I visited the dam site in 1998. This was prior to the camping area being developed and the area had a lot of 87 year old trees growing both upstream and downstream of the ruins. No one was around and the creepiness was very strong in that valley.

Interesting seeing the ruins of dam & Ms Cora helping to save lives. So very sad about all who were lost. The power of that water & knowing did not have to be this way at all. Thanks Cliff. Never stop blabbing!!!! 🥰

I've spent many years reading about the Austin tragedy and have visited the site many times. Someone asked me what "they" did wrong in building the dam. My response was, "Everything. They did everything wrong." Bayless chose a poor site in that even with a dam, Freeman Run would not provide adequate water for a thirsty paper mill. T.C. Hatton, the engineer, had never designed a dam before, and was bullied into making dangerous changes by Bayless. The underlying strata beneath the dam is a series of layers of stone, slate, and clay. Water easily permeated under and around the dam. The cement was poured in freezing weather, dangerously weakening it. Bayless refused to spend $1500 for a valve which would have allowed control over the water level. The amount of rebar used was laughable. Finally, Bayless, against Hatton's direct orders, increased the height of the dam by four feet; that may not seem like much, but it increased the capacity of the reservoir from 200,000 cf to 260,000 cf, a 30% increase. It is impossible to assess the amount of damage done to the dam in the first incident (In January, not two months before the great failure). When the dam bowed dramatically and slid 18 inches on its foundation due to rain and a winter thaw, the only way to lower the water level was by blasting sections out. It is quite possible that cracks from the blasting spread through the entire structure. But the primary cause of failure was "uplift." This is water getting under the much-too-shallow foundation and pushing upward as well as lubricating the slate and clay under the footing. The dam simply slid like a rug on a wood floor.

@charletonzimmerman4205

3 жыл бұрын

Also, "Rock Fill' is not, replacement for Rebar. Also "GATES" are better then Valves. $$ always, kills people. Look @ today, with Corona.

@robbob5973

3 жыл бұрын

What year did it go ?.Fascinating

@maxkorfendagus9336

3 жыл бұрын

@@robbob5973 1911

@dacdac52

3 жыл бұрын

Very interesting, Thanks!

@steveclark4291

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for some history about this Dam ! I've only been to Mifflintown , Pennsylvania a little over a year ago !

My wife's grandparents lived in Austin at the time the dam broke. Her grandparents were separated by the dam at that time and her grandmother thought her husband had drowned in the flooding waters from the break. It was the next day before her husband could get home and let her know he was alive. Her grandmother experienced such shock from the ordeal that from then on she never remembered anything about the flood.

@randyblackburn9765

3 жыл бұрын

I have heard where the brain can erase a traumatic experience

What an interesting piece of history!!! The surroundings are beautiful

So informative, amazing to see both sides of the dam.

Love that area of potter. Also the ride down 872 to sinnamahoning state park and forty maples. Great fishing hunting and hiking. GOD'S COUNTRY!!!👍✌

I don't see any footers-and that crumbling concrete-wow-hard to believe that he got away with that terrible construction-very interesting video-thanks, Cliff!

The stream flowing through there is Freeman Run and is a stocked trout stream.

@kenhanna9551

3 жыл бұрын

I've caught many of nice trout from there. Friend of mine has a place on first fork rd

@darickdonahoe7764

3 жыл бұрын

@@kenhanna9551³is ³Wasu2u2u2i iui uh ùùùùuuuuù75

Finding out great information about my home state. Thanks for sharing. I watched your Kinzua Bridge video also!

I'm so sick of money. Money trumps everything, build it fast and build it cheap. We'll wait until a customer complains or someone gets hurt/dies until we do it right. Looks like concrete lane dividers from a kids playset. Nature is powerful! Great video!

