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. ; 1 .; J" SOME FLOODS IN THE'ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION. 121 Sheridan experienced another flood on the night of September 30, caused by a rise on Little Goose Creek which flooded some of the houses to a depth of S feet, Part of the best residential section was reported to have suffered considerably by the overllow. . No discharge estimates for these' floods are available. CLOUDBURST FLOODS.' TEMPLETON GAP NEAR COLORADO SFB.INGS, COLO,' Between 6 and 9 p, In. May 27, 1922, a very heavy rain above Templeton Gap,'S miles northwest of Colorado Springs, Colo" prod"ced a flood that caused much damage to property in and near Colorado Springs, An investigation of the flood by the United States Geological Survey was made a few days after it occurred. Northeast of Colorado Springs is a semicircular range of hills, which rise abruptly from- the plains and reach an altitude 800 feet higher than that of Colorado Springs, The.hills are of rocky forma- tion and support little vegetation. They inclose a basin having a narrow outlet called. Templeton Gap. About 6 p. m, May 27 heavy clouds from the southwest passed over Colorado Springs and upon reaching the hills abov'eTempleton Gap were forced upward until their moisture was condensed and precip- itated in a rainfall that reached cloudburst intensity, . A rancher living above thegap estimated from the amount of water caught in a pail standing in his yard that the rainfall was '7 inches. It was reported that farther up toward the summit of the hills 10 inches of hail felL The resulting flood reached Papeton, 1 mile below Templeton Gap, about 8,30 p. m., flooded some of the streets to a depth of 4 feet, and washed out fences, barns, streets, ana sidewalks, Half a mile below Papeton it destroyed a considerable stretch of railroad tracle A peculiarity of the flood was the mud balls left in the channeL These were composed of black clay or gumbo and ranged from 6 to 30 inches in diameter. So fine was their texture that they closely resembled black boulders, A straight section of channel was .found a short distance below Templeton' Gap, and three cross sections 200 feet apart were meas- ured. The total slope between the sections was determined from . high-water marks to be 0,0108, and the maximum discharge was computed as 6,120 second-feet, or 862 second-feet a square mile from 7,1 square miles of drainage area.' The'total discharge was estimated . at 757 acre-feet, The area above Templeton Gap is subject to fre- quentcloudbursts, but residents state that this flood was the greatest in 50 years or more, . a Abstracted from Hodges, P. V., Cloudburst tlood near Colorado Springs, Colo.: Eng.. News-Record, Nov:ao.l922.