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<br />Cache la Poudre River. Historian Ansel Watrous wrote of the 1864 <br />flood: <br />"Fort Collins. . . owes its origin and first place on the <br />map to the intervention of a flood in the Cache la Poudre Ri ver. <br />This flood occurred on the last days of May and first days of <br />June 1864 and is said to have been the worst known by white men. <br />The water . inundated the valley from bluff to bluff with a <br />torrent that carried everything not firmly attached to the soil <br />with it." <br />"It carried out the toll bridge at Laporte at a time when <br />the movement of emigration westward stalled on the bluffs south <br />of Laporte. . . On the 9th of June, an extraordinary rainstorm <br />set in on the watershed of the upper part of the river, melted <br />the snow in the higher altitudes and an enormous volume of water <br />laden with driftwood, poured into the already swollen channel, <br />and the sullen roar of the rushing stream as it burst out of the <br />canyon was heard for a long distance. On reaching the plains, <br />the water spread out and submerged the bottom lands from bluff to <br />bluff to a depth of several feet. The storm occurred in the <br />afternoon and the raging torrent . swept down through the <br />soldier's camp (at Laporte) in the night almost without warning <br />. . . the campgrounds were completely submerged and only the <br />roofs of the cabins. . . were visible. . . Fortunately, no <br />lives were lost, but there were several narrow escapes by the <br />settlers on the bottom lands." <br /> <br />15 <br />