The Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889, occurred after the South Fork Dam collapsed 14.1 miles (22.7 km) upstream from the city during heavy rains.

[12] Johnstown was formally platted as Conemaugh Old Town in 1800 by the Swiss German immigrant Joseph Johns (born Josef Schantz).

The next day water filled the streets, and rumors began that a dam holding an artificial lake in the mountains to the northeast might give way.

What had been a thriving steel town with homes, churches, saloons, a library, a railroad station, electric street lights, a roller rink, and two opera houses was buried under mud and debris.

[15] The Johnstown flood of 1889 established the American Red Cross as the pre-eminent emergency relief organization in the United States.

Founder Clara Barton, then 67, came to Johnstown with 50 doctors and nurses and set up tent hospitals as well as temporary "hotels" for the homeless, and stayed on for five months to coordinate relief efforts.

Seeking a permanent solution to the flooding problem, Johnstown's citizens wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt pleading for federal aid.

In a campaign organized by the Chamber of Commerce, thousands of Johnstown's citizens wrote to friends and relatives across the country hoping to bring new business to the town.

However, increased domestic and foreign competition, coupled with Johnstown's relative distance from its primary iron ore source in the western Great Lakes, led to a steady decline in profitability.

Johnstown's mountainous terrain, and the resulting poor layout for the mills' physical plant strung along 11 miles (18 km) of river bottom lands, compounded the problem.

Bethlehem Steel, which was the major contributor to the fund, committed itself to bringing new steelmaking technologies to Johnstown because they were impressed by the city's own efforts to diversify.

Again, the city won a reprieve from the company's top management, which had always regarded the Johnstown works with special affection because of its history and reputation.

As the increasing amount of federal environmental regulations became more difficult to comply with and the issues with the aging manufacturing facilities grew more significant, and as steel companies began closing down plants all over the country, by 1982 it looked as if Johnstown had exhausted its appeals.

Höganäs AB, a Swedish powdered metals manufacturer operates two plants in the region, one in the Moxham section of the city and also in nearby Hollsopple in Somerset County.

The Pasquerilla Convention Center was recently constructed downtown, adjacent to the historic Cambria County War Memorial Arena at 326 Napoleon Street.

The Bottleworks Ethnic Arts Center offers many exhibitions, events, performances, and classes that celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the area.

The Johnstown Chiefs ice hockey team played for 22 seasons, the longest period a franchise of the league stayed in one city.

In the end the city landed a deal with another ECHL team, the Wheeling Nailers, who played parts of two seasons at the War Memorial.

Significant efforts have been made to deal with deteriorating housing, brownfields, drug problems, and other issues as population leaves the city limits and concentrates in suburban boroughs and townships.

These include the Downtown Business District, Kernville, Hornerstown, Roxbury, Old Conemaugh Borough, Prospect, Woodvale, Minersville, Cambria City, Morrellville (West End), Oakhurst, Coopersdale, Walnut Grove, Moxham and the 8th Ward.

In the three-year period ending in 2010, it was estimated that 22.3% of the population were of German, 15.8% Irish, 12.9% Italian, 7.7% Slovak, 6.7% English, 5.6% Polish, and 6.1% American ancestry.

[29] The Johnstown economy later recovered somewhat, largely due to industry around health care and high-tech defense,[30] but was reported to be the third-fastest shrinking city in the U.S. in 2017.

On May 2, 2015, Johnstown was announced as the winner of the 2015 Kraft Hockeyville USA contest and was awarded $150,000 toward improvements of the Cambria County War Memorial Arena.

In addition to the cash prize, the arena won the opportunity to host the September 29, 2015, NHL pre-season game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning.

[46] The Johnstown Fire Department has available response teams for Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) and a boat in which they are able to perform water and ice rescues.

Screenwriter Nancy Dowd would revive the fake town of "Charlestown" in her screenplay for the 1981 punk rock satire Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, but the film itself was shot in Canada.

All the Right Moves, a high school football drama set in the fictional town of Ampipe and featuring Tom Cruise, Lea Thompson, and Craig T. Nelson, was filmed in the area.

Although the protagonists in the novel were fictional, several historical figures, such as Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick and Daniel Morrell were also depicted in the book.

Author David Morrell had his fictional character "Eliot" recruit two brothers from an orphanage in Johnstown to train as assassins in The Brotherhood of the Rose.

Both are hardcover books, published by the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, featuring first person stories of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, military veterans who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.