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<br />4.1.13 CACHE LA POUDRE
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<br />Flood Historv, Annual peak flows on the Cache la Poudre River normally occur in the
<br />period May through September, wnh about 70 percent occurring in June, Anhough most
<br />floods result from intense rainfall in the basin, snowme~ runoff is a factor and the worst
<br />potential flooding condnion is that of heavy rains at a time when snowmen runoff is highest,
<br />in Mayor June, Notable floods on the Cache la Poudre River in the study reach occurred
<br />in 1844, 1864, 1884, 1891, 1904, 1923, and 1930, There were apparently three large
<br />floods of comparable size in 1864, 189 t, and 1904, All of these floods peaked near
<br />21,000 cubic feet per second, The 1904 flood was probably the worst flood in terms of
<br />dollar damages.
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<br />Flood of 1844, Anhough it is known that severe flooding occurred in the basin in 1844
<br />as a result of heavy snow cover and intense rainfall, the area was so sparsely settled at
<br />that time that no accurate record was made of the effects of the flooding in the lower
<br />basin, One description of that flood wa.s in a letter written by Antoine Janis, a French
<br />trapper on the river near the present sne of Laporte, He wrote "On the first day of June
<br />1844, I stuck my stake on a claim in the valley, , ' At that time the streams were all very
<br />high:'
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<br />Flood of June 1864, An extra heavy snowpack augmented by a rainstorm on 9 June
<br />1864 resuned in further flooding on the Cache la Poudre River, Historian Ansel Watrous
<br />wrote of the 1864 flood:
<br />"Fort Collins"", owes ns origin and first place on the map to the intervention of a flood
<br />in the Cache la Poudre River, This flood occurred on the last days of May and first days
<br />of June 1864, and is said to have been the worst known by white men. The water
<br />inundated the valley from bluff to bluff wnh a torrent that carried everything not firmly
<br />attached to the soil wnh n:'
<br />"It carried out the toll bridge at Laporte at a time when the movement of emigration
<br />westward stalled on the bluffs south of Laporte On the 9th of June, an extraordinary
<br />rainstorm' set in on the watershed of tile upper part of the river, me~ed the snow in the
<br />higher a~nudes and an enormous volume of water laden with driftwood, poured into the
<br />already swollen channel, and the sullen roar of the rushing stream as n burs;t out of the
<br />canyon was heard for a long distance. On reaching the plains, the water spread out and
<br />submerged the bottom lands from bluff to bluff to a depth of several feet. The storm
<br />occurred in the afternoon and the raginll torrent ' , , swept down through the soldier's
<br />camp (at Laporte) in the night almost without warning '" the campgrounds were completely
<br />submerged and only the roofs of the cabins, , , were visible, , Fortunately, no lives were
<br />lost, but there were several narrow escapes by the settlers on the bottom lands."
<br />
<br />Flood of Mav 1876, The Greeley Tribune of 24 May 1876 reported thEl local river
<br />bottom all under water from record rains,
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<br />.,
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<br />Flood of June 1884, The Boyd farm northwest of Greeley was said to be entirely under
<br />water for the first time from a combination of snowme~ runoff and rainfall.
<br />
<br />Colorado Flood
<br />Hydrology Ma1!ual '
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<br />4.19
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<br />fR'FT
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