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<br />Information obtained from local residents showed that local flooding <br />occurred in 1900, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1948, and 1958. Smaller, less <br />damaging floods occurred every 5 or 6 years. <br /> <br />The flood history on Big Sandy Creek is considerably different <br />than on the small tributaries. <br /> <br />There are approximately 312 square miles of uncontrolled drainage <br />area on the Big Sandy Creek drainage above Limon. Large floods <br />have occurred in 1921, 1927, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1946, 1950, 1954, <br />1956, and 1965. <br /> <br />A Lincoln County newspaper dated Friday September 3, 1937, gives <br />the following account of flooding from a 1937 storm: <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />The Big Sandy, which runs thru Limon, was a turbulent <br />river Sunday with water spread allover the flats <br />below town. This stream which is ordinarily dry <br />at this place was still flowing briskly on Wednesday, <br />due to the enormous amount of water poured into <br />it from the terrible downpour of rain farther up. <br /> <br />An eastern Colorado newspaper summarized the 1954 and 1956 floods <br />as follows: <br /> <br />Don Smith, work unit conservationist with the Soil <br />Conservation Service, said people in the Big Sandy flood <br />area really got stirred up about the uncontrolled creek <br />after the August 4, 1954, flood. <br /> <br />The center of the storm hit six miles northwest <br />of Calhan. Five inches of rainfall was reported. <br />The swift runoff from the foothills and prairie <br />drainage area culminated in a roaring floodtide <br />that swept down the harmless. appearing creek and <br />washed out bridges, carried away 1,600 bales of <br />hay, ruined meadow land and crop land, knitted <br />barbed wire fencing with uprooted fence posts and <br />pulled it along in its rushing tide. The flood <br />did a great deal of damage to railroad tracks and <br />bridges. <br /> <br />Then July 2 and 3, 1956, the creek really went <br />berserk. Torrential rain and hail storms hit <br />the Pikes Peak Region and the Big Sandy flooded <br />twice in two days. <br /> <br />Losses included 10 head of cattle, 20 sheep, hundreds <br />of acres of meadow land and crop land swept away <br />by the voracious water. Bridges were washed out, <br />the expensive fences went again and the Rock Island <br />Railroad sustained another huge flood damage loss <br />to tracks and railroad bridges. <br /> <br />5 <br />