FLOOD00898

• County: Statewide
• Title: Floods in Colorado
• Date: 6/1/1948
• Prepared For: State of Colorado
• Prepared By: USGS
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Documentation Report

24

FLOODS IN COLOR.U>Q

Gaging station. on South PlaUe Riller

Station

Drainage
area. (square
mlleio)

Period of record

Bollth Platte~_.....___________
Wawton...___u____u__....__.
Denver .___n_____'._._._______
Henderson. ___..._._.n __ n___
I:~~~~~::::::::::::::::::
Sublette....__________________.
Balzac._.______________________
lu1esburl._.___....nnn______

.....
.."'"
.....
4,740
3,070
.....
1"000
17,700
......

March 1902 to date.
May 1926 to date.
May 1893 to date.
May 1926 to date.
May. to September 1906j Aprlll929 to date.
AprU 1901 to Octobec 1003; March 1905 to date.
Aptn 1926 to'date.
January 1917 to date.
AprU 1902 to November 1006; May 1908 to date.

18<4

The earliest flood for which circumstantial evidence is available
occurred in 1844, at which time the bottom lands in the vicinity of
Den ver were covered with water from bluff to bluff.

lS64.

The first direct mention in written reports or articles concerning
floods on the South Platte River relates to the floods of 1864. Three
separate floods occurred during May and June of that year. The first,
originating in the Cherry Creek and Plum Creek Basins, occurred
during the nights of May 19-20 and was caused primarily by a cloud-
burst in the upper part of those basins, It was the severest flood of
record on Cherry Creek, but the newspapers at that time did not
mention the flood on the South Platte River itself. The Cherry Creek
Flood Commission in its report I' states:

This storm extended over the water shed of Plum Creek also, which discharged
into the South Platte River [above Denver], making an unprecedented height.
The two floods carpe together in Denver on the morning of the 20th, covering the
lower portions of the city with water to a depth of from 1 to 5 feet leaving great
deposits of sand and gra\>e1. * · · At that time a large portion of the city
was constructed directly within and near the bed 'of Cherry Creek and the South
Platte River bottoms.

The only reference to the flood below Denver is contained in an
unpublished article written in 1925 by Lyman E. Bishop, of Denver,
which states that an old resident of Platteville, who was living on the
bank of the river near Platteville during that flood, told him that the
May flood covered his barnyard to a depth of 8 feet and that no sub-
sequent flood had even reached the barnyard.
The Denver Weekly Commonwealth of June 1, 1864, stated that
the heavy rains of May 26 and 27 caused the South Platte River to
J>verflow both banks. Severe rains again fell on June 9 and 10, and
the Commonwealth of June 10 stated:

The [South"'te contains at the present time an immense body of water
whJch spreads.... bluft to bluft eitber way. Numerona 0 0 0 rancbes.

U 'RII.nnrl.tJI OhAtTV Creek Flood OommJsslon. Den'VW. una.

.

MAJOa FLOODl'r-SOUTH PLATTE lUVEa

25

indeed every ODe along the river, so far as heard from, are entirely out of sight
o 0 0 the great delugo haa come and destroyed nearly all exeept tho buUdinga
above.
Above Denver the South Platte River overflowed its banks and
covered the adjacent Inw-lying lands. This rise was caused by the
heavy raillll and meltiJIg snow in4he~mounta.ins.
The rain was particularly' severe in the South Platte River Basin
above the mouth of the cll.nyon, some 20 miles southwest of Denver. No
direct references to a flood at this time on the South Platte River
below Denver have been found, probably because settlement was very
sparse along the river; but a number of references to floods in tributary
streams have been recorded. It is evident that the flood at Denver
was augmented through its later course by floods on tributary streams,
at least as far as the mouth of the Cache la PoudIe River, the lowest
mountain tributary, and probably by floods on the plains tributaries
farther east, as the rainstorm was apparently general. So far as
known, however, no estimate of the discharge of any of the floods of
1864 in the South Platte River Basin has ever been made,
1861

The Rocky Mountain News, Denver, May 20, 1867, stated that
both Cherry Creek and the South Platte River were in flood, and that
it was estimated that the South Platte was carrying more water than
during the flood of 1864. The flood of 1864 had so increased the chan-
nel capacity of the South Platte River that the flood of 1867 did not
overflow its banks.

1878

The next flood noted was that of May 22--23, 1876, which resulted
from precipitation on mountain enow. The Rocky Mountain ]Sews
of May 23, 1876, describing this flood, stated:

The [South] Platte appeared to get tbo start of "Old Cherry" [Cherry Creek] and
by the middle of the afternoon was sloshing around the cottonwoods in the bot-
toms. * . * The [South] Platte has never since the memorable freshet of
1864 run so high and wide as on yesterday. It was higher to be sure-several feet
higher perhaps in 1864-but it was not able to work such destruction at that time
aB now. There wasn't so much town here in 1864 as now, nor 88 many bridges.

189~
Concerning the flood caused by the storm of May 29 to June 1,
1894 the Denver Republican of June 2, 1894, stated:

At 7 o'clock yesterday morning the [South] Platte River at tho canyon station
of the Citizens Water Works was 5 feet above the ordinary mark. The river
Continued at this height for 5 hours and at 12 o'clock it began to fa1l., * · ·
At 9 o'clock last night it had gone down 3 inches.

The diversion dam of the Higbline Canal, located in .anyon
section, was in substantially the same condition during the flood of