1861 — Dec-Jan 1862, Flooding, AZ, CA, OR, WA, UT, especially CA and OR –>1,000?

— >1,000?  Blanchard estimate.[1]

 

Arizona          (         ?)[2]

–?  Angel River basin flooding.

–?  Bright River basin flooding.

–?  Colorado River basin flooding.[3]

–?  Gila River basin flooding.[4]

–?  Gila City. Concerning 1862 flooding == “the city was destroyed by the flood.”[5]

–?  Verde River basin flooding.

–?  Yuma, severe flooding.[6]

 

California      (>1,000?)

—  1,400  Chinese drowned in the state.[7]

—  1,000s Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.[8]

—  1,000s Harlander. “California is Due for a Megaflood.” Los Angeles Magazine, 1-11-2017.

–~1,000  Newport Daily News, RI. “The Late Flood in California,” 1-29-1862, p. 1.[9]

—     500  Chinese miners in December. Taylor. “The Great California Flood of 1862.”  2007.[10]

—   <100  Chinese. Boston Post. “All Sorts of Paragraphs.” 1-11-1862, p. 2.

Notes by Locality:

—       ?  Agua Mansa. Village totally destroyed.[11]

—       ?  Alamo, at the foot of Mt. Diablo 50 miles east of San Francisco.[12]

—       ?  American Riv. “Drowning deaths occurred every day on…Feather…American rivers.”[13]

—       ?  Anaheim.[14]

—       ?  Central Valley.[15]

—       ?  Eldoradoville. “Destroyed.” (Vargo. “The Great Floods of the San Gabriel Mts.”)

—       ?  Feather River. “Drowning deaths occurred every day on the Feather, Yuba…rivers.”[16]

—       ?  Knights Ferry. “nearly every building…torn from its foundation…by mud and rock.”[17]

—       ?  Lane Crossing (now Oro Grande). Submerged. Taylor and Taylor.[18]

—     50  Long Bar, Yuba River. Drownings, Chinese. Newbold 1991, p. 3.[19]

–1,000  Long Bar, Yuba area, Chinese “washed off from Long Bar and vicinity on…Yuba.”[20]

—       ?  Los Angeles.[21]

—       ?  Marysville. “Suffered terribly.”[22]

—       ?  Mission Valley. “All of Mission Valley was under water…Old Town was evacuated…”[23]

—       ?  Mokelumne Hill. Landslide carried off “nearly every building.”[24]

—       ?  Moraga, small community 20 miles east of San Fran. Bay; “great flooding and destruction.”[25]

—       ?  Napa. “…four feet of water covered the entire town of Napa…”[26]

—       ?  Newport. Partially underwater.[27]

—       ?  Orange County. Flood created inland sea for three weeks.[28]

—     45  Oregon Bar, Placer County. Chinese “carried away in their cabins at Oregon Bar…”[29]

—   150  Ousleys Bar, county bank of Yuba River opposite mouth of Dry Creek. Chinese.[30]

—       ?  Rio Vista. “…Rio Vista on the Sacramento River was under six feet of water.”[31]

—       ?  Riverside. Settlements in Riverside “swept away.” (Ingram and Malamud-Roam, 28.)

—   >10  Sacramento.[32]

–10-40  Sacramento.

—       ?  San Bernardino.[33] (Newbold. “The Great California Flood of 1861-1862.” 1991, p. 28.)[34]

—       ?  San Francisco Bay area. Inundated.[35]

—       ?  San Diego. B. Lynn Ingram map shows San Diego within large inundation area.[36]

—       1  San Joaquin County, Sullivan’s Creek. Mr. Deering drowned trying to cross the creek.[37]

—       ?  San Ramon Valley. “…one sheet of water from hill to hill as far as the eye could see.”[38]

—     20  Santa Ana Valley, modern-day Orange County. (Null and Hulbert, 2007, p. 30.

—       ?  Santa Rosa. Partially submerged.[39]

—       ?  Shasta County.[40]

—       ?  Snelling, Merced County. River “changed course and swept through town…”[41]

—       ?  Sonora. Partially submerged.[42]

—       ?  Stockton. “A part of Marysville and Stockton…Sacramento entirely, are under water.[43]

—       7  Town of Volcano, Sierra foothills. Landslide; 7 deaths.[44]

—       ?  Yuba City.[45]

—       ?  Yuba river. “Drowning deaths occurred every day on the Feather, Yuba…rivers.”[46]

 

Nevada           (     ?)

—  ?  Nevada City. “…was inundated with nine feet of rain in sixty days.”[47]

 

Oregon           (    12)

—   12  Dresbeck, Rachel. Oregon Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. 2006, p. 90.

