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<br />86 <br /> <br />FLOODS IN COLORADO <br /> <br />the water rushed along in torrents 20 or 30 feet deep. The storm continued in <br />full violence until about 9 o'clock. The area of the storm was confined within <br />... ... III a radius of 3 or 4 milcs. <br />The vast quantity of water shed from the mountains gathered in the va.lley and <br />-swept downstream in a wide torrent, covering all the low country adjacent to tl1e <br />-creek. [Near the present town of Fountain several were drowned.] About <br />lnidnight the people from 20 to 30 miles below Colorado City (adjacent to present <br />city of Colorado Springs] were alarmed to find a flood of water rushing down upon <br />them without warning. Some took refuge in the tops of their houses, others <br />... * * fled for their lives, and [nine] were drowned * ... *. They fell into <br />holes or ravines where the water was many feet deep. In the houses from which <br />they fled the water was not more tha.n 2 feet deep. <br />The crops were almost totally destroyed, and hundreds of acres were covered <br />with "wash" 80 as to be ruined for cultivation. The Hood was followed by several <br />heavy rains in the mountains aud the streams were high for many weeks. For a <br />mouth or more it was impossible to ford the Fountain below Colorado City. <br /> <br />Near its mouth nt Pueblo, Fountain Crcek washed away many <br />cabins on its banks, but no loss of life was reportcd. No estimate of <br />the discharge is available, but as no mention is made of damage in <br />Colorado City above Monument Creek, it is apparent that the peak <br />at that point was not more than 8,000 second-feet, which is the present <br />capacity of the Fountain Creek channel through Colorado Springs <br />above Monum~nt Creek. <br />The storm of May 21-22, 1876, which was apparently heaviest at <br />Denver, caused 3.19 inches precipitation on Pikes Peak and 2.62 <br />inches at Colorado Springs. It is probable, however, that this pre- <br />cipitation was chiefly in the form of snOw and caused no serious flood. <br />The only reference to this flood is a statement in the Colorado Springs <br />Gazette, May 27, 1876, to the effect that Fountain Creek had risen <br />very high, but no mention was made of overflow or resulting damage, <br />Although the few available precipitation records for 1878 indicate <br />no general storm, a cloudburst near Palmer Lake caused a flood in <br />May reported by the Rocky Mountain News of May 20, 1878, as <br />follows: . <br /> <br />Monument and Fountain Creeks swept out bridges. El Paso County losses <br />very heavy, caused by cloudburst in valley Dear Divide, f,jIlowcd by hail. <br /> <br />The heavy snow cover in the spring of 1884 caused a flood on <br />Fountain Creek; the high water at its mouth was referred to by the <br />Pueblo Commercial Standard, June 28, 1884: <br /> <br />The Fountain at Pueblo was wide, swift, and deep on Thursday [June 26] and <br />swept away both the wagon bridges on Fifth Street and the Denver & Rio Grande <br />_Railroad bridge. <br /> <br />This was about the date of the peak flows for that year in other <br />streams of the State, caused by heavy rains augmenting the rapid <br />melting of the deep snoW cover. Although no mention was made of <br /> <br />',. <br /> <br />MAJOR FLOODS-ARKANSAS RIVER <br /> <br />87 <br /> <br />rain in the Fountain Creek Basin, it is possible that heavy rain fell <br />there also. <br /> <br />A swere cloudburst in the northern part of Colorado Springs on <br />July 25, 1885, caused a sharp flood on Monument Creek which <br />according to the oldest inhabitant, wns the highest known there u~ <br />to that time." It was apparently of short duration and the resulting <br />flood on Fountain Creek was soon flattened out. ' <br />The nex.t serious flood, that of May 30,1894, was caused by a general <br />s~rm whICh resultcd in floods in t"e South Platte a.nd Arkansas <br />River Basms. From May 21 to 27, precipitation of 2 iuchcs or more <br />in the upper basin of Founta.in Creek had prepared the soil for rapid <br />run-off of the intense procipitation of May 29-31 but as the heaviest <br />precipitation was in the form of snow, the resulting flood was materi- <br />ally ~educ.ed. The flood in the vicinity of Colorado Springs was <br />deSCrIbed ~n th.e Denver Republican for June 1, 1894, which quotes <br />the followmg dIspatch, dated May 31, from Colorado City: <br /> <br />The flood has done great damage at this place. The Fountain which flows <br />,through this town, has been very high for the past 24 hours. Early'this morning <br />the north approach of West First Street Bridge was carried away * * * <br />The v.:a.ter rose so, hi~h by noon that a large amount of bridge timbe; and other <br />mater181 was carried away. 01: * 01: At 7:30 thL'l avelling a two-room h011se <br />.. * * located at the south end of West First Street Bridge was carried away. <br /> <br />At Manitou, Ruxton Creek was reported as being at the highest <br />stage known. A Manitou dispatch, dated May 31 is quoted in the <br />Rocky Mountain News of June 1, 1894: ' <br /> <br />Rain has been falling steadily all day, making a continuous fall of 50 hours an <br />u~heard-o~ thing for Manitou. 01: * * This evening [May 31] the Ruxto~ is <br />still a ragmg torrent, and the Fountain has been tearing away stone walls and <br />fo~n?ations and b.ridges all day. * * 01: Canon Avenue, the road leading to <br />WIllIams Canon, 18 a mountain torrent, down which hundreds of tons of rock <br />have been washed. <br /> <br />Little damage was caused in Colorado Springs, as neither Fountain <br />Creek nor Monument Creek overflowed its banks to any considerable <br />extent. . <br />In the lower valley of Fountain Creek the flood did considerable <br />damage ~o the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. It changed the creek <br />ehannelm two plnces and in so doing washed out the railroad track. <br />In places only the rails were left swinging across great gaps, and nenr <br />Ed?n the double track was ant for n considerable distance. Con- <br />dltl?nS near the mouth of Fountain Creek are reported in the Colorado <br />Sprmgs Gazette of June 2, 1894: <br /> <br />The Fountain has only fallen 2 feet since morning. The damage caused by <br /> <br />U Colorado Springs Gazette, Augu;t 1,1885. <br />