The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was a Pennsylvania corporation which operated an exclusive and secretive retreat at a mountain lake near South Fork, Pennsylvania for more than fifty extremely wealthy men and their families. The club was the owner of the South Fork Dam, which failed during an unprecedented period of heavy rains, resulting in the disastrous Johnstown Flood on May 31, 1889.
The failure released an estimated 20 million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh, wreaking devastation along the valley of South Fork Creek and the Little Conemaugh River as it flowed about a dozen miles downstream to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where the confluence of the Little Conemaugh and Stonycreek River forms the Conemaugh River, a tributary of the Allegheny River.
It was the worst disaster event in U.S. history at the time, and relief efforts were among the first major actions of Clara Barton and the newly organized American Red Cross which she led. The death toll from the 1889 flood was approximately 2,209, about 1/3 of whom were individuals who were never identified.
Despite some years of claims and litigation, the club and its members were never found to be liable for monetary damages. The corporation was disbanded in 1904 and the real estate assets were sold by the local sheriff at public auction, largely to satisfy a pre-existing mortgage on the large clubhouse.
Frick was the founder of the South Fork Club, and shortly after the flood, abandoned Pittsburgh and moved to New York City. Decades later he was buried at the Pittsburgh family home Clayton. Local legend has it that the reason no members of the South Fork Club were ever successfully prosecuted for their criminally negligent failure to maintain the lake and dam was that all the documentation of the years of neglect/ignoring warnings/failure to repair were "lost", but that actually Frick had held on to them, and they were buried with him. The law firm involved is still the most expensive/elite firm in Pittsburgh. It's name, Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay, is spun by other attorneys as Bleed, Shit, Stall & Delay. The mocking motto for it is: Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay - We Piss Champagne!
Frick's coffin iteslf was oversized and inordinatly heavy. It was interred in a vault that was then filled with tons of concrete. Frick wanted to be sure no one bothered him again.
One wonders if all the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club papers from the "missing" Johnstown Flood defense room at Reed, Smith, Shaw and McClay might have been encased in that tomb with him?
http://profilesintime.blogspot.com/2007/03/henry-clay-frick.html
There are many unflattering tales about One Percenter, Henry Clay Frick. I worked for several years for a law firm occupying the top 2 floors of the Frick Building in Pittsburgh. He liked to stand on the outdoor terrace surrounding the top floor and fire his rifle at union men working on barges floating down the Monongahela River. Frick was and remains emblematic of the kind of greed-consumed individuals who made vast fortunes from the blood, sweat and tears of others. Yes, some of the One Percenters inherited their wealth so didn't have to personally fuck over the working classes. As opposed to the nouveau riche/parvenu class of one percenters and their political puppets.
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