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Great Things to Do in Johnstown, PA

Try your luck at Penn National Johnstown.
If you dare, ride the Johnstown Inclined Plane, the world's steepest vehicular plane railway.
The Johnstown Flood National Memorial tells the story of the Great Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889.

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Johnstown

Johnstown is best known for a famous tragedy: the bursting of a dam in 1889. The resulting Johnstown Flood killed thousands and created an unprecedented media frenzy. The Johnstown Flood Museum commemorates the disaster, and an award-winning documentary tells the story in heartbreaking detail. Luckily, Johnstown was a tough steel town that 20 million tons of water could not destroy. Today, the city boasts a symphony orchestra, a nationally recognized Folk Fest, a gallery of the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, and a branch campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Visitors in search of a thrill can ride the Johnstown Inclined Plane, built in 1891 and listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "steepest vehicular inclined plane in the world."

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Festivals are two for one in Johnstown
Submitted by: Kate
My husband and I decided to check out the Johnston Folk Festival this year. Driving down into the valley on 403 south, Laurel Ridge State Park emerged, and the Conemaugh River below, you can see how this town experienced one of the worst floods in history, sitting where it does. But at the bottom was this hopping town - TWO festivals going on on the same weekend - the folk fest and I guess an ethnic food festival as well. We scored a great parking spot for the music festival and took in some great bands - Barrence Whitfield and Amy LaVere being my favorites - but with four stages going on at once there was something for everyone. We skipped the greasy fair food in favor of Russion pizza and a tasty pulled pork sandwich from some of the local organizations. And the weather was perfect. All in all, a fun, casual day in historic Johnstown, PA.