— >10  Blanchard estimate based on Bancroft. History of Oregon…1848-1888 (V2). 483-484.[48]

— >10  Blanchard estimate[49] based on Pease excerpt/discussion, “The Great Flood of 1861.”[50]

—      ?  Albany. Baxter, Ruiz and Benner.[51]

—      ?  Canemah. Was “laid waste.” Bancroft; also Hedges.[52]

—      ?  Champoeg. “…had no houses left…” Bancroft; also Baxter, Ruiz and Benner.[53]

—      ?  Clackamas.  “This severe flood virtually washed away…Clackamas…” (Kohnen)

—      ?  Corvallis. USGS.[54]

—      ?  Linn City, Dec 2-4.[55] “Linn City was swept clean of buildings.” (Bancroft)

—      ?  Orleans (opposite Corvallis). “Devastating flood of Dec 1861…profound impact…”[56]

—      ?  Oregon City. Bancroft.[57]

—      ?  Multnomah. “This severe flood virtually washed away…Multnomah…” (Kohnen)

—      ?  Portland. “…back-water from the Columbia overflowed the lower portion of Portland.”[58]

—      ?  Salem. Bancroft.[59]

—      ?  Scottsburg. Bancroft.[60]

—      ?  The Dalles.  “The water rose at The Dalles several feet over the principal streets….”[61]

—      ?  Willamette Valley. “Deluges covered huge portions of the lower Willamette Valley…”[62]

 

Utah                                      (  2)

— 2  Southern Utah.[63]

— ?  Village of Tonaquint, SW UT, confluence of Santa Clara and Rio Virgin rivers, destroyed.[64]

 

Narrative Information

 

Arizona

 

Schick: “Yuma, AZ destroyed.” (Schick. … the Great West Coast flooding of 1861-1862. 2012, slide 69 of 72.)

 

California — Winter 1861-Spring 1862:

 

CA Dept. of Water Sources:  “A devastating flood in 1861-1862 (the “Great Flood”) inundated the majority of the West Coast, including the San Francisco Bay area.” (CA Dept. of Water Resources. CA Water Plan Update 2009, Appendix 3A, Flood Management, Historic Floods)

 

Ingram: “….The only megaflood to strike the American West in recent history occurred during the winter of 1861-62. California bore the brunt of the damage. This disaster turned enormous regions of the state into inland seas for months, and took thousands of human lives.[65] The costs were devastating: one quarter of California’s economy was destroyed, forcing the state into bankruptcy….

 

“In 1861, farmers and ranchers were praying for rain after two exceptionally dry decades. In December their prayers were answered with a vengeance, as a series of monstrous Pacific storms slammed—one after another—into the West coast of North America, from Mexico to Canada. The storms produced the most violent flooding residents had ever seen, before or since….

 

“Residents in northern California, where most of the state’s 500,000 people lived, were contending with devastation and suffering of their own. In early December, the Sierra Nevada experienced a series of cold arctic storms that dumped 10 to 15 feet of snow, and these were soon followed by warm atmospheric rivers storms. The 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—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 flood 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 floods on the Yuba River….

 

“William Brewer wrote a series of letters to his brother on the east coast describing the surreal scenes of tragedy that he witnessed during his travels in the region that winter and spring. In a description dated January 31, 1862, Brewer wrote:

 

Thousands of farms are entirely under water—cattle starving and drowning. All the roads in the middle of the state are impassable; so all mails are cut off. The telegraph also does not work clear through. In the Sacramento Valley for some distance the tops of the poles are under water. The entire valley was a lake extending from the mountains on one side to the coast range hills on the other. Steamers ran back over the ranches fourteen miles from the river, carrying stock, etc, to the hills. Nearly every house and farm over this immense region is gone. America has never before seen such desolation by flood as this has been, and seldom has the Old World seen the like.

 

“Brewer describes a great sheet of brown rippling water extending from the Coast Range to the Sierra Nevada. One-quarter of the state’s estimated 800,000 cattle drowned in the flood, marking the beginning of the end of the cattle-based ranchero society in California. One-third of the state’s property was destroyed, and one home in eight was destroyed completely or carried away by the floodwaters.

 

“Sacramento, 100 miles up the Sacramento River from San Francisco, was (and still is) precariously located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers. In 1861, the city was in many ways a hub: the young state’s sparkling new capital, an important commercial and agricultural center, and the terminus for stagecoaches, wagon trains, the pony express and riverboats from San Francisco. Although floods in Sacramento were not unknown to the residents, nothing could have prepared them for the series of deluges and massive flooding that engulfed the city that winter. The levees built to protect Sacramento from catastrophic floods crumbled under the force of the rising waters of the American River. In early January the floodwaters submerged the entire city under 10 feet of brown, debris-laden water. The water was so deep and dirty that no one dared to move about the city except by boat. The floodwaters caused immense destruction of property and loss of life.

 

“California’s new Governor, Leland Stanford, was to be inaugurated on January 10, but the floodwaters swept through Sacramento that day, submerging the city. Citizens fled by any means possible, yet the inauguration ceremony took place at the capital building anyway, despite the mounting catastrophe. Governor Stanford was forced to travel from his mansion to the capital building by rowboat. Following the expedited ceremony, with floodwaters rising at a rate of one foot per hour, Stanford rowed back to his mansion, where he was forced to steer his boat to a second story window in order to enter his home. Conditions did not improve in the following weeks. California’s legislature, unable to function in the submerged city, finally gave up and moved to San Francisco on January 22, to wait out the floods….

