The Austin Dam Disaster

For this week’s dive into our Turbine Topic, we return home to my home state of Pennsylvania. As many know, the worst flood to occur in Pennsylvania relating to civil structures was the great Johnstown flood of 1899.? So today we focus on the second worst dam failure, the failure of the Bayless Papermill Dam.? The ambitious George Bayless of New York and the Bayless papermill were looking to expand their bustling business operations and had settled in on Austin, PA, with its lush forest lands and agreeable water supply. The new papermill that was constructed helped the small rural town of Austin to expand to a population of almost 3,000 residents, most with ties to the mill. With a growing need for water to support the paper company a new and larger concrete dam was to be built as a replacement for a lower earth and timber crib dam that was proving to be insufficient for their industrial needs. George Bayless hired dam engineer Thomas Hatter to build his new dam with an initial budget of $85,000. Costs soon surpassed this budgeted amount, triggering Bayless to pressure Hatter into taking structural shortcuts. These shortcuts included reducing the amount of re-enforcing steel in the concrete, reducing the underground depth of the foundation, eliminating a planned emergency release valve, and then raising the height of the dam for.?? In a rush to return production to the mill Bayless pushed construction deadlines, not allowing the concrete to cure fully. With a rapid refilling of the reservoir the stage was set for tragedy

In late Jan 1910, a snow melt and rain filled the dam to capacity. Seepage was noticed at several locations on the dam resulting in the dam being physically pushed a few inches from its foundation. To avert an immediate failure a hole was blown, and a hole created to release water and lower the force on the dam.? An upstream temporary timber dam was built to de-water the lower concrete dam for repairs. The dam engineer Thomas Hatter was again consulted for directions on sufficient strengthening of the dam but was again ignored.? Standard repairs were only to be performed on the dam to revive facility production; the threats of a second failure lingered on. The reservoir was again refilled to capacity and the repaired dam operated for a time with no ill effects, appearing to be a success.

On September 30th in the early afternoon tragedy finally struck as the dam instantaneously failed. The resulting failure released a wave of 200,000,000 gallons of water that cascaded toward the mill.? The wave caused massive damage to the mill, making matters worse the mill had in storage 700,000 cord of wood in reserve. This wave in addition to the lumber and factory debris continued cascading toward the town of Austin. The wave reaching Austin destroyed all in its path taking the lives of at least 78 people, the true count may never be known.? With the town destroyed and many lives lost, all eyes were on George Bayless. Being the primary employer in the area, settlements were reached with the victims with a mixture of money, stock, and a promise to rebuild the mill. ?The papermill was successfully rebuilt and the mill continued creating pulp and paper until finally filing for bankruptcy in 1933. Today a small memorial is present at the failed dam ruins to remember the lives lost in this tragedy. The mass amount of dam and mill ruins still lie quietly in the growth, which are explored regularly by urban explorers and hikers.?