“Ordinarily it would have been an arena of hills of hills…that wreathed the white trim houses of Morreville around about, but the clouds dropped their mist of melancholoty upon the landscape. There was something about it all that even a mile away impressed one with a sense of indescribable sadness,” read the front page of the June 2, 1889 Pittsburgh Dispatch. The Johnstown flood completely destroyed the town of the same name and left devastation and death in its wake. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.