 

“The death and destruction of this flood caused such trauma that the city of Sacramento embarked on a long-term project of raising the downtown district by 10 to 15 feet in the seven years after the flood. Governor Stanford also raised his mansion from two to three stories, leaving empty the ground floor, to avoid damage from any future flooding events.

 

“Downstream of Sacramento, towns and villages throughout the eastern San Francisco Bay Area were struggling with catastrophes of their own….

 

“The heavy rains also triggered landslides and mud slides on California’s steep hillsides. For instance, in Knights Ferry and Mokelumne Hill, nearly every building was torn from its foundation and carried off by thundering landslides, and a major landslide also occurred at the town of Volcano in the Sierra foothills, killing seven people.

 

“The 1861-62 floods extended far beyond the borders of California. They were the worst in recorded history over much of the American West, including northern Mexico, Oregon, Washington State and into British Columbia, as well as reaching inland into Nevada, Utah and Arizona. In Nevada, a normally arid state, twice its typical annual rainfall occurred in the two-month period of December 1861 to January 1862. All this excess water transformed the Carson Valley into a large lake, inundating Nevada City with nine feet of rain in 60 days….” (Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood: Lessons from a forgotten Catastrophe. A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern California underwater for up to six months, and it could happen again.” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.)

 

Ingram and Malamud-Roam: “….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 floods on the Yuba River.” [p. 29]

 

“Unable to penetrate the still-frozen soils, an enormous pulse of water from the rain and melted snow flowed downslope and across the landscape, overwhelming streams and rivers and creating a huge inland sea in California’s enormous Central Valley — a region at least 400 miles long and up to 70 miles wide…This vast, temporary inland sea covered farmlands and towns, drowning people, horses, and cattle, and washing away houses, buildings, barns, fences, and bridges.” [p. 30]

 

“The water was so high it completely submerged telegraph poles that had just been installed between San Francisco and New York…” [p. 31]

 

“Sacramento remained under water for six months.” [p. 34]

 

(Ingram, B. Lynn and Frances Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell us About Tomorrow. 2013.)

 

Kattlemann: “The flood that is generally considered the largest in the history of the Central Valley occurred 9-12 January 1862 when an intense storm followed antecedent precipitation that was more than usually falls in an average year. Flows in the American River were far beyond channel capacity and inundated much of Sacramento (Williams, 1986). High water marks believed to be from the 1862 flood were found near Folsom that were 3.5 m above the crest level of the 1907 flood, which was the third largest peak flow in the gauged record for the American River at Fair Oaks (Taylor, 1913). Historical accounts also help document the importance of snowpack contributions to flooding in 1862. Twenty cm of snow was reported in the northern Sacramento Valley and 30 cm covered areas at elevations less than 500 m {Sacramento Union 7 January 1862). The extensive snow cover in the Sierra Nevada foothills suggested by such observations must have contributed vast amounts of water to the flood.” (Kattlemann. “Flooding from rain-on-snow events in the Sierra Nevada. 1997, 60-61)

 

Newbold: “While the rest of the country was engaged in an epic cataclysm of Civil War, California suffered through an unprecedented natural calamity, which was the most devastating recorded flood in California’s history — the Flood of 1861-1862….

 

“The flood reached its greatest height during the latter half of January 1862. A reporter for the Stockton Daily Independent took a cruise over the flooded area on the steamer Bragden and remarked, ‘…the river banks are invisible…. Just as far as the eye can see, a vast inland sea spreads….’”[66] [p. 1] (Newbold. “The Great California Flood of 1861-1862.” San Joaquin Historian, Vol. V, No. 4, Winter 1991, pp. 1-8.

 

Null and Hulbert: “…in San Francisco…nearly 10 inches [fell] in December 1861, followed by an unprecedented 24 inches in January 1862… the 1862-1862 storms caused record or near-record flooding events across the state, from Eureka and Humboldt counties in the northwest, all the way to Orange and San Diego counties in the south.” [p. 27]

 

“…California’s 30 days of rain in December 1861 and January 1862 was the equivalent of at least a 30,000-year [flood] event. In San Francisco, the storms resulted in a 10,000-year event, while in Sacramento, the flooding was ‘only’ a 2,300-year event.” [p. 29] (Null and Hulbert. “California Washed Away: The Great Flood of 1862.” Weatherwise, Jan-Feb 2007, pp. 27-30.

 

Schick Abstract: “…The greatest known and recorded widespread flooding, ever to impact the West Coast of the United States, occurred during the winter of 1861-1862.[67] It was characterized by an extraordinarily wet weather pattern shifting from Oregon to California. That persistent and intense weather pattern produced flooding which, to this day, has never been matched.

