Grandview Cemetery and the Plot of the Unknown

OVERVIEW

A large hillside cemetery above Johnstown, opened in 1885, holding the Plot of the Unknown: 777 identical white marble markers over the unidentified victims of the flood of 31 May 1889, when the South Fork Dam failed and a wall of water killed 2,209 people. The plot was dedicated in 1892 with a monument; many of the identified dead lie elsewhere in the same cemetery.

HISTORY

The flood is the deadliest dam failure in American history and the city's defining event; the National Park Service keeps the memorial at the dam site.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Johnstown tradition places figures and voices on the flood plot and describes visitors who feel followed there. The Tribune-Democrat and regional guides carry the accounts. The cemetery is a burial ground and a memorial and is written up as one.

VISITING

Open daily in daylight; the Unknown Plot is signposted. A place of mourning first.