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<br />PREVIOUS FLOODS.'
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<br />35
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<br />B81imated discharge ot.. CA!co Creelc, June 3-6, 1921.
<br />
<br />Tim.,
<br />
<br />Approxl.
<br />mate dis-
<br />charge.
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<br />St.te,
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<br />Jun.3...,...,.........,...................,.., Creekdry............. 8<<:,11. 0
<br />Jan. 4'4'.:m:::: ::::::::::::::: :::::::::::: ::: ~t~~~~~~~~~:: :::::::::::::: ::::::::: .'....;a;600
<br />h.m........,..,............"........ 4 r..tdeop, .,...... '............. ,.,....,... 4,000
<br />MIdnight............,..............,.. 75 pcrcenlolcr"l now..... '21000
<br />JaneS,S ..m................,..,.....,..,...., 3 reet d..p. ....,........... .:::'..,.....,... 2' 500
<br />h. m..................,.. ....,........ 2 roet deep, ,........ .......' .. ..,..,....... l' 050
<br />9 p. m.....,....,.,...". ..,.'...,..,.. ,.........,.....,.."...,.... ::" :::,: ::::::::', '800
<br />Jun. e,ep. m"...,.,',..,.........,...,',...~ Creek .._,.,.....,..,..."..,.." 0
<br />....J ...........
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<br />The lolaldlocbarge .... .bout 38,000 ......r..t.
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<br />PREVIOUS FLOODS."
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<br />FLOOD OF INDIAN LEGEND.
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<br />As the permanent settlement. of Pueblo and the upper Arkansas
<br />Valley, began about'1859, records of floods prior to that time are not
<br />available. Reports were common among the early settlers of an In-
<br />dian legend regarding a flood occurring before the whites C8.lI!-e, in
<br />which, it was stated, the water reached from bluff to bluff. The truth
<br />'or falsity of this legend can be determined only by circumstantial
<br />evidence. ,
<br />One of t,he early settlers of Pueblo, a Mr. Proffitt, who passed
<br />throllgh the Arkansas Valley on his way to the Mexican War in 1846,
<br />stated that he saw evidence of a former flood along the river below
<br />the site-of the present city lof Pueblo. The cottonwood trees along
<br />. the river were tipped downstream and still bore drift in their
<br />branches. The flood causing this must have occurred prior to 1846,
<br />as Oliver (" Old Scout") Wiggins, an early settler of Colorado, who
<br />testi.&d to the early flow of Arkansas River in the Kansas-Colorado
<br />water suit, stated that in that year there was a great drought, during
<br />which all the buffalo perished or left the country. This statement is
<br />substantiated by Ruxton, an English Army officer, who visited the
<br />region in 1847 and recorded ("Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky
<br />Mountains") that there were no buffalo but many skeletons.
<br />In writing of Fremont County, Rockafellow 11 states that the first
<br />,'white settler was a French trader named Maurice, who lived near the
<br />mouth of Adobe Creek. Maurice told the pioneers that' 4 feet of
<br />SIlowfell all over the valley in 1844 a.p.d lay there three" moons." He
<br />fixed the year as that of the great flood at St, Louis, which was 1844.
<br />Maurice did not mention a later flood, but authentic history records
<br />
<br />.. Based cblelly on dnta rurnl.hed b;V Mr: .\, J, W..ton, ot the Den...er &: Rio Grande
<br />Westel'll Railroad Co,
<br />11 mstor)' of Arkansas Valle)", Chicago, 0, L. Baskin &: Co., 1881,
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