and Clara Barton Assist With Relief Efforts. The Johnstown flood was the first major peacetime relief effort by the fledgling American Red Cross. Clara Barton, who was 67 at the time of the disaster, arrived in Johnstown on June 5 and stayed through Oct. 24. The museum includes a case of artifacts related to the Red Cross.

"And the Oscar Goes to..." The documentary shown as part of the museum's permanent exhibit, “The Johnstown Flood,” won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Documentary - Short Subject.

Mighty Mouse Saves the Mice of Johnstown. The exhibit includes representations of the flood in popular culture, including a 1920s silent movie about the flood featuring a young Janet Gaynor; and a Mighty Mouse cartoon, where Mighty Mouse saves the mice of Johnstown from the great flood’s wave.

Early Carnegie Library in Johnstown. The museum is housed in the former Cambria County Library, which was built after the flood with a $10,000 donation from Andrew Carnegie, a member of the club that owned the ill-fated South Fork Dam. As such, the building is one of the very first Carnegie libraries in the world. The small brown building on the right is an Oklahoma House.

Photos courtesy of Johnstown Flood Museum. Top to bottom: flood damage shows the damaged rooftops; display case of objects recovered from the flood; Schulz house; Cambria County Library now home to the Johnstown Flood Museum.