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

60

FLOODS Il'! COLORADO

],[AJOR FLOODS-SOUTH PLATTE RIVER

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Eucroachmentfl of owners of lots on what was commonly c:1lled the channel, by
construction of stables and outbuildings had narrowed the narrow course to what
was collsidered, by a sort of gentlemen's agreement, a reasonable right-of-way for
the creek in caring for its drainage responsibilities. On the afternoon of May 19,
1864, a moderat.e rain occurred in Denver, but for several hours heavy black clouds
obscured the Divide a.nd frequent rumblings of thunder were heard. :f: * *
By midnight the great majority of citizens ,vere in their beds. Suddenly those
who chanced to be awake heard a strange sound in the south like the noise of the
wind, which incrcMed to a mighty roar as a great wall of water, bearing on its crest
tree~ ann other drift, rushed toward the settlement. * * *
The writer'8 parents viewed the flood at its peak, and from the journal kept by
his mother, recording events of that period, we quote: IICamp Weld [barracks of
the First. Colorado Regiment, just south of Denver], May 25, 1864. On the night
of the 19th the watchman of the Government corral pound"ed on our door with the
startling intelligence that a great flood was coming clown Cherry Creek and many
people were drowning. We t.hought him fooling unt.il t.he roar of the waters could
be heard, as of a might.y t.empest.
11\lr. ~] rushed to the creek hut. ret.urned quickly, saying 1 m.ust see the awful
sight. 'Ve found hundreds of people along the creek banh. Many of the women
and children in their night clothes, having been rescued from their homes below
by the cava.lrymen from the barracks. By the light of bonfires along the creek, we
could see the inky waves, 15 to 20 feet high, carry'ing trees, houses, cattle, and
shcep--a.nd for aU we know, human beings-to certain clestruction. * * *
Early in the forenoon of the 20th * * * a stout cord was thrown across
the creek at its llarrOwcRt point. By gradually Increasing the size of ropes, pulled
back aud forth, the final 2-ineh ferry ropes were securely a.nchored and a Ilrope
.bridge" swung over the now receding but still dangerou~ waters.

" The effect of the debris in increasing the overflow is shown by the
. . -r.~_L__ "6_..~.j._:.. ""-T..u.... _Tnl"IT 9.7 1SUl.!;'

In the rising of 1864 by far the gre,atest amount of damage was done. * * .
The bed of the creek was very narrow, comparatively, and what there was of it in
the neighborhood of Larimer, Blake, and Holloday Street Bridges was taken up
largely by buildings erected on timber bents which brought them to a level with
the bridges. Those were swept away, of coursel as were the bridges, and all
together went to form a dam which restrained the flow of the engorged Eltream and
caused the flooding of all the low land on both the east.and west sides. *.. .
This greatly aggravated the catastrophe.

This flood is described by the Cherry Creek Flood Commission"
appointed by the mayor of Denver in 1912: '

The first flood of which we have any record occurred on Thursday and Friday,
May 19 and 20, 1864. The flood reached its ma.ximum height about 2 a. m.
May 20. This height it maintained until about 7 a. m., a.t which time the water~
began to recede. Thia flood had its origin at the upper end of the Cherry Creek
watershed, being occasioned by 8. heavy fan of alterna.ting: hail and rain, occurring
on the afternoon of May 19. This storm extended over the watershed of Plum
Creek also, which discha.rged into the South Platte River, ruaking an unprece-
dented height.. The two floods came 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 gravel at different point.<3, damaginK prop~
erty to the extent of several thousand donars (a very serious matter to _the city
at that time] a.nd drowning 19 citizens. At that time a large portion of the city
was constructed directly within and near the bed of Cherry Creek and the SQuth
Platte River bottoms. The water was about 1 foot in depth at the corner of the
intersection of Fifteenth and Blake Streets.

A view of this flood at Denver, taken from the above report, is
shown on plate 1. .
Every rise in Cherry Creek was given wide publicity. As there was
no gaging station on that stream, because it ordinarily carries but
little water, particularly in its lower section, definite data ragarding
the flood discharge are lacking, except for a few floods. For that
reason description of later Cherry Creek Iloods is confined to those of
May 22, 1876; May 22, 1878; July 26, 1885; July 14, 1912; July 28,
1922; and August 2-3, 1n3, Minor floods were noted on May 20,
1867; July 20, 1875; July 19, 1886; August 18, 1888; August 3, 1897;
June 6, 1921; July 13, 16, and 18, 1923; July 3, 1925; and May 31,
1935.
The widesprcad stOlID of May 21-23, 1876, covered the Chcrry
Creek drainage basin. This storm started as snow, which later turned
to rain in Denver, but in the upper part of the basin it is probable that
a considerable part of the precipitation was in the form of snow.
Referring to this flood, the Cherry Creek Flood Commission stated: ..

This flood would in all probability have been the greatest Cherry Creek flood
known had it not been for the fact that the snow and cold prevented a rapid
running off of the great amount of precipitation that had fallen. Throughout
11 RepOrt of Cl1erry Crook Flood Commission, p. 28, Denver. UJl3.
11 Op.cit., P.14.

first reached the mouth of Cherry Creek in the fall of 1858, friendly Indians
wa.rned them against camping in the bottoms on account, of great floods which
had come down the creek in times pastl and when the Count and his party laughed
at the idea of Cherry Creek producing floods "the India.ns pointed to the debris
left by the falling: waters in the tops of tan cottonwoods on the banks of the ha.rm-
less looking gully. This unanswerable argument probably influenced the early
settlers into p;oing a. few miles up the Platte and establishing the short-lived
town of l\lontana Ion Little Dry Creek at wha.t is HOW ElI~lewoodl.

No flood appeared, however, and the settlement at Montana was
soon abandoned in favor of the site at the mouth of Cherry Creek.
Later, disbelief in the flood of Indian legend was shaken somewhat,
as indicated in the Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 1, 1860:

Cherry Creek appears to present a. rather RerioHs prohlem. for we ha.ve had a
demonstration (following: a heavy rain on t.he headwatcrs! of what. JIlay be expected
from a heavy rainfa.ll on the Dividel thotlp;h wc are 110t yet inclined to believe
the Indian claims that the whole settlement is subject to tiood.

The first large flood after Denver was settled in 1859 occurred May
19-20, 1864. A description of that flood by Albert B. Sanford,
enrator of the State Historical Society Museum, appeared in the
Colorado Magazine for May 1927: