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52 FLOODS IN COLORADO a.nd an enormous volume of water laden with driftwood, poured into the already swollen channel, and the sullen roar of the rushing stream as it burst out of the canyon was heard for a long distance. On reaching thp. plains. the water spread out and submerged the bottom la.nds from bluff to bluff to a depth of several feet. The storm occurred in the afternoon and the raging torrent, plunging like the waves of the sea under the impnlKe of a gale, swept down through the soldiers' camp (at Laporte] in the night almost withou t waming. * * * When morning broke a scene of desolation presented it.self to view. The campgrounds were completely submerged ,and only the roofs of the cabins that had withstood tho onrush of water were visible, while 8.R far as the eye could reach up and down the river nothing but a ra~ing sea of muddy water could be ,,('cu. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but there w~re several narrow escapes by the s:ettlers on the bottom lands. Watrous also quotes a letter from Lt. Col. W. O. Collins, written August 21, 1864, to Gen. R. B. Mitehell: The present site [of the military post} is wit.hin the town of Laport(>. * * * The ground is subject to overflow, the whole having been under water and much public property damaged about the 10th of June last. Concerning the storm of May 22 and 23, 1876, the Greeley Tribune of May 24, 1876, stated: The Cache la Pondre is higher than at, any t.ime since the set.tlcrncnt of the colony [1870). H is reported that two bridp;cs on the [Uip;l Thompson have been carried away by the flood. The river bottom between Greeley and the Jackson Street Bridge is all under water. At the Oak Street Bridge t,he water was up to the caps; at 6 p. m. Ia.<;t evening lMay 23] it had fallen 2 inches. From [FortI Collins we hear that the river had fallen considerably so that our bridges may now be considered out of danKer. The melting of the unusually heavy snow cover of the winter of 1883--84 causcd a total discharge for tho year that was more than 200 percent of the average annual discharge for the period 1884 to datc. The recording gage which had been establish cd in the spring of 1884 at the mouth of the eanyon was washed out a few days before the bighest discharge, which occurred on June 28; therefore no complete gage-height record of this flood exists. At a jater date the discharge during the pcriod of missing gage heights was estimnted, the maximum 24-hour dischargo on June 28 being estimated at 5,610 second-feet. By comparison \vith peak flows of floods in later years this was not a large flood, The only known reference to overflow during the 1884 high water is the statemeut in the Fort Collins Expl'Css, .June 17, 1923, that in 1884 the Boyd farm northwest of Greeley was en tircly under water for the first time. The failure, June 9, 1891, of thc wasteway at the Chambers Lake Reservoir on tho headwaters of the Cache la Poudrc River caused a V severe flood on that rivcr. According to thc local newspaper, the break was apparently caused by increased melting of the mountain snow. due to the warm weather a few days before. This flood de- T" . " MAJOR FLOODS-SOUTH PLATTE RIVER 53 strayed the recorder at the gaging station near the mouth of the canyon, hence no official record is available. The water commissioner, who was the observer, stated that the peak discharge was about 21,000 second-feet." This estimate was evidently baser! on a high-water mark alld the extension of the rating curve. Although the rccorder was destroycd, a record of the mean daily discharge during the flood period was maintainl'd, presumably by means of a stalI gage, and the mean daily discharge for the cntire month was computcd. Thnt for Junc 7-14 is as follows: ... .....1'\.' Discharge of Cache la Poudre River, June 1-14. 1891 Second-feel Suo/id-/ul June 7 ______pu______ 1,900 June 11__________________ 3,060 8__,_____,______ 2,440 12_____,,__,____,___ 2,640 9___________uu 5,060 13____u____________ 2,190 lO__u________u 3,600 14___________'uu__ 1, S60 The Fort Collins Courier, iu its issue of June 11, 1891, gives the followiug account of this flood: About 4 p. m. June 9, the water superintendent was notified that a terrific flood was rushing down the [Cache la] Poudre canyon carrying everything before it. On come the mad, rushing torrent toward the plains, with deafening roar, carrying everyt,hing in its way to destruction. llridges, fences, hcndgatcs, buildiuj!;s, cattle, and horses were swept into the whirling, roaring, rushing flood. The island below the LaPorte bridge, on which livcd J. J. Nugent and family, was completaly submerged, the water covering the floor of Mr. Nugent's house to a depth of 27l! feet. The flood reached the railroa.d bridge north of the city (Fort Collins) about ,I) p. m. II: * * The bottomlands between the millrace and river were nearly all under water. The _meadows and fields on the north and east side of the river were flooded. An eye witness of the flood as it broke through the Poudrc canyon says the wall of wa.ter was fully 10 feet high and that logs and trees were tossed about like twigs. The flood of May 20-21, 1904, was the greatcst on the Cache In Poudre River for which definite evidence is available. It wns caused by heavy rains of cloudburst intensity in thc foothills on the head-. X waters of the North Fork Cache la Poudre River and Boxclder Crcek at all altitude of about 7,000.feet. The only rainfallrecor<1s in this arca were those at Alford (altitude 6,350 feet), and at Boxelder (altitude 7,160 fect). The AlIord record showed a prccipitntion of 2.66 inches for thc 2-day pcriod May 19-20. As tho upper fonthills are at a higher altitudc, the Alford record docs not represent thc greatcst precipitation in the I1rea. The record at Boxeldcr indicated a total of 8 inches for the 2,day period, but the Weather Bureau rejected tillS record as exccssive. In view of the flood which followed, however, it would appear that the record was not greatly in error, especially as the JI Colorn.do State Engineer, 6th Bienn. Rept., p. 22, 1803.