Wed, 6/13/12:
Hickory Hollow RV Park, Somerset, PA:  Headed out this morning to see the Flight 93 Memorial which is only about 20 miles away.  I guess I was very surprised that the plane came down in a high meadow covered with wildflowers and fringed with trees instead of a farmers field down low.  The plane came down upside down at a 40 degree angle going 593 miles per hour.  It left a 40 foot crater and amazingly 95% of the plane was recovered and everyone on board was identified by some means.  The crater was filled in after all the remains and debris were removed and it looks pretty much the way it did before the plane came down.  It’s an amazingly tranquil and peaceful place—considering the horrific violence that took place here.  Left there and drove up to Johnstown to visit the flood museum there.  In 1889 one of the worst floods in our history happened here and 2200 people died.  Johnstown is situated along the Little Conemaugh River in a narrow valley.  14 miles upstream is a large earthen dam creating Conemaugh Lake.  At that time this lake was home to the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club which was owned by several rich Pittsburgh families. They would come to this pristine, man-made lake in the mountains and fish or hunt or just relax in their “cottages” along the lake shore.  Unfortunately, they ignored signs that the dam was weakening and after a period of heavy rain the earthen dam finally gave way.  The tower of water that hit Johnstown was over 37 feet high and wiped everything out in its path.  One woman was giving birth in the upstairs bedroom of one of the homes that was ripped away by the flood and floated away.  Both survived.  Bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati as long after as 1906.  South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was abandoned since there was no more lake.  They left their cottages and everything in them and never came back.  Tomorrow we leave for western Philadelphia.

Someone took this picture right after impact.

Impact site in front of the boulder

The white marble "wall of names".  The wall is placed right along the line the plane took in its last seconds.

The white marble wall of names.

Wall of names.

So sad...

JOHNSTOWN FLOOD

City Hall--Johnstown

Members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club used to hang out on the spillway.  Must have been fun climbing around in those long dresses.