Hi Cliff, wow even though it wasn't built as big as it should have been, for the time it was still a huge undertaking. So sad that because of one man's greed people lost their lives, hence why I'm glad there are building codes now. Thank you for sharing, much love. xx💖

It seems George Bayliss was consumed with greed. A self serving individual.Heartbreaking😔WHAT A HELL OF A LEGACY😥 Thank you Cliff for sharing this tragic time in history.

go there every year for the dam show

well done woodsman Nature Again Beautiful sad the deaths greenery is like parts Ireland i used go to

Crazy they didn't put in control valves at the bottom....I believe the dam at Johnstown had valves, but they were non-functioning at the time of the dam breach....due to negligence. Thank you for sharing this story with us. Fascinating! 😊

Unless you've actually been there no video footage can capture the scale of the gap in the center section that opened up. It is simply massive and to imagine the amount of water that must have raged through it in just a few minutes is truly mind-boggling.

Very little known place, even in most of PA. I drove by it a few times, when I used to have to travel for work.

Wow those are amazing ruins. What a tragic story for the town of Austin. The park is a neat spot to camp too. Thanks for sharing the story and wonderful video.👍🏻

We have visited there several times. A terrible tragedy indeed and a bit eerie.

Great video!

Love this place. The book is a great read as well

very interesting, but also very sad. It is a shame that people could do that and get away with it. The Johnstown flood was a real tragedy too. The museum they set up in Johnstown is mesmerizing and tragic at the same time. You can not walk away from there unaffected.

Thanks for the Memories ! My family visited there @ @1990 .... Potter County was Awsome !

McKean County? I expect a Kinzua Bridge video will be coming soon! I was out at Austin Dam about 3 years ago. I remember driving a good 40 minutes at one point with no cell service at all and the gas station in Austin having old gas pumps where you couldn't pay with a card at the pump. It was worth the trip!

It's amazing what you could get away with back in the day. Thanks for sharing. The pictures of town looked like the Johnstown pictures.

Another awesome video, although it is a sad history.

Sad situation. Cool spot

Thanks for bringing us along. Interesting place

Potter County is incredible. One of my favorite parts of PA.

What a sad story about the Austin Dam and the loss of life people sure didn’t take heed to problems in those days I did enjoy the video and exploring the ruins thanks

A-ha! You made it there! That brings back memories. My dad belonged to a club that had a cabin in the valley just east of that one, north of Costello, and we would go see the ruins. Before there was a park, you just parked in a pull-off area off the highway.

Excellent video brother, thank you, our family once had a cabin in Potter county,when I was a child, great to tune into this area again. !! Keep up the good work!!

Thank you for taking the time to include the names on the memorial and Cora Brooks! ❤️

wow this was amazing! thanks for taking us there. and sadly this still happens. had a dam break here in MI last yr and same reasons, owner/builder of the dam was sited many times to fix it but didn't want to spend the money. no lives were lost thank God but lots of homes lost and the people that lived on the lake side now don't have lake front property anymore. boats still tied to docks, setting on ground and no way to get them out.

@JM-zq9em

3 жыл бұрын

Wow, can you tell us where exactly? Iud love to research it.

@carolb29

3 жыл бұрын

@@JM-zq9em www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2020/05/video-shows-michigan-dam-break-as-it-happened-catastrophic-is-the-only-thing-i-can-call-it.html

That was an awesome find there Cliff. I really enjoyed watching man.

You can't imagine the size of those concrete chunks unless you are there to see them.

1. I notice the dam is linier rather than curved. 2, This event is a perfect example of why we need requlations.

@mikesmicroshop4385

3 жыл бұрын

There are a lot of linear dams having a curve is not necessary in a mass damn, but Mass is, and this dam was way to thin to have ever held back that much water for very long!

Sad but great video. Glad you went in front to show size. Great history lesson Thankyou

Thank you for sharing this piece of history with me ! I've only been to Mifflintown , Pennsylvania a little over a year ago ! Take care , stay safe and healthy with whatever you maybe doing next ! I'm from Kansas .

It amazes me that back in history how these so called business men could just build structures with no thought of safety to others and its not as if he could not have made the dam safe only because he did not want to pay for the extras to make it safe. When the dam fails he gets off scott free and all those families lives and other businesses are lost for ever, no compensation either by the sounds of it. Thanks Cliff, look forward to next video!

