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<br />KIOWA CREEK <br /> <br />Flood History. Floods in the Kiowa Creek basin are caused <br />by runoff from intense thunderstorm rainfall. Knowledge of <br />historical floods is limited to three major events. These events <br />are discussed below. <br />. Flood of 21 May 1878. No precipitation or discharge <br />estimates are available for this flood. However, data presented <br />in the United States Geological Survey Water Supply Paper No. <br />997, entitled "Floods in Colorado" indicates that a substantial <br />flood did occur. The above publication reprinted the following <br />article taken from the Colorado Magazine of July 1937: <br />"Among the unsolved mysteries in Colorado's history is <br />the disappearance of a standard gage Kansas Pacific (now Union <br />Pacific) locomotive in the qucksands of Kiowa Creek. . . on the <br />night of May 21, 1878. A sudden flood had destroyed the wooden <br />bridge that crossed the usually dry channel a short time before a <br />freight train was due, and owing to the bridge being the low <br />point of a sag in the roadbed and (to) the high speed of the <br />train, the engine and most of the cars plunged into a swirling <br />torrent of water before the engineer realized the situation. The <br />engineer, fireman, and brakeman went down with the engine, which <br />was completely buried. <br />A faN days later. . . search was begun for the missing <br />engine, Long metallic rods were driven in the sands. In some <br /> <br />1 1 <br />