Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1861-62
Flood
40
32
24
16
8
0
zGm
z
z
Precipitation
(inches)
Average: 9.4 in
1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
Year
f igu r e 8. Precipitation in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Stockton, California, from
1850 to 2003. Precipitation during the winter of 1861-62 was three times higher than the
historical average. (Redrawn by B. Lynn Ingram based on Mock 2006.)
In 1862, Brewer sent a series of letters to his brother on the East Coast
describing the surreal scenes of tragedy that he witnessed during his travels in
California that winter and spring. Brewer's letters documented the unprec-
edented snowfall in November and early December 1861 that blanketed the
Sierra Nevada range. h e snow did not last long, however, because the same
series of warm storms that wreaked havoc along the West Coast also melted
the snow and drenched the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada with 60-102
inches of rain. Nevada City, i t y miles northeast of Sacramento, received
a total of more than nine feet of rain for the season (whereas the normal
rainfall there is i t y-i ve inches, or just under i ve feet).
Brewer commented on his amazement that the two-month rainfall totals
in California that year were more than
two years
of rainfall in his much
soggier hometown of Ithaca, New York. San Francisco, Sacramento, and
Stockton received almost four times their average rainfall for the months of
December to February (see i gure 8).
h e series of warm storms swelled the rivers in the Sierra Nevada range so that
they became raging torrents, sweeping away entire communities and mining
settlements in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada—California's famous “Gold
Country.” A January 15, 1862, report from the
Nelson Point Correspondence
described the scene: “On Friday last, we were visited by the most destructive
and devastating l ood that has ever been the lot of 'white' men to see in this part
of the country. Feather River reached the height of 9 feet more than was ever
known by the 'oldest inhabitant,' carrying away bridges, camps, stores, saloon,
restaurant, and much real-estate.” Drowning deaths occurred every day on the
Feather, Yuba, and American rivers. In one tragic account, an entire settlement
of Chinese miners was drowned by l oods on the Yuba River.
