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<br />The peak discharge at Amity Dam, half a mile north of Prowers, was estimated at more than 100,000
<br />cfs, and at Holly a slope-area measurement made by the Amity Land Co, gave a discharge of 136,000 cfs,
<br />The discharge at Holly in 1908 was slightly greater than during the flood of 1921,
<br />
<br />Flood of 1921, Above the mouth of the Purgatoire River no damaging flood occurred after 1894 until
<br />1921, when the general storm that covered the state June 2-5 was concentrated in a series of cloudbursts
<br />between Canon City and Pueblo, These covered two separate areas, The larger area, roughly elliptical,
<br />extended from the northern boundary of Pueblo County to the top of the Wet Mountains near Beulah, a distance
<br />of 30 miles, and from a point a short distance above the mouth of Rush Creek nearly to Pueblo, a distance of
<br />15 miles, The smaller area covered the south slop@ of the Pikes Peak uplift, which forms the northern part of
<br />the mountain valley, and extended from a point above Sl~aguay Reservoir to a point :3 or 4 miles south of the
<br />river, a distance of 25 miles, and from Oil Creek to Beaver Creek, a distance of 11 miles, The two areas
<br />together comprise 550 square miles,
<br />
<br />The progress of the storm down the valley cilused the msulting floods on many of the tributary streams
<br />to reach Pueblo at nearly the same time, bringing about them the greatest flood of record, The Geological
<br />Survey made an investigation of this flood, and published a detailed report, The peak discharge at Pueblo, as
<br />determined by slope-area measurement, was found to be 103,000 cfs, and the total discharge of the main flood
<br />at that point, less than 90,000 acre-feet
<br />
<br />After the flood of 1921 the State Legislature enacted the Conservancy District law, which enabled
<br />various interests in the Arkansas Valley to organize the Pueblo Conservancy District This district constructed
<br />a detention reservoir 10 miles above Pueblo, which was designed to reduce a discharge of 100,000 cfs,
<br />Channel changes in Pueblo were designed to carry, without overflow, a flood discharge of 125,000 cfs and thus
<br />to provide for a flood flow of 25,000 cfs originating below the reservoir.
<br />
<br />As floodS on the Purgatoire River are necessarily a source of floods on the Arkansas River below the
<br />mouth of that tributary, the flood of 1921 was not so greatly in excess of previous floods on that section of the
<br />river as the previOUS floods above the mouth of ths Purgatoire River. In fact the peak discharge of the flood
<br />of 1908 on the Arkansas River at Holly was 136,000 cfs, whereas the peak discharge in 1921 at Holly, when
<br />the Purgatoire River was not at flood stage, was only 120,000 cfs,
<br />
<br />Flood of 1929, The flood of the Purgatoire River, August 7, 1929, had a peak dischargE! of 52,800 cfs
<br />at the mouth and caused a peak discharge of 45,300 cfs on the Arkansas River at Lamar. The discharge from
<br />Purgatoire River was probably augmented by the rilinfall that was general over the Arkansas Basin,
<br />
<br />Flood of 1944, The flood of July 4, 1944, on Wilson Creek, a tributary of Oil Creek, causE!d a flood in
<br />the Arkansas River below the mouth of Oil Creek, At thE! Colorado Fuel & Iron Co.'s diversion dam, 3 milE!s
<br />west of Florence, the crest arrived at 12:45 a,m" July S, and lasted about 30 minutes, Its discharge was
<br />computed as about 19,000 cfs by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co, As the flood proceeded downstream its peak
<br />was reduced to 9,720 cfs (4:15 a,m.) at the Portland gaging statiol1, 9 miles downstream, and to 5,980 cfs (8: 15
<br />a,m,) at the Pueblo station, 24 miles farther downstream,
<br />
<br />4.2.2 FOUNTAIN CREEK
<br />
<br />Following are descriptions of known large floods that have occurred on Fountain Creek in tile vicinity
<br />
<br />Colorado Flood
<br />Hydrology Manual
<br />
<br />4.23
<br />
<br />DRAfT
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