RARE 2 Original Photos 1938 The Last Raft Crash Muncy PA Susquehanna River

Susquehanna River near Muncy, Pennsylvania. For offer, a rare set of photos. Vintage, Old, Original, Antique, NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed!!

These two photos show the raft used in a reenactment in 1938 where a group of people went down the Susquehanna River through Pennsylvania. It turned into disaster, as 7 people died when the 100 foot long vessel crashed at Muncy. See below for more information. Information written on back of one. Each photo measures 4 x 6 inches.

In good to very good condition. If you collect 19th century Americana history, outdoor, American photography, transportation, etc. This is a treasure you will not see again! Add this to your image or paper / ephemera collection.

Perhaps genealogy research importance too. The 1938 Muncy Raft crash, also referred to as The Last Raft tragedy, was a rafting accident that occurred on March 20, 1938, in Muncy Township, Pennsylvania. It killed seven of the 45 people on board; the remaining 38 were rescued.

The trip was a historical reenactment of log rafting in the Northeastern United States, particularly northeastern and central Pennsylvania where the logging boom was strongest. Multiple local men decided to hold a memorial rafting trip from Clearfield County to Harrisburg. The men who had done the trip twice before in years past to honor the logging industry in the area agreed that the 1935 trip would be their last; however, some of the group decided to do it one last time in 1938. This is why it is also known as "The Last Raft Tragedy".

The raft was launched on March 14 at McGee's Mill in western Clearfield County. The 200-mile (320 km) trip was expected to take a week and a half to complete.

In the beginning there were six experienced rafters on board. They tied off multiple times for food, rest and to meet the crowd which began forming along the riverside. The 112-by-25-foot (34.1 m × 7.6 m) raft picked up dozens of people at Lock Haven and Williamsport. About six days into its trip, on March 20, the raft entered Muncy Township with 45 people on board.

Being over 100 feet (30 m) long, the raft was very hard to maneuver. It was approaching the Reading Railroad Bridge when people who were standing on the bridge began shouting at the rafters to try to avoid the pier.

The raft struck one of the pillars, and all but two of the 45 people on board were thrown into the river. Hundreds of people were on the bridge watching the raft when it struck, and many jumped into the 40 °F (4 °C) water to try to save the rafters. Many of the deaths were due to drowning, as most on board couldn't swim very well. Two of the seven bodies were never found.

Muncy Township is a township in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,177 at the 2020 census. [2] It is part of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The unincorporated village of Pennsdale is located here. There is a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) Meeting House in Pennsdale that was built in 1799, and is one of the oldest buildings and perhaps the oldest house of worship in the county. /; Lenape: Siskëwahane[7]) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South.

At 444 miles (715 km) long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the United States. [8] By watershed area, it is the 16th-largest river in the United States, [9][10] and also the longest river in the early 21st-century continental United States without commercial boat traffic.

The Susquehanna River forms from two main branches: the North Branch, which rises in Cooperstown, New York, and is regarded by federal mapmakers as the main branch or headwaters, [11] and the West Branch, which rises in western Pennsylvania and joins the main branch near Northumberland in central Pennsylvania. The river drains 27,500 square miles (71,000 km2), including nearly half of the land area of Pennsylvania. The drainage basin includes portions of the Allegheny Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains, cutting through a succession of water gaps in a broad zigzag course to flow across the rural heartland of southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland in the lateral near-parallel array of mountain ridges. The river empties into the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay at Perryville and Havre de Grace, Maryland, providing half of the Bay's freshwater inflow.

The bay lies in the flooded valley, or ria, of the Susquehanna.