FLOOD07531

• County: Ouray
• Community: Ouray
• Stream Name: Uncompahgre River
• Basin: Gunnison
• Title: Floodplain Information Report
• Date: 4/1/1978
• Prepared For: Ouray County
• Prepared By: A & S Consultants
• Contract/PO #: &&
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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a confined drainage that obscure the natural fre~uency of regional flood~
ingevents.

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burst. produced severe flood damages. The July 29, 1927 ~Iontro"e Enter-
priseheadlined "FLOOD WASHES OUT HIGHWAY A'<;D RAILROAD BELOWOl'RAY:
DM1AGE FROM FLOOD $25,000 TO $40,000." Rainfall ",as evid<>ntly 'Widespread
as well as intense since it caused simultaneous flooding in Canyon, Sky-
rocket, Cascade, Corbett Bnd Dexter Creeks. The paper rnported that "the
joining of the various creeks with the Uncompahgre sent it on a ra~pnge
down the valley ...hieh threatened all kinds of da~age. The main loss Is to
the railroad andhiglway near the smelter (south of Portland). TheUncom-
p<lhgreisreportedtobeflo",ingdolfflthesiteofthehighwayatthefoot
ofStoughllill".
The Ouray Herald of July 29,1927 also reported the follo,dng. "The hea"-
iest rainfall since the memotable flood of 1908(9) hit Outay last ~cdncsday
evening between the hours of 8:30 and 10 PM washing out the highway between
Ouray and Ridgway, undetmining and flooding the Rio Grande tracks, filling
the Cascade flume with rocks and dirt for a distance of threc blocks and
covering the road around the fish pond with debris. Canyon Creek and Oak
Creek were also on a rampage, and the power company stati\m "as under "ater
to the depth of a foot or more. The power company pipe line was under water
and Oak Creek changed Hscourse to enter Canyon Creek." OnAugust5,1927
Dexter Creek flooded again and washed out a quarter mile of the newly r~-
built highway at Stough Hill.
The most devastating floods to strike Ouray were in 1929 when heavy rains
fell On three consecutive days. The July 26, 1929 Montrose Daily Press had
headlines "TERRIFIC STORM lilTS OURAY REGION, OURAY IS ISOLATED AFTER ;.'ORST
STORM IN HISTORY PUTS ALL CREEKS O~ R&~PAGE; Bridges, Roads a160 Suffer,
No },oss of Life". One of the most significant festurea of this ~torm ,",as
the speed with 'Which it struck. The Press r"l'orted that "water ",ithin 10
Tdnutes from th.. btarl of the dondbllrst was running through SO to 60 hou:}c",
1nthelo"'erpartoftheC1ty..... OakCreck,CanyonCreek,Portland
Creek, Dexter, Skyrocket, C".~cade and all the others almost immediately
sprang into raging torrents, forcing huge rocks ",eighing a ton and a ton and
a half, logs and all kinds of debris along on their crests. Flum~s "ere
broken bridges were washed away and within " few minutes indescr~b"ble
chaos;esulted." 'I'his storm "\lidetltly carried considerable ''''''''"wat"r t1..',""
the 1909 flood since the Ouray power company was reported to be under about
3 feet of water."

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Also of considerable interest are the high flows recorded at Canyon Creek
and the Uncompahgre River at Ouray during OctOber of 1911. The pr"dpita-
tionproducing these flows was apparently intense as at this tiltleo fyear
antecedent moisture from snowmelt is not usually extant with base flows
being lower than the late spring and Summer peak flows.

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A 1963 report prepared by t1\e U. S. Army Corps of Engineers entitled "Bene-
fits from Flood Control DaUas Creek Project, Uncompahgre River, COIN ado"
made reference to floodins of the Uncompahgre RiVer. Thls report cited
accounts of damnges claimed by residents along the river from 1919 to 1939.
The esti~"ted average annusl damage amounted to $42,661. Records of indi-
vidual testimony supporting this figure are not available nor is the cri-
teria used in establiahing the estimate.

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Flash Floods Within the Study Area

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The history of flooding of the tributaries to the Uncompahgre River within
the study area ia better documented becsuse of their devastating effects
on the Town of Ouray and its arterial roads and rails, Flooding on tribu-
taries is almost entirely triggered by cloudbursts within steep, rocky, and
oonfined drainage basIns and the resultant damage is due to mud and debris
flows more often than high water. The first ~ention of this type of flood-
ing waa found in the June 9, 1906 "Ouray Herald" which alluded to a flood
in 1874. Itstated,";.'hcnGeo.A.Scott,Ji.m)1cDonaldandpartyofpros-
pectors, came into Ouray in '75 from the Mi~uel, they noted that a flood
had ~wept down Cor-bett Creek ;;hich is just this side of Forsman Creek, and
t.hat the water had rcached a lev~l ten feet above normal - probably the
summer previous." :>umerous "tloer fI..~h flood" have be.en documented, as
shown ln Table 2, however, the ",ost significant floods oaurred in 1909,
1927,1929,195l,196S,1971and1973.

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The 1909 flood WllS given the followlngheadline in the Augu"t 23rd' lontros"
l1~lly 'Pr~~~. "Fl.""<J "f Io/Her Al"_ost Wipes T'-'wn <If O"r~y Off M"r, r:1,,"rlh"YFlt
Which Eclipsed All Previous Ones Does I_ense Damage." The August 26th
Montrose Enterprise reported "the <cloudburst which t"ok place above Ouray
last Sunday was responslble for damages estimated at $50,000. That portion
of the <city adjacent to the Portland C:rf'f''k channel which extends cast and
~'est through the town between Fourth and Fifth Avenues was damaged the ,,'orst,
although the flood extended down First, Second and Third Streets as far as
Sbth Avenu"." Photographs, compliments of Mr. and Mrs. ~arvin Gregory,
vividly portray the damage infli<cted by this storm. following this flood,
<concrete "flumes" were constructed to improve the capacityand,h opefully,
confine the flow of both Caseade and Portland Creeks through the Town of
Ouray. The"eflumcsreplaeedtheseverelydarn.1ged,",oodenflllmes;;hichhad
been installed sometime earlier in an effort to restrict the str~ams flow
and prevent theirnlltural,,'nnder1ngs over the cumulativ.. "llu vialhns"n
which m""h of Ouray has helm built.

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The town WIS busily digging out from und"r the debris when Il",ore ralns feU
the following day The July 27, 1929 ~ontrose Daily Press ran the follow-
inS headlines: "Second StotnlRavages Ouray Section, Friday's Catastrophe
at Ouray Is Worse Than That of Day Before. Gem City of Rockies Suffers An-
other Flood as Cloudburst Sends the Streams Out of Banks Second Time in 24
hrs; Uncompahgre Does Groat Damage to Business Coneerns, Pool and RQ"ds~
Half of City Without Water Supply". The aeco!:lpanying article included the
greatest damage this time seemed to have com",fromthnUncompahgre River as
a terrific rain fell in the upper regions, especially in the CAmp Btrd area,
That regton contributed a large volume of "ater to the river whieh came down
in a wall of water several feet high, the crest cro,,'T1~d with lOES, trees,
Hllmpsand all kinds of debrts..... The Uncompahgre River ,,'as 10 feet

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1927 ""s " year of heavy runoff nue to snowm~lt ",dch, eowbined ,,'itb cloud-

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