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<br />Lf <br /> <br />East of Paonia. This bridge will later be named "Heddles Bridge". Looking at pictures of the <br />bridge from this period of time, we see a much different river than was there before, The river <br />after the 1912 flood was braided into two distinct channels, one of these channels is now in the <br />spot of Edwards~ home, and a field. This channel is still in tact, and in approximately the same <br />elevation as before. It is almost certain that there has been no channel flowing in this area since <br />the flood of 1912. There is now a stand of cottonwood trees in the front yard of Edward's house. <br />The largest of these trees is 139 inches in circumference. which put these trees in the age group <br />of 1912 or so. The house and the field can exist because the river has downcut into the ground <br />so far. <br />In September 1912, there is another article in the Paonian Newspaper that discusses the area. <br />It talks about "four land-owners North-East ofPaonia profiting from there less fortunate <br />neighbors downstream". These land-owners put their harvest crews to work on the river. These <br />crews went to work "building dikes, and cribs of substantial construction....Large piers are being <br />sunk, and the bank will be reinforced by wire rock baskets. that proved so successful in last <br />years flood." The article goes on to say "This is an example worth the emulation of every <br />property owner who is in the least liable to flood damage." From this year forward this section <br />of river was contained in a small channel (Paonian). <br />This above mentioned article is one of the many factors that have led to the stability of this <br />section of river. Another cause of the stability was the work that was completed all the way <br />down in Paonia. As mentioned before, when the river was straightened through the town of <br />Paonia, the size and amount of sediment that could be transported by the river increased. Like <br />the sands of time pass through an hour glass; the gravels in the river in the area of Heddles <br />bridge to farmers ditch diversion were sucked down stream due to the increasing speed, and <br />shear stress in the river. A term referred to as a "Hungary River" <br />Another factor that adds to the stability of this section of river is the percentage of large <br />boulders found in this area. These large boulders create a step-pool environment all the way <br />through this section of the river. There are five sets of boulder riffles created by people, The <br />first three of these riffles were Farmers Ditch diversion dams that were constructed of boulders <br />and had to be abandoned as the river kept sinking deeper into the ground. Morris Bruce, who <br />annually worked on the farmer's ditch upstream of the Heddles Bridge said that they used to <br />annually place "volks wagon" sized rocks into this dam, and most years the dam would blowout <br />causing these large rocks to wash down river. <br />The other two boulder fields in the river are located directly up-stream of bridges. Directly <br />upsteam of Heddles bridge there is a length of about one hundred yards that contains large <br />boulders. There is also a railroad bridge that is located between the farmers ditch and Heddles <br />bridge that has boulders on the upstream side of it. These rocks were placed there to slow the <br />current before.it reached the bridge. This was a common practice. through the;Corps of <br />Engineers. <br /> <br />Section 2 <br /> <br />Section two is the area directly up-stream of Phil's Auto, and adjacent to the Campbell's <br />ranch. This section has been historically, and is still today a very erosive, and a very unstable <br />section of the river. This section of the river is a type C to a type D river pattern that has a <br />