%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en South Platte Flood of 1965 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/south-platte-flood-1965 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">South Platte Flood of 1965</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-03-13T13:48:21-06:00" title="Friday, March 13, 2020 - 13:48" class="datetime">Fri, 03/13/2020 - 13:48</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/south-platte-flood-1965" data-a2a-title="South Platte Flood of 1965"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fsouth-platte-flood-1965&amp;title=South%20Platte%20Flood%20of%201965"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/south-platte-river"><strong>South Platte River</strong></a> flood of June 16, 1965 was one of the worst natural disasters in <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>’s history. It was part of a statewide <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/flooding-colorado"><strong>flooding</strong></a> event that claimed a total of twenty-four lives across the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/arkansas-river"><strong>Arkansas</strong></a> and South Platte River basins. The flooding in Denver caused extreme damage but resulted in fewer local fatalities than in other affected areas. While only two fatalities can be traced to the Denver area, property losses in the metro area were estimated at $543 million (more than $4.4 billion in 2019 dollars). Other Colorado <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/flooding-colorado"><strong>floods</strong></a> produced greater death tolls, but the 1965 flood remains the most expensive flood in state history.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The flood ravaged hundreds of houses and all but obliterated dozens of businesses, many of which never recovered. It also led to a reappraisal of decades of haphazard urban growth and myopic planning. The disaster became a trigger for long-delayed flood control projects, ambitious <strong>urban renewal</strong> plans, and a renaissance along the South Platte itself.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Containing Cherry Creek</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1858 <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>gold prospectors</strong></a>, suppliers, and speculators set up a series of encampments near the confluence of the South Platte and <strong>Cherry Creek</strong>. What would become the city of Denver expanded in all directions from those communities. The waterways seemed placid, so the new arrivals gave little consideration to the floodplain. Yet <strong>Arapaho</strong> and <strong>Cheyenne</strong> sources warned that the South Platte could be dangerous at times, including a flood in 1844 when the river had risen twenty feet.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In May 1864, <strong>Cherry Creek flooded</strong>, taking out structures in the heart of the new town, including the Larimer Street bridge, the Blake Street bridge, city hall, and the offices of the <strong><em>Rocky Mountain News</em></strong>. Cherry Creek overran its banks six more times in the next fifty years. By the time of the <strong>1912 flood</strong>, the city had put up retaining walls and greatly improved the channel. The creek continued to menace the city until the completion of the Cherry Creek Dam in 1950.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Neglecting the South Platte</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Denver worked to control Cherry Creek, but little was done about the South Platte itself—even though several of its other tributaries were almost as unpredictable as Cherry Creek. A 1945 study had recommended building a dam and reservoir southwest of the city, where Plum Creek converged on the Platte. In 1950 the proposed <strong>Chatfield Dam</strong> was authorized by Congress. But property owners in the area did not want the dam, and there was little political will to build it.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In part, the city’s neglect of the South Platte reflected the river’s relatively placid history. Over the first century of Denver’s existence, the South Platte had only one notable flood, in 1885. Most residents paid little attention to the river. Starting in the 1870s, it had become a place of factories and railyards, a dumping ground for whatever the city didn’t want: animal carcasses, used oil and old tires, rejected feathers from a pillow factory, paint and wood shavings, and effluent from dozens of other plants.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By the 1960s, half a dozen landfills had been created along the river. No fewer than 250 drains poured directly into it, spewing stormwater and salt from city streets along with raw sewage. Its banks were choked with weeds, abandoned cars, hobo camps, and trash.