 

“The flooding was caused by synoptic weather patterns configuring air flow into the West Coast to produce strong atmospheric rivers, combined with a series of mid-latitude cyclones. The wet weather pattern shifted from north to the south, along the West Coast of the U.S., as winter unfolded. The soggy weather pattern initially struck Oregon, then moved south and stalled — pummeling northern California with biblical flooding.[68] The moist pattern then shifted further south, finally causing extreme flooding into Southern California….” (Schick. U.S. Army COE. Warning from the Past: The message, meteorology and myths from the Great West Coast flooding of 1861-1862, 6-26-2012.)

 

Secrest and Secrest: “As the state prepared for Christmas on the week of December 4, 1861, the cold chill and overcast skies of the season were transposed into black, billowing storm clouds. By Friday, December 6, a heavy rain was coming down from the north…By Sunday the storm was raging unabated….as noted in Marysville lawyer Charles De Long’s diary….

 

…Mon. 9 — Was awoke and sprang up to the alarm of the fire bell, ran down & found that the Merchant’s Hotel and several large brick buildings had fallen in and the inmates narrowly escaped destruction — the river raised about four inches higher than in 1852, and the whole town was nearly submerged, great excitement horrid news coming in from the country of the loss of human life and property. [pp. 93-94]

 

“….Many deaths had been reported during all this time [into Jan], but homeless, starving and stranded settlers, along rivers and in the outlands were suffering terribly….” [p. 96]

 

“To counter this devastation, much of the city [Sacramento] was raised some eight feet, building by building, using hundreds of screw jacks and manpower. The cost in money and effort was staggering. It was a monumental achievement….” [p. 97] (Secrest, William B. Jr. and William B. Secrest Sr. California Disasters 1800-1900.  Sanger CA: Quill Driver Books, 2006.)

 

Taylor and Taylor: “In 1860 California had been a state for 10 years. The state hired an excellent team of men from Yale, including Josiah Whitney and William Brewer, for a long term in-depth investigation of the state’s resources. They were just two years into their studies when the great flood of 1862 bankrupt the state, and soon thereafter terminated their lofty project. A fourth of the state’s economy was destroyed.

 

“This flood transformed the Sacramento Valley into an inland sea, covering the tops of telegraph poles with steamboats passing over the farmlands to deliver goods and rescue survivors. The Santa Ana River formed two large lakes – one in the Inland Empire and another in the flood plain of Orange County. Probably the only definite high water mark in Southern California is at the Aqua Mansa, just south of the present city of Colton. Hydrologic studies at Aqua Mansa, document a discharge in 1862, three times the magnitude of anything since. In Northern California, a high-water measurement on the American River in 1862, suggesting a very high flow, appears to be ignored….

 

“On Friday, January 31, 1862, near the close of the deluge, Brewer writes, “At Los Angeles it rained incessantly for 28 days — immense damage was done — one whole village was destroyed.” He does not identify the town, but it seems highly probable that the town was a very important community…the Agua Mansa. It was a well known community located just a little south of present day Colton. It was at the intersection of two main trails. One, the Santa Fe Trail from New Mexico to Los Angeles, and the other from Mission San Gabriel to its outpost, in what is now Redlands. “Before the Mormons arrived in 1851 the Aqua Mansans could boast that they had the largest town between New Mexico and the West Coast. (Quart Vol. 47, Number 3&4, 2000, p.61)[69] ….

 

“Additional evidence that Brewer was referring to Agua Mansa, is in a report from a San Bernardino correspondent which appeared in the Los Angeles Star. “The Agua Mansa, a beautiful and flourishing settlement, is destroyed and no vestige is left to denote that such a place even existed.” (SBC Museum Quart Vol. 47, Number 34, 2000. p. 61) It is probably from this paper than Brewer obtained his information that a whole town in southern California was destroyed….

 

“…we have the following combined accounts from William and Helen Beattie taken from the “Heritage of the Valley” (1951),[70] Crafts, “Pioneer Days of the San Bernardino County” (1906),[71] and Hayes, B. I, “Pioneer Notes from the Diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes”. (1929).[72] The accounts state that the fall of 1861 was sunny, dry, and warm until Christmas day which proved to be a rainy day. All through the holidays there continued what we should call a nice, pleasant rain. It then rained continuously for fifteen days and nights. This was followed by a down pour for twenty-four hours, or longer. From accounts in the Los Angeles Star this storm continued for some 25 days. (Engstrom p.121)[73] The Santa Ana River rose to the Pine’s Hotel located at the corner of present Third Street and Arrowhead Avenue in San Bernardino, inundating the Valley for miles up and down the river. All this was made worse by Lytle Creek rushing down D Street and crossing to Third. This corresponds to a water level higher than Barton road to the south of the Santa Ana River in the region of the Montecito Cemetery. Then on that night of January 22, a great roar was heard in the valley by Father Borgotta of the little church. He rang the church bell frantically and the inhabitants of Agua Mansa ran or swam to high ground. “The gentle Santa Ana River became a raging torrent which washing, swirling and seething, swept everything from its path.” One writer says there were “billows fifty feet high”. Peter C. Peters of Colton states that “when morning came – (there was) a scene of desolation. The village of Aqua Mansa was completely washed away . . . he watched the adobe houses melt down in the flood and disappear. Trees were uprooted, and carried along bodily, the land was cut and washed, and the fertile fields were buried under deposits of coarse sand and gravel. Only the church and a house near it remained.” (Sidler, 1966).[74] Referring to the Diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, Engstrom states that even after the Aqua Mansa disaster there was particularly heavy precipitation from the 25th to the 27th of January (Engstrom, 1966 p.145). To what degree the Santa Ann River was at flood stage in the Inland Empire during this later period apparently is not recorded….