@thomasclendaniel520

3 жыл бұрын

It’s good that we have government agencies to inspect and regulate these sorts of projects so that we can all stay safe well into the futu.... Never mind.

@maxkorfendagus9336

3 жыл бұрын

Elizabeth: Here's an annoying note. Bayless was absolved of responsibility at trial under the reasoning that since his paper mill was largely destroyed, he "had suffered as much or more than the others."

love your calm approach on American History - sad story for sure.

Good vidieos. Im hooked! Good work! I myself do alot of hiking and camping at green ridge state forest in western md

Great look at this area. An interesting and tragic story for sure. I was able to get there to see it for myself back in the spring.

I’ve been to Austin and Coudersport, but I never knew this. Thank you!

Very interesting, Cliff.

So sad some had to lose there lives because someone wanted to take shortcuts. Definitely put this on my list of places to see, thank you for sharing.

My aunt lives there now. It is beautiful country, good people too.

Awesome video so sad about the dam and all the people who lost their life

Thanks for the history of this dam. Very interesting!! Thank goodness for regulations on them now.

I heard about Austin dam while reading a book about the St. Francis dam in the hills above Los Angeles. Another good read about dam construction and politics.

@maxkorfendagus9336

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Pat. The St. Francis dam also appeared to have failed because the site where it was built was very prone to water intrusion or "leakage."

Now that was sad those poor people what's a sound asleep when this happen? Great video you do a fantastic job every time.

@maxkorfendagus9336

3 жыл бұрын

The dam failed around two in the afternoon.

I've never heard this story or about this dam. It's cool 😎

I like your hat. Many years ago, I worked on an archaeological dig at Old Fort Niagara. I always wanted to visit the dam at Austin. Sad story. As for your camping story about seeing a bear, whenever I run into black bears hiking or camping, I like to say "Bear with us."

I lived in city of Austin and most of my in laws still live there in town .loved to fish there

Swam and trout fished at the dam many of times when I was younger

Awesome, I just got back from there. Fortunately I have a friend that owns a cabin not too far away. Shot many astro shots over the dam at night. Some kind of animal was howling and stalking around my location. Possibly a coyote or wild dog. Great area.

@kenhanna9551

3 жыл бұрын

Probably a yote

Great video Cliff!!! It's awful that shortcuts were made and people lost their lives because of it!!! So 😔 Thank you Cliff for sharing this video!!! I enjoyed it!!!

Cliff, you are to be commended for your research and history of what happened here. There was a book written "The Dam That Could Not Break" that tells the story of what happened and you nailed the history pretty well in your narration. Thank you for sharing the story and showing the power of water by how it moved and tore apart the concrete along with the human loss of lives.

Very Kool , Thankyou !

What a terrible tragedy that was all because of one mans greed. What is left is quite awesome. Out of tragedy something good was left. Making a park there was a brilliant thing to do. I really enjoyed that, thanks so much for taking me along. Please stay safe

Make sure you check out the Fred Woods trail while your in that area, right outside of Driftwood pa

Thanks

looks like you where there during the dam show

Beautiful place sad what happened

Great article in The_Pottsville_Daily_Republican_Mon__Oct_2__1911_

Beautiful place, shame it was caused by death and destruction. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I was shocked at how little rebar was used in the dam. There was nothing holding it together!

It doesn’t even look like the cement was prepared correctly.

Visited Austin dam with friends.almost 2months ago n u can c poor construction n cement quality.looked like section that was main break opened like a door.

It was designed to be thirty feet thick, but was built only twenty feet thick. Because it was deemed too expensive, an underground vertical concrete slab, which had been designed to prevent water seeping under the dam through the soil the dam sat on, was not built, on Bayless's orders. At the time, there were no state regulations or requirements in Pennsylvania about the building of dams. A new dam was built, but it also failed, in 1942, with no loss of life. The dam was not replaced after the second failure.

