Austin Flood Disaster
Keating Township, Potter County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On Sept. 30, 1911, the Bayless Pulp and Paper Co. dam broke here. This concrete dam, built 1909, was nearly fifty feet high; 534 feet long. Its failure sent torrents of water and debris down Freeman Run into Austin and Costello, causing great destruction and killing at least 78 people. This second worst single-dam disaster in Pennsylvania inspired legislation (1913) to regulate the construction of dams in the state.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On September 30, 1911, the concrete dam of the Bayless Pulp and Paper Company — built only two years earlier, nearly fifty feet high and 534 feet long — gave way, hurling a wall of water and debris down Freeman Run into the towns of Austin and Costello. At least 78 people were killed and the mill towns were devastated. Pennsylvania's second-worst single-dam disaster, it spurred a 1913 state law to regulate dam construction.
Why it matters
The tragedy exposed the deadly risks of unregulated industrial engineering and helped establish the government's role in protecting communities from man-made hazards.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · Austin Flood (1911)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Potter County
Coudersport, PA · est. 1982
Potter County was created in 1804 from Lycoming County and, after decades as thinly settled wilderness, was fully organized in 1835. It honors General James Potter, a hero of the Revolutionary War. Its early economy rose from the forests themselves, as lumbering and tanning turned the northern Pennsylvania timberlands into a working landscape, with Coudersport laid out in 1807 as the county seat.
Lymansville
Coudersport, PA · est. 1947
The first settlement in this rugged region took root in 1808, planted by Major Isaac Lyman, a land agent and veteran of the Revolutionary War. Around his pioneer holding grew the essential institutions of frontier life: the area's first saw and grist mills, its first post office, and its first court. Lymansville became the seedbed from which the wider settlement of the county followed.
Cameron County
Emporium, PA · est. 1982
Cameron County was pieced together in 1860 from four neighboring counties and named for U.S. Senator Simon Cameron, the powerful Pennsylvania politician who would soon serve as Lincoln's first Secretary of War. Its seat, Emporium, took shape in the 1860s in a landscape of deep forests, and lumbering drove the early economy. Flagstone quarried in the county was later chosen for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington.
Sylvania Electric Products
Emporium, PA · est. 2021
Founded in 1907 in the small mountain town of Emporium, Sylvania Electric grew into a national name in vacuum tubes and electronics. During World War II its workers—largely women—produced vacuum tubes for the proximity fuze, a device that let artillery shells detonate near their targets and dramatically improved accuracy. The reliance on a female workforce led Collier's to dub Emporium "Girls Town USA," and the Poplar Street plant ran until 1990.