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History of Cambria County, V.1

CHAPTER XIV.

THE RIVERS AT JOHNSTOWN.

     Beside the very favorable topographical location of the city of Johnstown as well as the invaluable deposits of coal and other minerals, which are within its limits and in the surrounding country, it has an ample water supply in the two rivers-Conemaugh and Stonycreek-which flow through and unite at the westerly end of Main street, and, besides, the pure mountain water furnished to its inhabitants from the several reservoirs built between the hills, have sufficient pressure to throw a stream from any of the water plugs in the business portion of the city to a height of fifty feet.
     The Johnstown Water company has tapped the Little Conemaugh river and also the Stonycreek, beside having three reservoirs built on mountain streams, namely: Laurel Run and Wild Cat, in 1867; St. Clair in 1877; Millcreek in 1881, and Dalton Run in 1902. The dam in the Little Conemaugh is nearly five miles above Johnstown, a short distance beyond Bridge No. 6, at the old tunnel, and was erected in 1876, and connected with a twenty-inch main. The Cambria Steel Company also have dams in Couemaugh river a short distance west of South Fork and west of Coopersdale.
     The Stonycreek is tapped about one-third of a mile above Border's Station, some eight miles from the city, with a thirty-six inch main, which was connected in 1891, the inlet being regulated by a valve without the use of a dam.
     The Stonycreek and Little Conemaugh are divided at Johnstown by Green Hill. The Stonycreek rises near Berlin, in Somerset county, and drains the Southern, or Quemahoning, valley, on the western slope of the Allegheny mountains. The territory adjoining on the eastern slope is drained by the Juniata.
     The name of Stonycreek was appropriately chosen, inasmuch as its channel was filled with boulders of immense girth and diameter, probably fifteen to twenty feet through. About fifteen miles above Johnstown these large rocks are yet in the watercourse, but in the city and near to it they have been


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Created: 27 May 2006, Last Updated:
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