 

“The storm of course, engulfed all of Southern California. Large lakes were formed on alluvial planes between Los Angeles and the ocean. They extended to the west and to the south. (Engstrom 1966, p.145) Lakes formed in the Mojave Desert. The Mojave River rose 20 feet above normal in present day Oro Grande. Plains were cut by gulches and arroyos from Ventura to San Luis Rey. (Engstrom 1966, p.146).  In San Diego during the month of January alone — rain fall was 300% above normal. (Engstrom 1966, p.143). We do not have detailed precipitation figures for Los Angeles for this storm like we have for San Francisco. There is, however, a consensus among several individuals who “kept the rain fall” that over 66 inches fell during the 1861-1862 season. (Engstrom 1966, p.145) This number is interesting as compared to documented annual records kept in Los Angeles since 1878. (Los Angeles Times July 5, 2000, Metro News B8). Here, it is stated that the average rainfall in Los Angeles from 1878 to 1999 was 15.02 inches. We know that the flood created an inland sea in Orange County lasting about three weeks with water standing four feet deep up to four miles from the river. (Tracey Saltzman Sept, 1995 Saltzman. Tracey Planning Intern (1955) Huntington Beach Flood History.)[75] ….

 

“The great California flood of 1862 devastated Northern California as well as Southern California. That is one of the most remarkable aspects of this flood; it was statewide.
Floods were occurring everywhere in the state at nearly the same time. Bridges were washed our as far north as Trinity and Shasta Counties (Secrest, 2006).[76]

 

“Four factors contributed to this greatest of California’s historic floods.

1) Record Rainfall

2) High Population based along streams and rivers

3) Melting of snow.

4) Hydraulic mining.

 

“The rainfall in Northern California set records not yet matched….

 

“Brewer was in San Francisco on January 19, 1862, and wrote:

“The amount of rain that has fallen is unprecedented in the history of the state. In this city accurate observations have been kept since July 1853. For the years since, ending with July 1 each year, the amount of rain is known . . . This year, since November 6, when the first shower came, to January 18, it is thirty-two and three-quarters inches and it is still raining! But this is not all, generally twice, sometimes three times, as much falls in the mining districts on the slopes of the Sierra. This year at Sonora, in Tuolumne County, between November 11, 1861 and January 14, 1862, seventy-two inches (six feet) of water had fallen, and in numbers of places over five feet! And that in a period of two months.”

 

“The unseasonable melting of the snow pack set the stage for down-stream disaster.
Heavy rain caused damaging floods in Sacramento during December 1861 when nearly 10 inches of rain fell. However, a lot of the December rain in Northern California was stored in California’s greatest reservoir, the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The depth was 10-15 feet. January brought more rain and warm winds and John Muir (1900) describes very well what happened:

“The Sierra Rivers are flooded every spring by the melting of the snow as regularly as the famous old Nile. Strange to say, the greatest floods occur in winter, when one would suppose all the wild waters would be muffled and chained in frost and snow…But at rare intervals, warm rains and warm winds invade the mountains, and push back the snow line from 2000 to 8000, or even higher, and then come the big floods.”

 

“In 1862 more people lived in Northern California than in Southern California.
More people mean more property and the potential for more damage. The total population of California in 1862 was about 500,000 people, of which 100,000 lived in San Francisco. People tended to live along streams and rivers because water was necessary for agriculture, transportation, and mining. Of course, the flood risk was greatest near the streams and rivers.

 

“Mining aggravated flooding in Northern California. The streams and rivers of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California were being filled with an enormous volume of debris from mining, particularly hydraulic mining (Bancroft, 1890, p647).[77] Log dams had been erected to retain this debris. These dams failed in the onslaught releasing a great wave of debris that surged downstream into the rivers and delta. The channels of the Feather, Yuba, and American Rivers were choked with boulders, cobbles, gravels, sand, and mud progressively down stream. A wave of fine sand and mud boiled down into the delta and ocean. The bed of the Sacramento River at Sacramento was raised more than 7 feet; the 2-foot tides were no more (Brewer, 1966, and Bancroft, 1890).[78] The rivers flooded at lower flows because the channels were filled in. Gilbert (1917)[79] estimated the volume of mine debris reached more than 1.5 billion cubic feet, before the practice of hydraulic mining was stopped by law (Bloomfield vs. Woodruff, 1882). (This was the first federal environmental case, and the ruling was in favor of farmers, who were losing agricultural land, and against the miners who were releasing debris into the watersheds.) “No single industry in the history of California has generated more long-term environmental damage for such a meager economic return” (Mount, 1955. p. 210).[80] ….

