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<br />torrent and the Fountain has been tearing away :;;tone walls ancl foundations <br />and bridges. Canon Avenue, the road leading to liilliams Canon is a mountain <br />torrent down whi ch hundreds of tons of rock ha V!;, been washed." <br /> <br />The Colorado Springs Weekly Gazette of June '1, 1894 statee. that "Lake <br />Moraine rose 6 feet in 24 hours.. .Midland Ralll'oad blocked by slides in Ute <br />Pass.. .water overflowed Fountain Creek and flooc:led Colorado City (present <br />day west Colorado Springs)...Ruxton Creek higher than ever bef'ore...WilJiams <br />Canon flooded.. .City Council employed 15 men to watch the creek and give <br />peopj,e warning if necessary... Rainfall of 2 inches or more in previous days <br />in upper Fountain Creek had prepared the soil for rapid. J'unoff'." <br /> <br />Flood of' August 5, 1902 <br /> <br />Thill flood was caused by a localized heavy t.1",mderstorm in the, vicini ty <br />of Woodland Park that dropped large amounts of !"ain on the upper F'ountain <br />Creel( basin above Mani tou Springs. <br /> <br />The Colorado Springs Daily Gazette of' August. 6, 1902 contains the <br />following descripUon: ".. . cloudburst did mOl'e Q,amage to Manitou and the <br />pass than has been done before by a single storm. ..No wagon bridges are left <br />in Ute Pass below Cascade with the carriage roa(, being washed out <br />completely...Soda Springs Park is a mass of Wl"eekage, consisting of <br />household goods, timbers, tree trunks, and raUl'oad ties 20-30 fee,t <br />high...l00 light dwellings have been moved frl~m their fOl'mer <br />foundations.. .Midland Railroad is totally out 0.1" businesll in Ute Pass being <br />washed out for dozens of roads in many places and the wr'~ckage of the lIne <br />being soattered along the banks of the creek fa!" 20 miles below the scene of <br />the c:loudburst.. .Warning had been recei ved thl'Ol.lgh Wester'n Union that Gl"een <br />Mountain Falls had been visited by a cloudburst at 2 P.M".. .Men on horseback <br />went up the pass to give warning...At 3 P.M. il .'2J.l of water 15 feet high <br />came down the creek." <br /> <br />The Colorado Springs Weekly Gazette of AugUl',t. 8, 190,> stated that "a <br />wall of water 20 feet high chased a horseback ri.d.er down Ute Pass to Manitou <br />. . .Summer cottages, tents, bridges, outhous,=s, oattle and horses strewn <br />along Fountain Creek... A.ll county roads west of' Manitou Springs impassable <br />'''' Bridge at Soda Springs carried away bodily." ,,'~ cottages at 364 Mani tou <br />Avenue oar'ried 50 feet from their former locatic:ns." <br /> <br />The report of a wall of water 15 feet high c,'ashing :lnto Mani tou would <br />approximate the 100 year flood for Fountain CI'eE'k, as specified by the <br />Feder'al Emergency Management Agency (1983a). <br /> <br />Floo(j of June 5, 1921 <br /> <br />This flood was part of the large system that dropped extremely heavy <br />amounts of rainfall along parts of the Front Bar,ge and al.ong the Arkansas <br />River' valley. The rain fell mainly over the Buxton Cree~( dl~ainage basin ar.d <br />occurred the day after heavy showers dropped ove,r 12 inches of rain at <br />Penrose, Colorado. With the Manitou Springs flood occurr'ing the day after <br />the devastating Pueblo flood in which more than a hundre(j lives were lost, <br />newspaper coverage of the Mani tou Springs event was somel/hat 1 irni ted. <br /> <br />-15- <br />