The Flood at Milton, 1889
The flood of 1889 was more of a season, than a single event. For weeks, it rained. For weeks, "old timers" warned everyone. And then finally, the dams burst. Quite literally, as it was on May 31 1889 that the South Fork Dam at Johnstown failed. Over 2,000 people died when the dam let loose and suddenly destroyed 4 square miles of Johnstown, fourteen miles away. (99 entire families were lost that day. Ninety Nine entire families.)
So comparatively, Williamsport, Watsontown, Milton & Lewisburg came out ok. In Milton, at its highest point, water covered 90 percent of the town. The water moved through the upper part of town, across Lincoln street, and to the car works and canal.
The Flood at Milton, 1889
Williamsport had a different kind of dam than Johnstown, and that was about to break too. In 1846, the lumber company built a log boom, A six mile series of piers use to collect and store logs during the spring log drives. Wiilliamsport was the lumber capital of the world at this time.
This was the Susquehanna Log boom. The "sheet boom" gathered the logs into the "main boom". At the lower end of the boom, the logs were sorted. Each mill had their own distinctive brand burnt, or cut. into their logs, so the men working at the end of the boom could. sort the logs into the correct holding pond along the bank of the river.
It was really an amazing process.
"The flood entered Williamsport at 3 a.m., Saturday morning. For six hours, the chains of the boom were able to hold the great mass of logs in place; then with a crackling roar, the two great burdens of logs were free; 150,000,000 feet of logs started southward to the main channel of the Susquehanna. In the wake of the logs, floated all sorts of manufacture and finished lumber products from the Williamsport mills, a railroad station, and a steady procession of barns, sheds, chicken-coops, and outhouses."
Total logs lost from the boom estimated at about 200 million feet, also lost was 40 million feet of finished lumber. This next photo shows some of the lumber from the boom, landed in Milton -
Piles of logs and lumber landed in Milton, during the flood.
Later that week, the following ran in the Miltonian -
"All parties who expect to reap benefit from the stray logs and lumber on their premises left there by the recent flood should comply to the law relative to advertising within thirty days. Many owners of land, on the islands and else here above and below Milton, would do well to keep this in mind."
All of the bridges from Williamsport to Sunbury were taken out by the flood as well. This was somewhat common. Once one bridge went, it tended to wash on down the river, taking out the next one, a bit like dominoes.
At Milton, the flood threw a road bridge against a railroad trestle which fell; the two structures then destroyed a second railroad bridge. At Sunbury the West Branch unites with the Susquehanna. When the flood reached the junction city, the force of water was so great that the flood rushed up into the North Branch before its waters were accommodated by the main channel.
The View From The Milton Island
Showing the covered bridge. I'm still unclear if this is the bridge that was lost in the flood, or if this span survived. In the next photo you can see where the bridge is missing, but since there were really two bridges here, separated by the island, it's possible one side survived the flood. Some of the newspaper articles I read about the Milton bridges over the years lead me to believe one span survived a bit longer, but had been so weakened by the flood that it later was washed away as well.
Looking into Milton, where the bridge once was. Bakers grist mill is on the far left.
==========================
Find More Of Milton's History Here
And An Index To All Of My History Tidbits Here:
==========================
A tragic story but interesting history.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I knew about the 1889 flood because the Godcharles Home/Manufactures Club/Hotel Milton was built so that the first floor was above the height of that flood. I did not know about the log boom coming down.
ReplyDelete