 

“There are hundreds of first-hand accounts of the great 1862 flood. We have read many of the newspaper accounts. Many other first-hand accounts are preserved in personal correspondence of the time, as well as in legal and government documents. More information appears every year through the eye of the Internet, fed with a growing interest in genealogy and local history. Some of the accounts stretch the imagination, others, such as Brewer‘s, are the masterful writings of a seasoned observer. Taken together a clear picture of this devastating storm emerges.

 

“There are no reliable estimates of the total loss of life in this flood. “An intelligent Chinaman said that the number of countrymen destroyed in the state in the December flood was 500.” [Emphasis added.]  This newspaper quotation is one of the few estimates, and it was for the lesser flooding of December 1861. (The quotation certainly reflects attitudes of the time toward all but white immigrants.)

 

The Sacramento Daily Union [Jan 15, 1862] reported that 1/3 of the taxable property in the state of California was lost, and also estimated that ¼ of all cattle were drowned (200,000). One house in eight was destroyed and 7/8 of all houses were damaged. The loss of all property was between $50 and $100 million (Brewer, 1966, p246). This sum corresponds to an average loss of between $100 and $200 for every person in the state. (The loss of cattle by flood, and the record drought year that followed, ended the early California cattle industry, and the cattle-based ranchero society (Jelinek, 1998/1999).[81]

Brewer writes, on January 19, 1862:

“The great central valley of the state is under water – the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys — a region 250 to 300 miles long and an average of at least twenty miles wide, or probably three to three and a half millions of acres! Although much of it is not cultivated, yet a part of it is the garden of the state. Thousands of farms are entirely under water – cattle starving and drowning. All the roads in the middle of the state are impassable; so all mails are cut off. We have had no “‘Overland” for some weeks, so I can report no new arrivals… The telegraph also does not work clear through, but news has been coming for the last two days. In the Sacramento Valley for some distance the tops of the poles are under water. The entire valley was a lake extending from the mountains on one side to the coast range hills on the other. Steamers ran back over the ranches fourteen miles from the river, carrying stock, etc, to the hills.” ….

 

Bosque (1904)[82] gives an account of flood damage to his farm in Moraga:

“During the winter of 1861-1862 a phenomenal rainfall flooded the country, involving great destruction of property in every direction. Our place, like others, suffered great damage. Some of our cattle and horses were drowned, and the center of the valley below our house, which had been a beautiful broad meadow before the flood, was washed away to a bed of sandstone forming its foundation. The valley was scarred by deep impassable bareness thirty to forty feet deep, and the face of the once beautiful place so changed that one could scarcely recognize it”.

 

“The California State Capital was moved from Sacramento to San Francisco because of high water….

 

“We wonder why such a devastating flood is not better known, and taken into account in flood planning. For one reason there are few documented few high-water marks from which to estimate peak discharge rates from rivers. Another reason may be, as Ellis stated in 1920, this flood is not generally taken into account in flood planning simply because to have done so, the expense would have been prohibitive. A high-water mark of 183.0 feet above sea level was measured on January 10, 1862, on the Stockton and Coover’s stone stable on the American River near the town of Folsom….”  (Taylor, W. Leonard and Robert W. Taylor. “The Great California Flood of 1862.”  The Fortnightly Club of Redlands, California. 2007.)

 

Newspapers — California

 

Dec 10, New York Times: “San Francisco. Cal., Tuesday. Dec. 10. During the past four days, the heaviest rain storm that has been experienced for years has prevailed in California, causing severe freshets in the valleys, and great destruction of property. The American River rose to a great height, breaking through the Levee and flooding the City of Sacramento from one end to the other. The water is four feet deep in the streets, this morning, and the people are driven to the second story of their houses.  Business is entirely suspended….

 

“The freshet from the recent heavy rains extends throughout the valley portions of the State. The damage done is immense. The farmers have suffered great loss by the drowning of their stock, while bridges, fences and other property has been swept away by the flood.  A part of Marysville and Stockton, as well as Sacramento entirely, are under water.

 

“A number of lives have been lost, but how many is not as yet ascertained.

 

“Several brick buildings at Marysville were undermined by the flood, and fell a heap of ruins. The loss of property at Sacramento is estimated at over 1 half a million dollars, and falls upon all the people of the city.  Commutations with many districts is cut off, and business suspended.

 

“About twenty thousand dollars have been subscribed here for the relief of the sufferers at Sacramento by the flood.  The water has been from two to twelve feet deep in nearly every house in that city.  One-third of the city is still overflowed.” (New York Times. “Severe Storm in California,” 12-15-1861, p. 3.)

 

Dec 11: “San Francisco, Dec. 11….The freshet ]flooding]from the recent rains extends throughout the valley and other portions of the State, doing immense damage to farmers, carrying off bridges, fences, &c. Parts of Stockton and Marysville ere overflown, as well as Sacramento. The entire number of lives lost is not known….Communication with many districts is cut off, and business is suspended….” (Daily Journal, Indianapolis, IN. “From California.” 12-16-1861, p. 3.)