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Flood of 1965</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>For weeks in late spring 1965, Colorado’s <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a> experienced a number of unusual meteorological conditions, including high winds, hailstorms, and exceptionally heavy rains. On Monday, June 14, southeast <a href="/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a> was hammered by golf-ball–sized hail. Funnel clouds were sighted to the north, and one tornado touched down in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/downtown-loveland-historic-district"><strong>Loveland</strong></a>, smashing trees and cars.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On Tuesday, the rain and hail swept northeast, a procession of storms from <a href="/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a> to <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sterling"><strong>Sterling</strong></a> and on to the Nebraska line. Pawnee Creek and Lodge Pole Creek, both tributaries of the South Platte River, jumped their banks and submerged roads in <a href="/article/logan-county"><strong>Logan</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sedgwick-county"><strong>Sedgwick</strong></a> Counties. Sheep and cattle drowned, and areas of some towns were soon under three feet of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/water-colorado"><strong>water</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The main event came on Wednesday, June 16, starting at about 1:30 pm<strong>.</strong> It began on the southern edge of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/douglas-county"><strong>Douglas County</strong></a>, with a hard rain and a tornado that ripped through the tiny town of <strong>Palmer Lake</strong>, peeling the roofs off thirty houses.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Fourteen inches of rain fell on Dawson Butte, north of Palmer Lake, in four hours. “Creeks overflowed, roads became rivers, and fields became lakes—all in a matter of minutes,” wrote flood watcher H. F. Mattai in a report to the US Geological Survey.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The runoff swelled East Plum Creek, wiping out roads and bridges in its path through <strong>Castle Rock</strong>. The east and west branches of Plum Creek joined forces just outside <strong>Sedalia</strong>. The combined surge swamped the town’s main street, including seven houses, a church, and the grange hall. The creek, typically no more than a few feet wide, now stretched nearly a mile wide as it headed north. Later calculations indicated that the flow of Plum Creek increased one thousand–fold in less than three hours, from 150 cubic feet per second to 154,000 cubic feet per second (a discharge of one cubic foot per second amounts to about 450 gallons a minute).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>North of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/louviers"><strong>Louviers</strong></a>, the raging creek poured into the roiling South Platte. State patrol officers reported a wall of water estimated to be twenty feet high headed for <strong>Littleton</strong>, with a second crest not far behind. A photographer in a helicopter described the bloated river as “a knife of mud, slicing across the green countryside.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 5 pm. the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-police-department-1933"><strong>Denver Police Department</strong></a> had cleared its radio traffic for emergency calls only. For all its tremendous force, the wall of water was only one concern. Even more worrisome, perhaps, was all the hazardous material in its debris flow: fuel storage tanks, heavy equipment, mobile homes, even brick houses and their foundations, as well as old cars, junked appliances, and the contents of landfills.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The water cut a wide swath through the <strong>Centennial</strong> racetrack, where most of the thoroughbreds had been evacuated. Meanwhile, debris in the current smashed against Denver bridges like a battering ram. Standing on top of Ruby Hill with his wife and a clutch of other sightseers, <strong><em>The</em></strong> <strong><em>Denver Post</em></strong> staffer John Buchanan watched trailers and houses smash against the Florida Avenue bridge. In addition to the roar of the water, there was a constant grinding sound as one object after another joined the scrum. Buchanan saw explosions and flames rising to the south and “something that looked like skyrockets” above the <strong>Gates Rubber plant</strong>, even as much of the city was going dark from downed lines and swamped power stations.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>One by one, the bridges fell, all the way to the Colfax viaduct—which miraculously held. The flood knocked out thirteen of the twenty-four spans across the river. At Sixth Avenue and Platte River Drive, two large butane tanks ruptured, and the explosion could be heard for miles.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The flood muscled into downtown Denver around 8 pm. Unlike the bridges to the south, most of the viaducts survived the pounding. But the flood had its way with the railyards, the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/tivoli-brewery"><strong>Tivoli Brewery</strong></a>, the warehouses, and the modest houses of the Bottoms west of downtown. Power outages spread; some television and radio stations went silent, while the <em>Rocky Mountain News</em> was forced to use the printing presses at <em>The</em> <em>Denver Post</em> to get out the morning’s sodden disaster coverage.