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<br /> <br />11 <br /> <br /> <br />; <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />include data from gaging station records, but mostly they consist <br /> <br />of quotations from contemporary newspaper descriptions or early <br /> <br />histories of Colorado. Unless otherwise noted, the material that <br />follows in this section concerning floods before 1940 is quoted <br />or paraphrased from Water-Supply Paper 997. <br />St. Vrain Creek <br />There is evidence that large floods occurred on all streams in <br /> <br /> <br />the South Platte River basin in Colorado in the spring of 1844 <br /> <br /> <br />because of heavy rains on a deep snow cover. A description of <br /> <br /> <br />high water on Cache la Poudre River, caused by melting snow augmented <br /> <br />by "an extraordinary rainstorm" in the mountainous part of the basin <br /> <br />on June 9, 1864, includes a statement that the St. Vrain valley <br />suffered severely from the effects of that storm. According to the <br />Golden Tribune of May 31, 1876, at the junction of St. Vrain Creek <br />and Lefthand Creek at Burlington, water spread over the bottoms <br /> <br />"from bluff to bluff" for 2 days. The exact date of the flood is not <br /> <br />known, but there were very heavy rains at Denver and at Greeley <br /> <br />(27 miles northeast of Longmont) on May 22, 1876. <br />The flood of May 31, 1894, exceeded any subsequent flood on St. <br />Vrain Creek at Longmont and probably exceeded the floods of 1876, <br />1864, and 1844. Follansbee and Sawyer (1948) discuss the effects of <br />the flood at Lyons, but say nothing about its extent at Longmont. <br /> <br /> <br />The extent of inundation in one part of the valley is shown by the <br /> <br /> <br />photograph in figure 4-A. The following note is on the back of the <br />