 

Dec 13: “By Telegraph….San Francisco, Dec 13. — About $20,000 has been subscribed in this city for the relief of the sufferers by the Sacramento flood. The water has been from two to twelve feet deep in nearly every house in that city. One-third of the city is still overflowed. The water is slowly receding.” (Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “From California. Great Freshet,” 12-17-1861, p. 1.)

 

Dec 14: “The Union and Appeal are filled with accounts of the flood in Sacramento and Marysville. From them we gather the following particulars: In Sacramento the flood was the deepest and most destructive ever witnessed by the American residents, and destroyed an immense amount of property and nota a few lives. Many one-story houses, in the southern portion of the city, were submerged to the roof. Numbers of the small houses were set afloat and shattered to pieces, and the inmates were rescued with difficulty. Houses were carried through openings made in the levee, by the current. The whole city was flooded — every part of it was under water. J, K, L, and M streets were from two to four feet under water. In the Orleans Hotel the water was fur feet deep on the ground floor, and in the office of Wells, Fargo & Co., between one and two feet, and at the St. George still deeper than at the Orleans.

 

“Many lives were lost and an immense amount of property destroyed, but it is impossible to ascertain at this time the number or the amount. This is a terrible calamity to the people of Sacramento, but we hope it will not discourage them. Under adverse circumstances they have built up a beautiful city, distinguished for its enterprise and hospitality as well as for its misfortunes. The people of the State admire the one and deplore the other, and fervently pray for the permanency and prosperity of unfortunate Sacramento.

 

“Marysville has also suffered severely from the flood. The Merchants’ Hotel, a fine and substantial building, fell to the ground, a three-story building on E street, also fell to the ground, besides the interiors of all the stores on the upper side of First street. All the lower portion of the city was submerged and many small buildings washed away. Marysville was fortunate in losing no lives.” (The Mountain Democrat, Placerville, CA. “Flood in Sacramento and Marysville,” 12-14-1861, p. 5.)

 

Jan 11, Boston Post: “….A recent and big flood in California destroyed many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property, swept away houses, cattle, &c., and among other minor things drowned upwards of one hundred Chinamen….” (Boston Post. “All Sorts of Paragraphs.” 1-11-1862, p. 2.)

 

Jan 17: “San Francisco, January 17. The legislature has adjourned to the 21^st inst. to allow the water to subside from Sacramento. The whole city has been under water from two to eleven feet deep. The people have been driven to the second stories of the houses, and are unable to build fires to cook their food. Cooked provisions in large quantities have been sent from San Francisco by two steamers. The water has materially subsided since, but the weather is still unfavorable in the whole valley. The other portions of the State have suffered severely from this unprecedented inundation, and many millions of property have been destroyed.” (Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “By Telegraph…The Inundation of Sacramento, Cal.” 1-21-1862, p. 1.)

 

Jan 29, Newport Daily News: “The late flood in California was the most terrible flood, or series of floods, ever suffered on the Pacific slope. The damage is estimated at $10,000,000.  The range of the flood was from Sacramento northward to the Columbia River, and Nevada and Oregon suffered…[as] streams rose inundating towns, sweeping away mills, dams, flumes, houses, &c., causing great loss of life. Nearly one thousand Chinese are said to have been drowned in different localities. [Emphasis added.]  All of Sacramento, save parts of a single street; parts of Marysville, Auburn, Napa, Sonora, Santa Rosa and many smaller towns, were overflowed. On the 8th of Nov. the rainy season opened, and for nearly four weeks the rain fell almost incessantly. A Grass Valley paper states the fall of the rain there at the incredible amount of nine inches in thirty-six hours. The north fork of the American river rose fifty-five feet, while other streams nearly equaled this figure. Sacramento was the heaviest sufferer, as was the case in several previous floods. This city stands at the junction of the American and Sacramento rivers, in a wide flat valley.  The loss here is $2,000,000. The city has been nearly ruined, its debt previous to the flood being enormous, and the people being terribly depressed.  Subscriptions for the relief of the destitute have been made—San Francisco loading off with  $30,000.  Near Auburn thirty miles of fences were floated off. At Grass Valley, five hundred quartz miners have been thrown out of work by the flooding of the mines. On Feather river millions of feet of lumber were lost. On Trinity river the loss is estimated at $150,000; a clean sweep of all the improvements along that stream was made. The accounts from Washoe, from Oregon, &c., are equally disastrous….” (Newport Daily News, RI. “The Late Flood in California,” 1-29-1862, p1.)

 

Nevada

 

Ingram and Malamud-Roam: “The 1861-62 floods 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. This 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, town and cities suffered. Nevada City was inundated with nine feet of rain in sixty days.” [p. 37] (Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell us About Tomorrow. 2013.)