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The downed bridges from Douglas County to Colfax left thousands of people stranded. In all, 1,720 buildings in the city were destroyed or damaged by the flood. Livestock losses were heavy. People also reported seeing human bodies in the flood, but with phones dead and power sporadic, deaths were difficult to confirm. Casualty reports trickled in over the next few days, as the storm front and flooding shifted to the Arkansas Valley, prompting evacuations from <a href="/article/pueblo"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a> to Dodge City, Kansas.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>If not for Cherry Creek Dam, the deaths in the Denver metro area might have numbered in the hundreds. The reservoir rose sixteen feet the night of the flood, but the dam held.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Aftermath</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Four days after the flood hit Denver, President Lyndon Johnson declared a disaster area across twenty-seven Colorado counties. Once the emergency passed, city leaders began to set in motion a plan to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. The flood “forced us to look at the Platte River Valley, and challenged us to do something about it,” Mayor <strong>Tom Currigan</strong> observed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The first priority was the need to implement the long-delayed proposal for a dam on the southwest edge of the city. The US Army Corps of Engineers began work on Chatfield Dam in 1967 and completed it in 1975. During its construction the South Platte flooded twice, in 1969 and 1973. Neither event approached the fury of the 1965 disaster, but they underscored the need to take the river seriously.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>An equally significant development was the state legislature’s creation of the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District in 1969. An independent agency spanning six counties, the district has become a national model of multijurisdictional coordination of floodplain management.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The 1965 flood also sparked major changes to downtown Denver. In the late 1960s, the <strong>Denver Urban Renewal Authority</strong> mounted a campaign to convince voters that the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/auraria-west-denver"><strong>Auraria</strong></a> neighborhood was hopelessly blighted, three-fourths of its housing stock “dilapidated or damaged beyond repair,” in part because of the flood. Actually, less than half of the area had been affected by the flood, but many civic leaders were inclined to eradicate as much of the Bottoms as possible and start over. A bond issue to create the Auraria campus narrowly passed, leading to contentious condemnation proceedings and the dispersal of “displaced Aurarians” who still mourn the loss of their neighborhood.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Riverfront Renewal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite numerous studies and proposals, the city’s riverfront remained a grim, inaccessible place for several years after the flood. But in 1974 Denver mayor <strong>Bill McNichols</strong> asked former state legislator <strong>Joe Shoemaker</strong> to help raise funds for river improvements. Shoemaker worked closely with the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District on projects designed to improve water quality and flood control while making the river a safer, more attractive place. He started by assembling a bipartisan group of community activists and businesspeople to promote construction of the original <strong>Confluence Park</strong> and another modest riverfront park in <strong>Globeville</strong>. The committee evolved into the <strong>Greenway Foundation</strong>, a nonprofit that would work with foundations, municipalities, state lottery funds, and any other sources available to improve the waterways.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Starting with McNichols, Denver mayors began to see the river as an asset worth cultivating. <strong>Federico Peña</strong> introduced a Central Platte Valley master plan that consolidated rail lines and removed several viaducts, making the river more accessible and changing the warehouse district into “<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lodo-lower-downtown-denver"><strong>LoDo</strong></a>,” an area of lofts, restaurants, sports bars, and entertainment venues. <strong>Wellington Webb</strong> declared 1996 “the Year of the River” and advanced the central greenway by creating Commons and City of Cuernavaca parks. Family attractions, such as the <strong>Children’s Museum</strong> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elitch-gardens"><strong>Elitch Gardens</strong></a>, suddenly saw the value in locating close to the river —and close to the <strong>Pepsi Center</strong> and <strong>Coors Field</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Along with the creation of Chatfield Dam and the city’s various urban renewal efforts, the Greenway Foundation has become one of the most significant outcomes of the 1965 flood. In addition to overseeing a total of $130 million in clean-up and improvements along the Platte and its tributaries, the group has helped create more than 100 miles of hiking and biking trails connecting more than twenty parks (including ten built on former landfill sites) along the waterways.