Path of the Flood Trail
This section of the overall trail is planned to be approximately 9 miles long when completed. It will run from the Franklin ballfield to the Johnstown National Flood Memorial in the village of St. Michael. At the Borough of South Fork, the trail will split into the start of the Mailine Trail which continues up the mainstem of the Little Conemaugh River and the continuation of the Path of the Flood Trail which follows the South Fork of the Little Conemaugh River to the site of the dam that failed in 1889.

	The Path of the Flood Trails generally follows the Little Conemaugh River and the Mainline of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Its southern terminus is at the Franklin ballfields shown here. The trail is being designed to link preexisting local recreation facilities, both to add to the utility of those facilities and to save costs on constructing railheads, parking lots and general maintenance.

Construction of the trail will involve cooperation with public and private land owners. The first section of the trail (shown here, above the Franklin ballfield), follows the abandoned right of way of the Allegheny Portage Railroad. Of the six mile section, approximately one half is owned by the National Park Service and one half is owned by a private owner. The Park Service section is the site of the Staplebend Tunnel, the first railroad tunnel in the United States.

The first section of the trail is through the Little Conemaugh River Gorge. The steep wooded hilsides are beautiful at any time of year.

	The proposed trail crosses the Little Conemaugh River at the Village of Mineral Point. The trail then continues along and the right of way of an old mining railroad to the Borough of South Fork. The picture here shows the right of way lkeaving the woods at the western edge of the Fifficktown (South Fork Borough) area.

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