Arkansas River Channel Capacity and Riparian Habitat Planning Study

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� � P ' waters up the river to a depth sufficient to flood the nearby U.S. Army's Port Lyon facilities, forcing the post to move about 20 miles upstream to a site on higher ground; the present site of ' the Fort Lyon Veteran's Hospital at the upper end of John Martin Reservoir (Eddy et al. 1982:252; Mehls and Carter 1984:11-36; Betz 1986:51; Arps 1979:47; Taylor 1963:44; Lavender 1954:392; USACE 1970:B19, 1973:48; [there is some confusion in the secondary literature as to the exact year of this event, where the date has also been variously reported for the years of 1865, 1867, and 1869, by several authors including the Corps of Engineers]). The famous William Bent, having lived along the uncontrolled river had foreseen problems such as these and had built his "New Fort" trading post on a hill top "...above the flood plain of the Arkansas River — [because] he knew the vagaries of that stream..." (Arps 1979:37). ' Supporting William Bent's knowledge of the river, studies of the river have found that "Below Pueblo [Colorado] there are 8 tributaries capable of producing floods that would inundate most of the Arkansas River flood plain from their confluence to John Martin Darn (USACE 1970 :B27). Significant early floods that have been reported and documented include those that occurred in 1826, 1844, 1859, 1864, 1866 [also variously reported as 1865, 1867, 18691, 1885, 1886, 1894, (USACE 1965:29 -30, 1970:B17 -B23, 1973:48 -49, 1977a:9 -11, ' 1983a:4/54/8; 1999:5 -9, 13 -15; Eddy et al. 1982:252; Mehls and Carter 1984:11-36; Betz 1986 :51; Taylor 1963:44). ' As noted, impacts to the Arkansas River increased dramatically with the influx of Americans immediately after the 1859 discovery of Colorado gold. However, change in the valley began many years prior to 1859 and included natural climatic change as well as human induced change. Elliott West (1995, 1998) provides an excellent portrayal of events, effects,, and consequences while describing the era of westward movement as "the story of two invasions" (West 1995:15) - one by Native Americans, that began primarily in the 1820s with the arrival of the Cheyenne, and the other by Anglo- Americans (West 1995:14 -19). ' Although regional weather patterns affect specific local areas differently and there are localized wet and dry extremes as well as regional trends, the period from 1825 to 1849 is reported to have provided "extraordinarily generous" rainfall to portions of the Central High ' Plains region - "the wettest stretch, in fact, during the 350 years between 1600 and 1950" (West 1995:38; 1998:89 -90, 350 -351). There was enough moisture that this periodhas called "the monsoon" (Lawson in West 1995:38). The timing of such wet periods in association with the ' social history of a location can have a significant effect especially in an area such as the Arkansas River Valley where normal precipitation is only about 10 to 14 inches per year (Berry 1971 :2, 1972:77 -79; Lindaur and Ward 1968 :1 -2). The greater effective moisture influenced the ' riparian vegetation in the river valleys and that of the upland prairie, thereby enhancing wildlife including the population of the famous American bison upon which Native American Plains groups depended. With this abundance and pressure on Native Americans from other Native ' American groups and the growing American population in the East, it was natural for people to move into and spread across the Great Plains to take advantage of the available buffalo, especially after the introduction of the horse made movement across the Plains much easier ' (West 1995:15 -17, 58). The large buffalo herds would later have to compete for available grass with the Native American horse herds and American livestock accompanying the westward migration. Archaeological evidence and early historical observations documented in many 15