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Pueblo was named an "All Arnericlln City" in 1954 and has continued to grow with a present metropolitan population estimated at 118,238 from the 1970 census. In the 1970's the City has become the site for the u.s. Bureau of Documents' Western ~utomdted Distri- bution Center (the sales and distribution ar~ of the U.S, Goverrurnent Printing Office) and for the DepartInent of Transportation's High Speed Ground Transportation Test Center. PI\.ST FLOODS . . Sources of Data. and Re=rds There are no records of stream gages or discharges available for SixmileCreel<. Information on past floods in the area, as available in newspaper files and other historical docu- ments, is almost exclusively concerned with the larger aspects of flooding on the Arkansas River or Fountain Creek. The flood pro~ files and flooded areas ~ps Were developed from the results of previous studies, field investigations and Office computations. The Sixmile Creek Watershed Sixmile Creek is II. right bank tributary to the Arkansas River with the confluence located 12 miles east of the City Of Pueblo. The Sixmile Creel< Basin is adjacent to the St. Charles River Basin to the west and to the Huerfano River Basin to the east. The Sixmile Creek watershed contains 53.3 square miles with the headwaters origi- nating in the low hills Dbout fifteen miles south and th~ee miles east Of the City, The stream is approxiwately 14.9 miles long and "ay be considered to be intermittent in the reach of the creek above the Bessemer Ditch crossing. The basin has remained to the present virtually an unde- veloped farming and ranChing community. Several small farmhouses and other farm buildings are located along main county roads downstream of the Bessemer Oitch orossing. Upstream of the Besseme~ Ditch there is essentially no development with only a few small county roads crossing the stream. The terrain in the study reach is typical of the south- eastern plains of Colorado, being flat to rolling, semi-arid a'~ sparsely vegetated. Flood Season and Flood Characteristics Most of the flOod-producing storms oVer the Si>:mile Creek watershed OoOur during the period from May through August. During this period, masses of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and cold, comparatively dry air from the polar regions com- bine oVer the watershed to cause increased thunderstorm activity. Stream flooding generally results from prolonged or successive storms that produoe heavy rainfall and large volumes of runoff. The area is also subject to cloudburst typn storrns whiohrnay result in flash floods. Valley storage, high infiltration rates, and irrigation diversions cause considerable attenuation of thp flood_flows moving downstream to the Arkansas River. characteri~ed by high peak flows, tions. In the study area, floods are largevolumes,andextendeddura- . . Summary of Historical Floods Historical floods occurring in the general Pueblo region have been reported with reasonable acouracy since the mid-1800's. Pueblo floods, which primarily involved tho Arkansas River and, most probably, s~~ltancous flooding on the study tributarics,wcre recorded . . , ,