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<br />.. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Longmont. Historic records (both written and photographic) are more <br />extensive for this geographic area as well. <br /> <br />In Boulder a "great flood came pouring down Boulder Creek."55 <br />Boulder Daily Camera headlines claimed that "the windows of heaven had <br />been opened and forgotten to be closed. "56 The floodwaters caused <br />substantial damage. The crest of water at Sixth Street reached twelve <br />feet. 57 Nearly every bridge on Boulder Creek was washed out; <br />including the railroad bridge at Fourth Street, the bridge at Sixth <br />Street, the Ninth Street bridge, the iron bridge at Twelfth Street and <br />the Seventeenth Street bridge. The Sternberg bridge at Twenty-fist <br />Street was seriously damaged as was much of the railroad track in the <br />area from the mouth of Boulder Canyon to the city limits near <br />Twenty-second Street.58 Even in her later years, Ms. Elizabeth <br />Ricketts remembered the dramatic noise of the flood as it rushed past <br />her Arapahoe Avenue home.59 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Water covered most of Boulder. It was some three to four feet deep at <br />the railroad depot at Fourteenth and Water Streets [present day Canyon <br />Boulevard).60 Water and debris were reported to be as far north as <br />Spruce Street and as far south as the University Hill.61 The Boulder <br />Daily Camera carried stories of the eastern extent of the f100a as <br />citizens lamented over the damage to yards and farms. Ms. Elizabeth <br />Ball remembered that the greatest damage was on the north side of town <br />as far east as Thirtieth Street.62 Ms. Ruth Richards cOr.1mented that <br />the 1894 flood waters covered the floor of her parents' house at 1711 <br />Fifteenth Street [near Arapahoe) .63 Ms. Lulu Neiheisel remarked that <br />the water run down Pearl Street.64 J.E. Hubbard reJ'larked that it <br />was "lucky" that all of the residents of Culver Flats, or Poverty Flats <br />[present day area bordered by Canyon, Arapahoe, Seventeenth and <br />Twenty-second Streets) had not been drowned. 65 <br /> <br />A.A. Paddock, of the Boulder Daily Camera Paddock family, recalled <br />that the flood did "ir.1mense damage. " His later writings included <br />graphic details of the mud and sand deposited in basements and first <br />floors of many houses in residential districts along Boulder Creek. He <br />remarked "the waters covered almost the entire territory from Walnut <br />Street to beyond Arapahoe, and from Ninth Street to the City limits" <br />[near Twentieth and Twenty-second Streets) .66 Even the newly built <br />Highland School [near present day Arapahoe and Ninth Streets) may <br />have been affected. As Paddock mentioned, the only dry ground in the <br />area. was a section "east of Highland School."67 In addition to <br />Paddock's recollections, careful examination of the Boulder Daily Camet'a <br />yielded a bid announcement, following the flood, for landscaping and <br />culvert work at the Highland School property.68 Any flood damage at <br />that site was probably caused by Gergory Creek, which had affected <br />many upstream locations. Flood debris had to be cleared in July of <br />1894 fror.1 the area near Pearl and Spruce Streets at Fourteenth for the <br />erection of the Masonic Temple, perhaps indicating that floodwaters J'lay <br />have reached as far north as Spruce Street. 69 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Fortunately, no lives were lost,70 but the extent of the floodwaters <br />caused significant property losses in residential areas as well as in the <br />City core.71 One neighborhood upstream, from about Fourth to <br />