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/prendergast-alan" hreflang="und">Prendergast, Alan</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/flood" hreflang="en">Flood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1965-denver-flood" hreflang="en">1965 denver flood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cherry-creek" hreflang="en">Cherry Creek</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/south-platte-river" hreflang="en">south platte river</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/south-platte-river-flood" hreflang="en">south platte river flood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver" hreflang="en">Denver</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-history" hreflang="en">denver history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-flood" hreflang="en">colorado flood</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>John Buchanan, “Post Staffer Sees Flood Drama Rise, Ebb,” <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em>, June 17, 1965.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Joey Bunch, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2005/06/15/the-fury-and-the-fears/">The Fury and the Fears</a>,” <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em>, June 15, 2005.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Charles Carter, “Sedalia’s Main Street ‘Vanishes’ in Torrent,” <em>The </em><em>Denver Post, </em>June 17, 1965.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Flood Reports: June 16, 1965,” sound recording, Western History Collection, Denver Public Library.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Greenway Foundation, “<a href="https://www.thegreenwayfoundation.org/uploads/3/9/1/5/39157543/2014_greenway_current.pdf">The Greenway Foundation Annual Report 2014</a>.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>H. F. Mattai, “Floods of June 1965 in South Platte River Basin, Colorado,” Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1850-B (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1969).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alan Prendergast, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/the-1965-flood-how-denvers-greatest-disaster-changed-the-city-6668119" target="_blank">The 1965 Flood: How Denver’s Greatest Disaster Changed the City</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, April 29, 2015. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Joe Shoemaker with Leonard A. Stevens, <em>Returning the Platte to the People</em> (Westminster, CO: Tumbleweed Press, 1981).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>South Platte River Flood Scrapbook, Western History Collection, Denver Public Library.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Dan Thomasson, “Flood Damage to State Set at $543 Million,” <em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, September 1, 1965.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, “<a href="https://www.assessment.ucar.edu/flood/flood_summaries/06_14_1965.html">South Platte &amp; Arkansas Basins: June 14–20, 1965</a>,” Weather and Climate Impact Assessment Science Program (UCAR, 2007).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Tershia d’Elgin, <em>The Man Who Thought He Owned Water: On the Brink with American Farms, Cities, and Food </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2016).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Darla Sue Dollman, <em>Colorado’s Deadliest Floods </em>(Charleston, SC: History Press, 2017).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Mile High Flood District, “<a href="https://udfcd.org/8-most-destructive-floods-in-the-denver-regions-history/">8 Most Destructive Floods in the Denver Region’s History</a>,” April 19, 2018.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 13 Mar 2020 19:48:21 +0000 yongli 3173 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Telluride Flood of 1914 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/telluride-flood-1914 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Telluride Flood of 1914</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-03-31T14:59:02-06:00" title="Friday, March 31, 2017 - 14:59" class="datetime">Fri, 03/31/2017 - 14:59</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/telluride-flood-1914" data-a2a-title="Telluride Flood of 1914"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Ftelluride-flood-1914&amp;title=Telluride%20Flood%20of%201914"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>On July 27, 1914, <a href="/article/telluride"><strong>Telluride</strong></a> experienced several days of severe flooding following a cloudburst in the mountains above town. Remarkably, the destructive deluge killed only one person, and Telluride made a swift recovery, demonstrating the resilience of one of Colorado’s busiest mountain mining towns. Today, memories of the Telluride flood of 1914 remain in firsthand accounts and photographs of those who lived through it.