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<br />The prices of merchandise, and more especially of provi- <br />sions have advanced to ruinous prices since the stoppage <br />of communication with Denver. The bridges along the <br />entire road, with the exception of that at Golden City, <br />have been washed away. The coaches have not arrived <br />from the valley for the past three days, and at the <br />present it is difficult to conjecture the probable <br />time when we shall again have business intercourse <br />with our Denver friends. <br /> <br />At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Monday, August 8, 1881, a cloudburst <br />occurred at Eureka Gulch, west of Central City. The Rocky Mountain <br />News reported on August 9, 1881, that "within a very few minutes <br />thereafter a volume of water about four feet high came crushing <br />down Eureka Street ... sweeping everything in its course. II In <br />the account of the damage, estimated at $50,000 in the area, the <br />paper states that "the railroad track at Black Hawk depot is ten <br />feet under mud and sand." On August 10, 1881, The Rocky Mountain <br />News carried further reports of the flood destruction. <br /> <br />The sight that met the eyes of the citizens of Central <br />and Black Hawk yesterday morning after the flood of <br />Monday afternoon ... was indeed no pleasant picture <br />to look upon. On the other hand, it was one of ruin <br />from one end of the (Eureka and Gregory Gulch) to the <br />other, and with the thoughts of the loss of one life, <br />the injury of others, the total destruction of several <br />homes, the demolishing of household effects, the almost <br />total ruin of several business enterprises, and the <br />ruin to the city visible upon every side, was enough <br />to turn ones head and wish he were out of this fearful <br />scene of rain and disaster. And yet, with the immense <br />amount of water that came down the gulch, tearing almost <br />everything before it, it might have been worse. The <br />scene of a turbulent body of water rushing through <br />a city, down the steep incline of Eureka and Gregory <br />streets, carrying hugh boulders, lumber logs, wagons, <br />mules, horses and in two instances human bodies beyond <br />the aid of man, was one that terrorized the stoutest <br />men who stood in places of safety and looked on. <br /> <br />The cloudburst on August 14, 1883, flooded an area around Black <br />Hawk along North Clear Creek, and while it wrecked roads, trees, <br />and a house, and halted mining activities, it was not as bad as <br />the disaster of 2 years earlier. <br /> <br />Apparently the worst floods recorded occurred in 1910, just 1 <br />week apart. Two successive floods of all the area gulches and <br />creeks created such havoc that city officials decided to repair <br />only the worst places until the "season has passed for such visita- <br />tions," at which time they "put everything in shape again for <br /> <br />8 <br />