Contact with the city of Johnstown was completely cut off. Property damage amounted to $17 million. National Park Service.

On May 31, 1889—after torrential rains in the Conemaugh Valley caused the South Fork Dam to break—more than 2,209 people died and more than 3,000 homes and businesses were destroyed in the floodwaters that came crashing down on the rural society of Johnstown.

Musser had been home for the Memorial Day weekend and when he returned to campus beyond his allotted vacation time—his travel affected by damage caused by the flood—news of the destructive event had not yet reached Penn State. Therefore, the faculty refused to accept his excuse and suspended him.

Objecting to Musser’s suspension, his classmates refused to attend classes. As a result, the entire class was suspended. In protest, the students marched to one of the fields west of campus and pitched tents. The encampment, located just outside of the campus property line, was called “Camp Suspension.”

There they remained for several days until news of the flood reached the campus whereby the strike was called off and the students were reinstated without further ado.

View of Main and Clinton Streets, Johnstown, Pa. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce.

The Johnstown Flood of 1889 would be remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in United States history. In fact, there was no larger news story in the latter part of the nineteenth century after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Originally built to create a reservoir for a feeder to the Pennsylvania Canal, the South Fork Dam was abandoned when the canal became useless. At that time, the local sportsmen’s club took action to stop-up the relief-gates in a rather makeshift way using gravel, clay, and mud, and raising the embankment to a height far beyond that of the original structure.