</p> <h2>Cornet Creek</h2> <p>Telluride, fifty miles north of <strong>Durango</strong> in southwest Colorado, is situated in San Miguel Park, one of the most picturesque alpine valleys in the West. Nearly six miles long and a half-mile wide, the park is traversed by the <strong>San Miguel River</strong>. In spring the river’s muddy brown water churns through an emerging abundance of brightly colored wildflowers, and by summer the water splashes over smooth boulders among the conifers and salt cedars that intermittently crowd its banks. The changing San Miguel Park seasons were well-observed in the town of Telluride, situated at the east end of the park.</p> <p>In the early 1890s, the Telluride town council made the fateful decision to reroute Cornet Creek from its natural course by constructing a small dam. Diverting the creek opened land needed for the construction of more homes and buildings along the creek’s former course through the west side of town.&nbsp; Unfortunately, diverting the creek’s natural run also altered its drainage patterns in ways that would not become fully evident until tested by a severe weather event. In 1914 Cornet Creek and the Liberty Bell Mine’s enormous waste dump—thousands of tons of pulverized rock—combined to create a catastrophe that nearly decimated downtown Telluride.</p> <h2>The Flood</h2> <p>&nbsp;Just after noon on July 27, several cloudbursts occurred directly over the Cornet Basin behind the Liberty Bell Mine complex. At 12:50 p.m. a torrent of water swept away the enormous Liberty Bell waste dump down Cornet Creek, hurtling beyond Cornet Creek Falls to smash the small dam at the foot of the canyon. Gaining momentum, the huge mass of sludge, with its tumbling trees and boulders, surged down Oak Street to Colorado Avenue, Telluride’s main thoroughfare. Terrified residents barely had time to get out of the way.</p> <p>Historian David Lavender later wrote, “Totally bewildered by the appalling noise, mothers rushed out into the deluge, screaming for their children.” The mother of year-and-a-half-old Irene Visintin and three-week-old Elvira Visintin was at home with her two girls when the flood struck. Elvira later recalled,</p> <p>Mother was washing clothes when she heard this horrible sound of rushing water and debris hitting the house. She ran to the window and was very frightened, about that time Dad and some friends came—so she tossed [out the window] first one and then the other of us girls and jumped—so we were saved.</p> <p>Vera Blakeley was not so lucky. Her tormented husband told the <em>Telluride Daily Journal</em> that “when he looked up the river of mud and debris, swirling past . . . with incredible swiftness[,] had swallowed his wife and their pet dog, which Mrs. Blakeley had by the collar.”&nbsp; The force of the surging mass of debris and mud knocked homes from their foundations, twisting and turning them like dollhouses. Horrified families watched as their homes buckled under the advancing wall of mud. Contorted houses littered the hardest-hit residential areas.</p> <p>Lavender later wrote that the flood “filled the lower floors of both the Miners Union Hospital and the Sheridan Hotel with goo, and left five-foot mats of tangled debris in the central parts of Columbia and Colorado Avenues.” Deep, pasty mud inundated Colorado Avenue for two blocks from the <a href="/article/san-miguel-county"><strong>San Miguel County</strong></a> Courthouse to the First National Bank. Instead of customers, sludge bellied up to the New Sheridan’s elaborate hardwood bar. Shocked residents began to search for personal belongings and pets through the waist-deep, gummy mud.</p> <h2>Recovery</h2> <p>In a blaring headline after the flood, the <em>Telluride Daily Journal </em>asserted that “Telluride Will Triumph Over Her Crushing Blow,” noting that “Carpenters and workmen will work three shifts of 8 hours each until the damage done to the town has been repaired.” On July 29, less than forty-eight hours after the flood, the paper declared that conditions were improving, reporting that workers were “busily engaged in the work of staving off the thousands of tons of pressure being exerted against many sections of the city by the sea of mud and debris.”</p> <p>A force of “half a hundred carpenters and nearly a hundred assistants” worked continuously on a “giant sluiceway constructed from the San Miguel River” to a point near the center of town.&nbsp; These workmen, mostly miners by trade, used powerful fire hoses in combination with the hastily constructed sluice to quickly wash away the deep debris. Given the destruction wrought by the flood, it is remarkable that only one person died and that the town recovered so quickly and efficiently.&nbsp; Most local mines resumed normal production and shipping by the end of the following month, and most of the damaged structures had been fully repaired by July of the following year.