Mineral Point is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Cambria County,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, United States.
Great Flood of 1889
Mineral Point was destroyed in the
Great Flood of 1889 on May 31 when the
South Fork Dam
The South Fork Dam was an earthenwork dam forming Lake Conemaugh (formerly Western Reservoir, also known as the Old Reservoir and Three Mile Dam, a misnomer), an artificial body of water near South Fork, Pennsylvania, United States. On May 31, ...
failed, located on the south fork of the
Little Conemaugh River
The Little Conemaugh River is a tributary of the Conemaugh River, approximately long, in western Pennsylvania in the United States.
The main branch rises in eastern Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Cambria County, along the western slope of the A ...
. Mineral Point, located approximately one mile (1.6 km) below the Conemaugh Viaduct, was the second populated place, after South Fork, to be hit by the rapid waters from the former
Lake Conemaugh. About 30 families lived within the village of Mineral Point. After the flood, there were no structures, no topsoil, no sub-soil – only the bedrock was left. Approximately 16 citizens of Mineral Point perished in the flood.
[Roker, Al]
Ruthless Tide: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America's Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster.
New York City, NY, HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.
References
Unincorporated communities in Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania
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