Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
of the Oregon Trail and the state's capital, where George Abernathy, an Oregon
pioneer and the state's i rst elected governor, lived and ran a thriving business
until the l ood destroyed his home, forcing him (and many others) to leave.
Arizona, too, was af ected: l oods occurred in the Gila, Verde, Bright
Angel, and Colorado river basins between January 19 and 23, 1862, and l ood-
ing was severe in Yuma, Arizona.
adding misery to suffering
h e suf ering endured by the thousands of homeless and stranded residents
was not over at er the rains. In fact, the situation worsened in late January,
when unusual arctic conditions descended on the West Coast. h e freez-
ing weather struck from the Pacii c Northwest to Southern California. In
Oregon and Washington, the Columbia and other rivers froze. In California,
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay was ringed with ice, and snow cov-
ered the hills surrounding the bay. Six inches of snow fell in Napa, one inch
of snow in Sacramento, and snow covered the entire northern Sacramento
Valley. Temperatures in San Francisco dropped to 22°F, with frosts killing
any remaining crops all the way to the Mexican border. In Red Bluf , 125
miles north of Sacramento, ice and snow covered the region. h e freezing
conditions were especially dii cult for the thousands of homeless l ood refu-
gees across the region.
the lessons lost
Why so many people were caught of -guard by these l oods remains puzzling.
It appears that the Native American populations, who had lived in the region
for thousands of years, had deeper insights into the weather and hydrology,
and they recognized the patterns that result in devastating l oods. A piece
in the
Nevada City Democrat
on January 11, 1862, reported that Native
Americans let Marysville for the Sierra foothills a week before the large
l ood, predicting higher water than at any time since the region had been
settled by European-American pioneers.
h e specii c weather pattern that the Native Americans of the West
recognized as bringing particularly severe l ooding is i nally understood
again today—at least by climatologists. h
e powerful storms originate in