</p> <p><strong>Adapted from Christian J. Buys, “‘Mothers Rushed Into the Deluge’: Telluride’s Great Flood of 1914,” <em>Colorado Heritage </em>20, no. 3 (2000).</strong></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/telluride" hreflang="en">Telluride</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/flood" hreflang="en">Flood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1914" hreflang="en">1914</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/telluride-flood-1914" hreflang="en">Telluride Flood 1914</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/telluride-flood-1914-0" hreflang="en">Telluride Flood of 1914</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Christian J.&nbsp;Buys, <em>A Brief History of Telluride</em> (Montrose, CO: Western Reflections, 2003).</p> <p>Christian J.&nbsp;Buys, <em>Historic Telluride in Rare Photographs</em> (Ouray, CO: Western Reflections, 1999).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 31 Mar 2017 20:59:02 +0000 yongli 2438 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Boulder Flood of 1894 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder-flood-1894 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Boulder Flood of 1894</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-08-15T14:28:49-06:00" title="Monday, August 15, 2016 - 14:28" class="datetime">Mon, 08/15/2016 - 14:28</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder-flood-1894" data-a2a-title="Boulder Flood of 1894"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fboulder-flood-1894&amp;title=Boulder%20Flood%20of%201894"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The 1894 Boulder flood was a natural disaster that reshaped the landscape of <a href="/article/boulder-county"><strong>Boulder County</strong></a>, wiping out some communities and forcing others to come together to rebuild. Like other extreme weather events, the 1894 deluge played an integral role in the development of the affected communities. Some, particularly mining camps in the high canyons, were lost immediately, while others eventually failed after years of futile struggle. Still others, including Boulder and its surrounding communities, made slow, difficult recoveries.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Beginning</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>On May 30, 1894—Memorial Day—in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder"><strong>Boulder</strong></a>, a rainstorm persisted throughout the day and continued into the night, saturating the ground and choking streams already swollen with runoff following the winter’s heavy <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/snow"><strong>snowfall</strong></a>. At around 10 pm, some residents noticed that Boulder Creek was quickly rising, and with the rain still coming down, the flood threat became serious. That night, in the canyon above town, <strong>Boulder Creek</strong> rose out of its banks, carrying huge boulders in the current as the <a href="/article/flooding-colorado"><strong>flood</strong></a> gained momentum. The water tore through the canyon, laying waste to mines, railroad bridges, and settlements along the way. By daybreak, it had begun pouring out of the narrows and onto the flats, debris crashing down with earth-trembling force.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Boulder Hit</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Early that morning, Harvey Poole and a friend stood on the Sixth Street Bridge as Boulder Creek surged rapidly under their feet. There was a sudden loud crash and a tearing sound, and both men leaped to the north bank of the creek as the bridge broke in half behind them. The current pulled the twisted wreckage about 100 feet downstream, where it lodged against the bank. A short time later, a man named J. B. Andrews had a similar narrow escape on the Twelfth Street Bridge. He had gone out to post a sign warning teamsters not to cross the structure, but before he could put up the sign the bridge disintegrated underneath him. A desperate jump to the riverbank kept the water from enveloping him as well.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>High school student Harriet Roosa came upon the shattered Sixth Street Bridge while walking her usual route to class that morning. Stranded, she walked back and forth on the north bank of the stream as crowds of people gathered around, looking on in disbelief. Boulder Creek, normally thirty feet wide, had widened to an angry river several hundred feet across. The rubble-strewn waters battered the city all morning, tearing down telegraph and telephone poles, crashing into creekside buildings, and laying waste to railroad tracks.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The current forced its way through the headgate of Beasley Ditch—a small irrigation channel for local farmers—and obliterated its banks, tearing apart the farmland and homes adjacent to the ditch. The effect was devastating in Poverty Flats, a subdivision housing many of Boulder’s poorer families. Bordered on the north and south by Water and Arapahoe streets and on the west by Seventeenth Street, this low-lying area had accumulated almost six feet of standing water by the end of the day.