Activities at the Club

 

Boating

A popular activity at Lake Conemaugh was boating. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club owned 50 boats, which ranged from simple rowboats to sailboats. The club also owned two steam powered yachts and an electric catamaran, built by member Louis Semple Clarke. The club even owned a steam powered launch, which they called the Captain Eads. Club member Louis Semple Clarke also owned and operated an electric powered boat. The South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club hosted regattas for members to compete and hosted a “Feast of Lanterns” where all the boats would parade around Lake Conemaugh, lit by lanterns. Although the summer months were the busiest at the club, there are photos of ice sailing on the frozen lake in the winter. It cost 25 cents per hour to use a boat and 10 cents for each additional hour.

Sailboats on the Mountain

"It seemed almost impossible in a country where water was always a tree-crowded creek or stream, wild and dangerous in the spring, not much better than ankle-deep in the hottest months. Yet there they were: white sails moving against the dark forest across a great green mirror of a lake so big that you could see miles and miles of sky in it." -David McCullough, The Johnstown Flood.

 

A sailboat on Lake Conemaugh.

Louis Semple Clarke collection

 

The electric catamaran built by Louis Semple Clarke.

Louis Semple Clarke collection

 

Boating on Lake Conemaugh.

Louis Semple Clarke collection

 

Entertainment

There are photos in the Louis Semple Clarke collection that show a band playing at the Club House and members gathered outside on the park to enjoy the music. Photos also include people in costumes, perhaps acting out a play.

Billiards was another popular form of entertainment at the club. There was a billiard room at the Club House. It cost 10 center per game, or 30 cents per hour.

 

Fishing

Fish, in part, were what attracted the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club to the area. At the time, the South Fork of the Little Conemaugh River was one of the best trout streams in the state of Pennsylvania. The industrialists could afford the wide array of expensive accessories. Fishing was a newly popular sport among gentlemen.

Lake Conemaugh was stocked with 1,000 black bass from Lake Erie. The fish cost the club $1.00 a piece. A special train car brought the fish to the lake. A fish screen, kept the fish from going downstream.

A poem written by Isaac Reed after the flood, spoke to the initial reluctance of the club to remove the fish screens on May 31, 1889:

Many thousand human lives
Butchered husbands, slaughtered wives,
Mangled daughters, bleeding sons,
Hosts of martyred little ones,
(Worse than Herod's awful crime)
Sent to heaven before their time;
Lovers burnt and sweethearts drowned,
Darlings lost but never found!
All the horrors that hell could wish,
Such was the price that was paid for- fish!

 

The fish screen that kept the stocked fish in the lake.

Louis Semple Clarke collection

 

Hunting

Club members and their guests hunted mostly waterfowl such as ducks and geese. According to the rules and regulations of the club; shooting, fishing, or games of any kind were prohibited on Sundays. A $50 fine was the penalty if you did not follow this rule.

 

Ducks on display from a hunting excursion at the club.

Louis Semple Clarke collection

 

Other Activities

The club members and guests enjoyed spending time in the great outdoors, whether taking a walk around the lake, having a picnic, sitting in a hammock, or enjoying a relaxing evening on the porch of the Club House. There are photos in the Clarke collection of folks with hiking sticks and ladies posing for a photo along a stream that fed into Lake Conemaugh. Photos also show relaxing by the spillway, perhaps on a hot summer day.