Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
flooding beyond california
h e 1861-62 l oods extended far beyond the borders of California: they were
the worst ever in recorded history over much of western North America,
including northern Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Moreover, the rain-bearing storms did not stop in the Sierra Nevada but
continued eastward into Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.
A normally arid state, Nevada received about twice its typical annual
rainfall in the two-month period of December 1861 to January 1862. h is
excess water transformed the Carson Valley into a large lake. Villages and
settlements, located on higher ground along the eastern slopes of the Sierra
Nevada, were mostly spared. But at lower elevations, towns and cities suf-
fered. Nevada City was inundated with nine feet of rain in sixty days.
In southern Utah, 1861-62 became known as the “year of the l oods” as
homes, barns, mills, and forts were washed away, including the adobe home
of a Mormon bishop, John D. Lee. In his diary, edited by R. G. Cleland and
J. Brooks, Lee had carefully recorded the weather throughout January 1862,
noting a solid period of alternating rain and snow with strong winds for most
of that month. In early February, as Lee attempted to move his ten wives and
his children from their adobe fort that was disintegrating from the heavy
rain, strong winds blew down part of the wall into a bedroom, killing two
of the children.
Meanwhile, the village of Tonaquint in southwest Utah, situated at the
conl uence of the Santa Clara and Rio Virgin rivers, was destroyed in January
1862 as the l oodwaters chased the villagers from their homes, leaving only
mud and debris for miles. Missionaries had i rst arrived there in 1856 to help
the Native Americans build an irrigation system and a dam. Brigham Young
had visited Tonaquint in May 1861, just months before the destructive win-
ter l oods, and proclaimed that a city of spires, towers, and steeples would be
built there. But before Young's vision could become a reality (the village later
became the city of St. George), torrential rains deluged the region, enguli ng
southern Utah with rising waters. And just ten miles up the Santa Clara River
to the northwest of Tonaquint, a group of Swiss Saints had settled in the vil-
lage of Santa Clara, growing fruit, grapes, and cotton. When the l oods struck,
the Swiss Saints l ed for their lives, their peaceful village utterly destroyed.
In Oregon, two and a half weeks of solid rain caused the worst l ooding
in that state's history. Deluges covered huge portions of the lower Willamette
Valley where Oregon City is located. In 1861-62, Oregon City was the terminus
