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

84

FLOODS IN COLORADO

proceeded downstream its pcak was reduced to 9,720 second-feet
(4: 15 a. m.) at the Portland gaging station, 9 miles downstream, and
to 5,980 second-fcet (8: 15 a. m.) at the Pueblo station, 24 miles farther
downstream,

GRAPE CREEK

Grape Creck rises in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and flows
through Wct Mountain VaHcy, which at its lower cnd has an o.ltitude
of 7,800 fcet. " Bclow Wct Mountain VaHcy t.hc creck flows in a canyon
cut through thc W ct Mountains and joins the Arkansas River ncar
Canon City. In the canyon scction thc. creek faHs 2,300 fcet in 28
miles, an averagc of 82 fcet per mile. .
Cloudbursts do not occur in Wet Mountain VaHey but are frcquent
in tho canyon scction. The earliest recorded cloudburst flood on
Grapc Creek is that of August 9, 1889, which was describcd in the
Canon City Record of August 17:

A storm visited this vicinity, which will be long remembered. At about 4
o'clock in the afternoon the clouds over Grape Creek attracted attention. It was
not long till rain began to pour in town so hard that observations of Grape Creek
were cut off. It rained nearly an hour in the city [about 1 inch].
The water carne down Grape Creek in greater volume than ever before known,
bringing down ties, rails, bridge timbers, etc. 'rho water crossed Arkansas
River [about 150 feet wide}, washing out the track on the main line of the Denver
& Rio Grande and piling it up on the north side. As the water came into the
Arka.nsas it raised the river to a higher point than ever before known.

During 1925 a gaging station was maintained in the canyon section
about 5% miles above the mouth, and thc recording gage charts showed
cloudburst floods on July 10, 16, 20, 21, and 29, and on August 3,
5, and 25. The highest flood was that of July 21, which occurred at
4 p. m. and renched a peak of 13.6 fcct, rising 12.5 fcet in less than 30
minutes and dropping nearly as rapidly for the first 8 feet. From a
slope-area measuremcnt the peak discharge was found to be 14,500
sccond-feet. This flood originatcd wholly in the canyon section, as
the small rise in Wet Mountain Vallcy was stored in thc Deweese-Dye
Reservoir near the head of the canyon. Thc area bctwecn the rescr-
voir and the gaging stntion is 145 squarc miles. It is probable, judging
from the characteristics of cloudbursts, that the flood came from the
32 square miles of canyon section abovc the station. The other floods
listed were vcry much smaller, no one of them exceeding a few thousand
second-feet.

WILSON CREEK

, Wilson Creek, a tributary of Oil Creek, drains a ruggcd area of 68
square miles lying northwcst of Canon City. A cloudburst on July 4,
1944, caused a flood in the lower part of the creek which was said
locally to have been the highest since about 1906. 'fhe Bureau of

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