FLOOD06253

• County: Boulder
• Community: Longmont
• Stream Name: St. Vrain/Lefthand Creeks
• Basin: South Platte
• Title: Floods on St. Vrain and Lefthand Creeks at Longmont, CO
• Date: 11/30/1962
• Prepared For: County of Boulder
• Prepared By: USGS
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Documentation Report

14

;

just east of U.S. Highway 287 about 600 feet north of the main

channel of the creek. Its location is circled on plate 2. Also,

it is strange that no mention was made in 1894 of the flood of

1876 if the description of that flood in the Golden Tribune was

accurate. Longmont was settled in 1871 and there had been a

settlement at Burlington (on the south flood plain of St. Vrain

Creek near present U.S~ 287) since about 1859. It seems likely

that in 1894 there would have been local residents who had expe-

rienced not only the 1876 flood but also the 1864 flood.

The flood of June 1, 1914 "*** took out the bridge over the

St. Vrain at (sic) southeast of the sugar factory ~resent County
Highway 3 crossingL.," according to an item in the LongJ1lont Ledger
for June 5, 1914, but apparently the flood was not truly outstanding.
Follansbee and Sawyer (1948) made no mention of it. The floods of
July 30 and 31, 1919, at Lyons, which were caused principally by
rains in the North St. Vrain Creek basin, were comparable to the

1894 flood at Lyons. Evidently these floods caused little or no

damage at Longmont because contemporary LongJ1lont newspaper accounts

speak only of the "cloudburst at Lyons" and of the damage to the
Longmont water system in the canyon of North St. Vrain Creek.

The flood of early June 1921 was quite moderate at Lyons, but

heavy rains between Lyons and LongJ1lont increased the flow greatly.

Follansbee and Sawyer (1948) quote the Boulder Camera of June 7,
1921: