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June 02, 2021
100th Anniversary: The Southern Colorado Floods of 1921
A Pueblo telephone operator made this sketch after she was able to return to work.
If you have spent any time in southern Colorado, you've heard about the floods of early June 1921. Pueblo's gets the most attention: there are markers on old downtown buildings showing how far the water rose, with special attention to the old second-story telephone exchange room, where the "telephone girls" stayed at their switchboards, relaying emergency messages, until the water rose around their ankles and they were evacuated by boats.
Pueblo gets the attention because of the loss of life and the the property damage.
But it was only Pueblo that suffered. The community of Penrose in eastern Fremont County was ripped by a flood whose damage still lingers when the days of steady rain cause the collapse of the earthen Shaeffer Dam on Beaver Creek.
The Glendale Stage Station in Penrose was put out of business in the flood of 1921 and finally burned by vandals in the 1970s.
I don't think anything like June 1921 was seen again until June 1965, when Cherry Creek, which flows from the south into Denver, flooded, washing out Interstate 25 at Castle Rock and flooding parts of central Denver, but without as much loss of life. Cherry Creek Reservoir was built to keep that from happening again, and now it is a popular recreation area.
If you have information on the floods in other non-urban areas, please comment.
2 comments:
Chatfield reservoir along the South Platte was also built in response to the 1965 floods.
Ron, you're right -- I was focused on Cherry Creek.
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