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Around noon, a crowd gathered at Water and Twelfth (today’s Canyon and Broadway) to watch the water hammer away at the foundation of Jacob Faus’s house. A well-known blacksmith, Faus lived on the banks of a sharp bend in Boulder Creek (the present-day site of Civic Park), and the water roared into the crook of the curve and ate away at the banks. After several hours, the earth gave in, and Faus’s house floated off its foundation. It lodged against the bank 200 yards downstream and was smashed to kindling by the force of the current.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the midst of the destruction, some residents took heroic steps to rescue the stranded and save lives. Boulder police officer Ed Knapp came to the aid of Madame Kingsley, one of Boulder’s more disreputable citizens, by wading to her island bordello near Tenth and Water Streets and carrying out her—and her two pugs—on his shoulders. Knapp later tried to persuade Marinus G. “Marine” Smith to leave his house near Water and Sixteenth. Smith, a prominent Boulder pioneer, refused to leave his home that lay half underwater. Holing up on his second floor, Smith ranted that his enemies would take his home if he were to leave it. Later, he ended up in the State Insane Asylum in Pueblo.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In Poverty Flats and other areas threatened with total submersion, twenty men with teams and wagons ferried people to higher ground. As the water continued to rise and the roads became muddy slicks, they set the wagons aside and carried out passengers on horseback. Some owners hauled off heavy furniture before the floodwaters could claim it, while many others moved goods out of threatened storerooms. As the flood raged, Boulder’s top two photographers—rivals Lawrence Bass and “Rocky Mountain” Joe Sturtevant—scrambled to document the catastrophe as best they could. Sturtevant lived south of Boulder Creek in Gregory Canyon, and with all of the bridges out, he had no way to reach his studio on the north side of Boulder Creek. Sturtevant eventually crossed the creek and helped to record the disaster and its aftermath.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By day’s end, the flood had washed the city right off the map, taking every road, railroad, and bridge with it. “All telegraph and telephone communication was cut off,” <em>The</em> <em>Denver Republican</em> would later report, “and there was no egress in any direction.” Boulder had become an island, hopelessly cut off from all neighbors and completely alone.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Day After</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The morning of June 1 brought sunny skies, making the flood’s toll painfully clear. The Sixth, Ninth, Twelfth, and Seventeenth Street bridges over Boulder Creek were completely gone. Although the Fourth Street Bridge still stood, parts of it had twisted into a sagging semicircle, impassable by foot or team. The loss of these spans cut Boulder in half, with the north and south sides isolated from each other. The passenger train depot stood under more than three feet of water, with one narrow-gauge engine still parked in the building’s new moat. The Union Pacific, Denver &amp; Gulf Railway line that connected the city to Denver suffered grievous damages, not only in town but also on the prairies east of Boulder. Surprisingly, for all its ferocity, the flood did not kill a single resident of Boulder.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The floodwaters had fanned out as they moved downstream, forming a lake nearly a mile wide between Boulder and Valmont—right on top of many farmers’ plots. The flood deposited a thick layer of sand, rocks, and branches that completely covered the fertile soil east of town. Beasley Ditch was a total loss; the many farmers who relied on it for irrigation wondered if their crops would survive. The damage in the nearby mountains far exceeded that in Boulder or the farming regions. Some reports claimed that the water had come down the canyons in a wall ten or twelve feet high. Jamestown was virtually destroyed and the hamlets of Crisman, Glendale, and Springdale sustained severe damage. Many of the houses and stores in Crisman were entirely gone, and the town’s narrow-gauge railroad—its lifeline—had disappeared downriver. Many of Glendale’s buildings were swept away and three residents were killed when the main road washed out. Very little remained of Springdale, known for its mineral springs. Its main tourist attraction—the Seltzer House Hotel—tumbled away in the raging floodwaters. <strong>Niwot</strong> resident Frank Bader reported that part of Springdale’s bowling alley washed up in his town, located on the prairie several miles northeast of Boulder.