When the Man in Black Came to Austin

The ruins of the infamous dam that caused the Austin Flood

The town of Austin in wonderfully rugged Potter County is known for dam that almost wiped it off the map over a century ago. The Austin Dam Disaster still stands as the second worst dam failure in Pennsylvania's history and the sixth deadliest dam disaster in the United States. Even before the dam completely failed, it exhibited several warnings that disaster was unavoidable. Sadly, all of these warnings went unheeded by the town and the paper company responsible for its construction. However, it appears that while the dam was sending signals of impending disaster, a gentleman in black appeared out of nowhere to offer a warning from beyond the grave...

This story first appeared in The Citizen newspaper out of Honesdale, PA which is almost 150 miles from Austin. Titled "Ghost Story From Austin", the article was published on October 9th, 1912 over a year since the disaster. It goes on report that the story had been published originally in the Clinton County Times, a newspaper published in Lock Haven up until 1933.

As the story begins the writer states,"... Austin had a scare early in the spring when the high water and pressure moved the dam a few inches from its foundation and the residents took to the hills." This is in reference to the event a year earlier where snow melt and rain had filled the dam to capacity in January 1910, just one month after it was completed. 200,000,000 gallons pushing on the structure caused it to slide downstream several inches, a complete failure was only moments away. With no way to discharge water, the dam was moments away from failing completely. Quick thinking saw dynamite used to blast a hole in the dam to relieve the pressure. Though unorthodox, this solution saved Austin from disaster. 

According to the article, it was "...not generally known that the residents had another scare shortly before this that frightened some of the people and was the talk of the town." The source of this scare was a "very tall man ghost in black that would appear and disappear mysteriously." Often seen hanging around the railroad yards, the ghost did it's best to frighten the railroad men with its antics. At times, the ghost was seen riding the cars behind the engine, although the crews were never brave enough to try to throw the ghost off.  

Sightings of the ghost continued regularly until that fateful day in 1911. On September 30th at approximately 2:00pm, the concrete dam broke apart, sending a wave of water rushing towards Austin. When the waters finally receded, Austin had been reduced to rubble and 78 lives were extinguished forever. 

What about the ghost? Well it seems that the mysterious man in black disappeared following the disaster. The author believed that the ghost had come to Austin to offer a warning about the unsafe dam and the impending disaster. However, if that was his intended purpose, why did he only hang about the railroad yards and not the paper mill? Was he an employee who had died working on the railroad? Or was he a manifestation of death itself? 

A search of newspapers from Austin and the surrounding area yielded nothing about sightings of the ghost leading up to the disaster and the only source to publish this story was the newspaper cited above. 

So was the man in black real or a ploy to capitalize on the disaster? I'll let you folks decide. For me, if I ever see a tall man in black lurking around, I'm not hanging around to find out what comes next...