Lake View Visitor Center:
In 2016, the Visitor Center and the area around it took on a whole "new" name: The Lake View Visitor Center. Visitors will notice three buildings at the Visitor Center location: the Visitor Center; the Unger House, home of Colonel Elias J. Unger the second and last president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club; and the Springhouse. For years, the area had been referred to as the Unger farm and/or the Unger house. However, in the winter of 2016, park staff, reasearching The Pittsburgh Bulletin, a society newspaper in Pittsburgh from the days of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, discovered that the area was referred to by the club as the Lake View Farm and Lake View House since, at the time, it would have overlooked Lake Conemaugh, with this new information in mind the area is now known as the Lake View Visitor Center and the Lake View House.
The Lake View Visitor Center contains two floors of exhibits and a film.
Exhibits:
Maps
Views of the former dam
Tactile Displays
Special slide show of historic photographs of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club
Reproduction Morgue Book
Audio program of Johnstown Flood survivor Victor Heiser's story
Temporary Displays
Park Film:
Film is shown at 15 minutes past the hour (9:15, 10:15, 11:15, 12:15, 1:15, 2:15, 3:15, 4:15). Movie times may be adjusted for school or other large groups.
Please Note:
There are two Johnstown Flood-related sites in the area. Johnstown Flood National Memorial, preserves the ruins of the South Fork Dam, part of the old lakebed, and some of the buildings of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. In our visitor center, we show a National Park Service-produced film, "Black Friday," that tries to recreate the Flood. (For copyright reasons our film is not available for purchase.)
In an old Carnegie Library in Johnstown is the Johnstown Flood Museum, owned and operated by the Johnstown Area Heritage Association (814) 539-1889. It is a true museum, and features an Academy-Award-winning film by Charles Guggenheim called "The Johnstown Flood."
