Above is a picture of the dam that was taken in the Fall of 2001.            

           -click the picture for more pictures of Austin and the Dam.

The Austin Dam Disaster

   On September 30, 1911, the Bayless Pulp & Paper Company dam gave way under tons of pressure from the water in the reservoir which had been built to help fuel the paper mill just south of the dam.

    After picking up tons of pulp wood from the Bayless Lumber Yard and other debris below the dam, the torrent of water moved south, destroying almost everything in it's path through the town of Austin.  It  then continued down the valley to the village of Costello three miles away. 

    Construction of the dam began on May 8, 1909. It stood 50 feet high and was more than 530 feet long. The dam held approximately 250 million gallons of water at a depth of 40 feet. At the time it was the largest concrete dam in Pennsylvania. At a cost of $86,000.00 the dam was completed in December 1909.

    The damage caused by the flood, less than two years later, was estimated at over ten million dollars. No assessment in terms of dollars could ever be placed on the toll the flood took on the lives of the people of the area who were either killed or uprooted due to the failure of the dam. Many residents moved elsewhere, firmly believing that the town could never be re-built after so much destruction.

    The first federal and state inspection laws and regulations for dams were finally considered and passed several years after this flood occurred. However, the passage of these laws were too late for Austin and the surrounding area already devastated by the terrible deluge of millions of gallons of water. The failure of the Austin Dam was the second worst disaster for an impoundment structure in Pennsylvania.

    Even as the dam was being built, there were those who didn't trust the massive structure. Others believed they were safe because the earthen dam was in good condition and would hold if the concrete dam failed. They also wrongly believed the 700,000 cords of wood stacked between the dam and the town would divert any excessive water. The construction engineers and company officials convinced to townspeople that this was "the dam that could not break." 

- Austin Dam Memorial Association Newsletter

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