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>With roads and bridges out throughout the county, deliveries of food, water, and medicine could not get through. Offers of assistance came as early as 5 p.m. on the day of the flood, but moving any supplies to the south side of town required a bridge of some kind. Edwin J. Temple, a Boulder alderman, solved that problem by rigging up a rope and pulley system between some <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cottonwood-trees"><strong>cottonwood trees</strong></a> near Sixth Street. Using this precarious conveyance, people and supplies could shuttle back and forth across the still-raging Boulder Creek. James H. Baker and a team of residents raised a second rope bridge at Twelfth Street. Though somewhat flimsy, these homemade connections at least put the stranded southsiders back into contact with the rest of the town and provided a short-term solution to the supply problem.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Upon further inspection of the damages to Boulder and its infrastructure, a daunting picture emerged. The flood had taken Boulder County’s railroads, mines, and farms—three pillars of the regional economy—out of commission. Thousands of workers in those industries stood idle, and their jobs were in jeopardy. Most of the small farming towns around Boulder needed supplies, and the mountain towns were completely cut off and desperate for help. In <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0"><strong>Longmont</strong></a>, the Electric Light Company ran out of coal and had to borrow from private bins; six days later, still waiting on a coal shipment, it prepared to shut down.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Recovery</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>On June 2, two days after the flood, the Union Pacific, Denver &amp; Gulf attempted to restore service between Denver and Boulder. Repairing the extensive track damage would take weeks, but as a stopgap the railroad sent a train around the flood and into Boulder by way of <strong>Brighton</strong>, <strong>Greeley</strong>, and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a>. This circuitous route put every possible connection to the test, but the train still had to turn back, to everyone’s great disappointment. In addition to their labor, the people of Boulder donated money to help out in the crisis. Fundraising efforts managed to pull in nearly $2,000 in less than a day. Still, the city of Boulder was unable to hire a contractor to rebuild the Twelfth Street Bridge until July 20. The firm would not finish its work until November 8—nearly two months overdue—and the new Ninth Street Bridge was not ready for traffic until January 3, 1895, nearly seven months after the flood.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As Boulder got back on its feet, the nearby mountain towns continued to struggle. Some of the mines eventually reopened and resumed production, but most of the stamp mills operating in support of those mines had been destroyed entirely. The flood had occurred immediately after the <strong>Silver Panic of 1893</strong>, which devastated the state’s silver industry and proved to be another disastrous event for the mining towns. Approximately 60 percent of Boulder County’s ore production was in gold, but those camps struggled nonetheless. To make matters worse, the Union Pacific Railroad announced that it would not rebuild its narrow-gauge Greeley, Salt Lake &amp; Pacific Railroad line up Boulder and Four Mile Canyons. The railroad had little choice, as the flood destroyed all but two miles of the track and nearly sixty bridges had washed away.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The consequences of the flood were felt for a long time, and some communities, including Balarat, Springdale, and Jamestown, were either wiped out completely or never made a full recovery. The loss of rail and road connections also put the Four Mile Canyon mining camps of Sunset, Copper Rock, Wall Street, and Crisman on the path to failure. Boulder eventually made a full recovery. Its citizens found ways to solve the town’s problems together and to do so with determination, resourcefulness, and a little bit of humor. A <em>Daily Camera</em> editor remarked that “one thing is worthy of note, however, as it shows the spirit of our people. I have not seen a gruesome face or heard an oath or any expression showing a spirit of dejection. In the midst of ruin, we laugh and joke while repairing the waste.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>Adapted from Mona Lambrecht, “‘Good Baptist Weather’: Boulder County and the Flood of 1894,” <em>Colorado Heritage Magazine</em> 20, no. 4 (2001).</strong></p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boulder-flood" hreflang="en">Boulder Flood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boulder" hreflang="en">boulder</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/flood" hreflang="en">Flood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1894" hreflang="en">1894</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boulder-flood-1894" hreflang="en">Boulder Flood of 1894</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Maurice Frink, <em>The Boulder Story: Historical Portrait of a Colorado Town</em> (Boulder: Pruett Press, 1965).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Silvia Pettem, <em>Boulder: Evolution of a City</em> (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1994).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 15 Aug 2016 20:28:49 +0000 yongli 1680 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org