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Endnotes
1. Gunner McGruff died about six months after I last talked with him. I attended his wake.
2. Of course, the Johnstown Flood of 1889 is notorious for other reasons besides the staggering number of fatalities. Before the earthen dam collapsed, it restrained a huge reservoir of hundreds of acres of surface water and wildlife habitat that isolated the coal camps from the favorite fishing and hunting club of some of the wealthiest coal, steel, and industrial barons of the age: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Frick, Henry Phipps, Jr., and Andrew Mellon, among them.
It is also worth knowing that disastrous floods continue to plague Johnstown and the Conemaugh River Valley. For example, in July 1977, the “Laurel Run Dam of the Greater Johnstown Water Authority broke and sent a wall of water crashing through Tanneryville in West Taylor Township” that killed at least fifty-five people and idled “more than 20,000 wage earners…as a result of the flood” (from John McHugh and William Black, “Death Toll Stands at 55; At Least 100 Missing,” The Tribune-Democrat [Johnstown, PA], July 22, 1977, 1). This disaster occurred little more than five years after the flash flood at Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, the focus of this book.
3. In order to enhance the likelihood that Buffalo Creek, the flood of 1972, and its victims will not be forgotten, I intend to donate a portion of the royalties from the sale of this book to the Buffalo Creek Memorial Committee for the purpose of creating a new, permanent, and safe memorial center for visitors and students near the source of the flash flood at Three Folks.