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<br />Even though there are no pUblished, fo~al flood records on Beaver <br />Creek prior to 1935# it is certain that floods did occur. Colorado <br />was settled in the late 1850's; but, before that time, travelers, <br />hunters, and immigrants on the long trek to the far west recorded <br />the occurrence of many flood events. The earliest floods recorded <br />in Colorado were those on the Arkansas and Republican Rivers in <br />1826. Widespread flooding of major proportions occurred on the <br />Arkansas River and, by interference, on the South Platte River and <br />major eastern tributaries to the South Platte River in 1844 (Refer- <br />ence 1). <br /> <br />Another notable flood occurred on Kiowa Creek on May 21# 1878. It <br />was reported that this flood washed away a railroad bridge crossing <br />the creek shortly before a freight train arrived at the bridge. <br />with the bridge gone, the freight train plunged into the saturated <br />sand of the normally dry channel, never to be found or recovered. <br />Widespread rains on June 2-7, 1921, caused flooding from the South <br />Platte River Canyon above Der.ver to the Coloraco-Nebraska Etate <br />line~ Clo~dburst rains in the Kiowa C~ee~ and Beaver Creek basins <br />on May 30 and 31~ 1935~ caused the second largest flood e,'er recorded <br />on t~e South ?~atte ~iver. No ~~e~uency information was developec <br />for any of these floods. <br /> <br />Newspaper accounts of the 1935 flood reported that many bridges and <br />railroad crossings were washed out and many communities were iso- <br />lated from rail and road transportation. Flood warnings were <br />issued in the city of Brus~ as floodwaters on Beaver Creek approached <br />the bridges in the eastern portion of town; however, few resi- <br />dents expected either high water or even the possibility of seeing <br />flood ~aters rushi~g througn downtown streets. The Brush News- <br />Tribune, on June 6, 1935, reported that <br /> <br />.....the creek channel narrows noticeably at the point <br />just east of Brush which resulted in water backing along <br />the railroad bridge as far as the depot, where it swept <br />over the tracks, reaching more than two-foot depths in <br />a saort time. <br /> <br />The south side of Brush was under three to four feet of <br />water, almost before residents could leave their houses~ <br />One or two houses were pushed off the foundation and <br />several foundations crumbled under the pressure of the <br />water. <br /> <br />On the north side of the tracks, the water reached an <br />average depth of two feet. Some of the businesses were <br />able to keep water off the ground floors, but all base- <br />ments were filled to the top doing extensive damage to <br />store merchandise stocks. <br /> <br />4 <br />