Others wondered and asked why the dam had not been strengthened, as it certainly had become weak, making Johnstown vulnerable. Daniel J. “No one could see the immense height to which that artificial dam had been built without fearing the tremendous power of the water behind it….” Over the years, some people worried about the 72-foot-high earthen dam, one of the largest earthen dams in the world, causing one resident to remark: For the next eight years, the summer resort offered fishing, hunting, boating, and other recreational opportunities for club members. A number of club members built large cottages nearby. From its large porch, members could watch the club’s two steam yachts setting off on excursion trips. A clubhouse with 47 rooms fronted the lake.

In 1879 a group of wealthy Pittsburgh industrialists, including such men as Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, formed the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club and bought the dam and the reservoir as an exclusive and somewhat secret summer resort. By 1881 the dam had been repaired, without the benefit of an engineer, and the reservoir filled to capacity to form the now nearly three-mile-long Lake Conemaugh. Afterward, the railroad abandoned the dam, and it deteriorated Located some 14 miles east of Johnstown at a point where the South Fork branch of the Little Conemaugh River and several mountain streams converged, the dam created what was, at the time, one of the largest artificial lakes in the nation, more than two miles long and nearly a mile wide in some places. Lake Conemaugh was held by the dam on the side of a mountain, 450 feet higher than Johnstown. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company purchased the entire Mainline works in 1857 and left the dam and the reservoir virtually unattended. In 1862 a break occurred near the discharge pipes, but little damage resulted because the water level was so low. Though the dam had been built according to accepted engineering practices, the canal system was obsolete by the time the dam was completed in 1853. The South Fork Dam was built between 18 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to provide water for the operation of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal between Johnstown and Pittsburgh.

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