Wow what a dam. It's amazing how it all twisted up. It's a sad that it broke up and flooded a town an people Lost their lives. That's why we have building codes today.

Everyone who complains about building codes. This is why we have them!

@bdickinson6751

3 жыл бұрын

Which are useless unless someone is actually doing their job.

Wondering if George Bayless is enjoying his current accommodations...

Life finds a way

All I can say is dam

Very interesting. Greed over human lives.

Very sad!

Today it would be a feeding frenzy for lawyers.

👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

Ok it says at the park it was rebuilt and broke again. So is this ruins from the first dam? Was the second dam way smaller?

@HD4lyfe

Жыл бұрын

These are the ruins of the original dam that failed

Did it take care of the paper mill?

@maxkorfendagus9336

3 жыл бұрын

The mill was heavily damaged in the flood. It operated sporadically for a while after.

I have family that lives in austin and austin is my hometown

didnt use to be dug out in the front like that it was brush and just a path back in

What was the first largest dam failure ?

@thewanderingwoodsman7227

3 жыл бұрын

Johnstown flood

Here's more info on the Austim dam disaster: austindam.net/

THE DAM SHOW!!!!!!!!!

Reminds me is ancient ruins in Asia or Africa

@iignorerepliesfrombores4010

3 жыл бұрын

Without the context, some of those photos look like Mayan ruins!

The substandard construction seems obvious looking at the state of the ruins! There is a distinct lack of reinforcing steal, the dam was designed as a mass dam, yet it was way to thin in cross section and as for as foundations, I don't see that they put any foundations in at all! It looks like it was just poured on the ground with little or no excavation for foundation work! It looks like the spill was far to small to prevent over topping in a heavy rain period! There was no doubt water going under the dam, due to poor site selection and lack of foundations, which allowed the whole thing to slide, and is the reason that the sections that have moved forward are still standing! This was a disaster from day one, it looks like every possible thing that he could have done wrong he did!

That’s the 2 nd failed dam

Probably would have held if it was backed up with fill dirt .

@hobgoblinhollow4966

3 жыл бұрын

That concrete mix looked poor. Maybe had they the chance to let it cure a few more years, and backfilled with relief pipes, it'd still be standing.

@walterdavis4808

3 жыл бұрын

@@hobgoblinhollow4966 all mixed by hand back then. It probably sucked !

Go to damfailures.com and will find a great article about why the dam failed

Could have been blown out the way it's bowed out near the highway

lFOR SOMETHING LIKE A DAM THERE SHOULD BE REGULATIONS AS WATER CAN DO SO MUCH DAMAGE. THAT IS SURE DEVESTATING ALL FOR THE SAKE OF MONEY. PEOPLES LIVES AND PROPERTY ARE WORTH SOMETHING ALSO. FEEL SO SAD ABOUT THAT EVENT, AND IT CAN HAPPEN SO FAST AS WATER MOVES VERY FAST. IT LOOKED THAT THE FOUNDATION OF THE WALL SURE WAS NOT INTHE GROUND ENOUGH.

Classic case of being so cheap and trying to pinch your pennies that it cost you huge amounts money in the end, not to mention the loss of innocent lives. Sometimes it's just better to spend the extra money and get it done right.

What was that scream 12:16 to 12:21 ? It sounds not human at all.

@michellebehr7669

3 жыл бұрын

Teens having fun making echos nearby? Also, there is a highway nearby so a large truck or other sound could have ricocheted around the basin area.

@michellebehr7669

3 жыл бұрын

Noise at 16:34 may be what you heard. Hearing this at a distance would make it sound eerie

@connerbrenner3234

3 жыл бұрын

@@michellebehr7669 idk it sounds really quick I dont think it was the loud machine by the pictures but a car or vehicle maybe??🤷‍♂️

What a damn shame.

Penny pinching.

*Austin

@thewanderingwoodsman7227

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks..

Such a crap way to build a dam . Just look at the junk in the concrete .