 

Oregon

 

Bancroft: “Toward the last of November a deluge of rain began, which, being protracted for several days, inundated all the valleys west of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, from southern California to northern Wash­ington, destroying the accumulations of years of indus­try. No flood approaching it in volume had been witnessed since the winter of 1844. All over the Willamette the country was covered with the wreck­age of houses, barns, bridges, and fencing;, while cattle, small stock, storehouses of grain, mills, and other property were washed away. A number of lives were lost, and many imperiled.

 

“In the streets of Salem the river ran in a current four feet deep for a quarter of a mile in breadth. At Oregon City all the mills, the breakwater, and hoisting works of the Mill­ing and Transportation Company, the foundry, the Oregon Hotel, and many more structures were destroyed and carried away. Linn City was swept clean of buildings, and Canemah laid waste. Cham­poeg had no houses left; and so on up the river, every where. The Umpqua River rose until it carried away the whole of lower Scottsburg, with all the mills and improvements on the main river, and the rains destroyed the military road on which had been expended fifty thousand dollars.[83] The weather con­tinued stormy, and toward Christmas the rain turned to snow, the cold being unusual. On the 13th of January there had been no overland mail from Cali­fornia for more than six weeks, the Columbia was blocked with ice, which came down from its upper branches, and no steamers could reach Portland from the ocean, while there was no communication by land or water with eastern Oregon and Washington; which state of things lasted until the 20th, when the ice in the Willamette and elsewhere began breaking up, and the cold relaxed.

 

“Such a season as this coming upon miners and travelers in the sparsely settled upper country was sure to occasion disaster. It strewed the plains with dead men, whose remains were washed down by the next summer’s flood, and destroyed as many as twenty-five thousand cattle….

 

“The flood and cold of winter were followed in May by another flood, caused by the rapid melting of the large body of snow in the upper country. The water rose at The Dalles several feet over the principal streets, and the back-water from the Columbia over­flowed the lower portion of Portland. On the 14th of June the river was twenty-eight feet above low-water mark. The damages sustained along the Co­lumbia were estimated at more than a hundred thou­sand dollars,[84] although the Columbia Valley was almost in its wild state. Added to the losses of the winter, the whole country had sustained great injury….” (Bancroft and Victor. History of Oregon…1848-1888 (V.2 of History of OR; Vol. XXX, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft). 1888, pp. 483-484.)

 

Dresbeck: “The Pineapple Express has been responsible for the worst Willamette River floods in Oregon, including two nearly one hundred years apart, in 1861 and in 1964. In early December 1861, the Willamette River, fed by its overflowing streams and tributaries, flooded to levels not seen before or since. Towns all through the Willamette Valley were washed away. Pioneer diaries record piteous tales of loss: houses, barns, animals, all swallowed by the raging Willamette. The flood covered more than 500,000 acres and rose up to 20 feet above normal in some places. Almost miraculously in view of the rapidity of the flood, the number of deaths was low — twelve persons were known to have perished — but the financial loss was incalculable. It was enough to send many pioneers to drier pars of the West. They crossed back over the Cascades to farm in the arid grasslands of eastern Oregon, or they left for the gold mines of Idaho. The 1861 flood is to this day regarded as the worst flood in recorded history to inundate the valley.” (Dresbeck. Oregon Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. 2006, p. 90.)

 

Ingram and Malamud-Roam: “In Oregon, two an a half weeks of solid rain caused the worst flooding in that state’s history. Deluges covered huge portions of the lower Willamette Valley where Oregon City is located….” (Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell us About Tomorrow. 2013.p. 37.)

 

OR Historical Society: “In…[an] excerpt from an undated handwritten reminiscence, George Anson Pease, a steamboat captain based out of Oregon City, relates his experiences during the 1861 Willamette River flood, probably the most immense flood in the valley in recorded history. The “Great Flood” devastated the valley’s economy and resulted in the deaths of several people, but it also brought the valley’s settlers together as a community and produced some notable acts of courage. While Pease describes only a few of his rescues in this document, one newspaper account credited him with rescuing forty people over the course of one week.

 

“The volume of water in the Willamette River changes naturally according to seasonal variations in precipitation. Flooding was common prior to channel modification and the construction of flood control dams in the twentieth century. The flood of 1861 was an unusually severe occurrence, however, resulting from what meteorologists call a rain-on-snow event. November 1861 was cold and wet, and a great deal of snow was deposited in the mountains. December warmed considerably, however, and the snow turned to rain. The warm rain melted the accumulated snow, resulting in a rapid increase in runoff. One observer remarked that at the height of flooding “the whole Willamette valley was a sheet of water.”

 

“Despite signs of regular flooding, many pioneers had settled in the floodplain of the Willamette or one of its tributaries. Floodplains were attractive places to locate a homestead since they contained flat, productive land close to the river, the primary transportation conduit in the mid-nineteenth century. Many settlers came to regret this decision, however, as the water rose around them, drowning their animals and destroying their buildings. Most managed to save themselves, or were rescued by courageous citizens like Pease, but a few did succumb to the floodwaters. A few small towns were wiped out by the 1861 flood and were never rebuilt, including Champoeg, the site of the first organized settler government in the Oregon Territory.” (Oregon Historical Society. “The Great Flood of 1861.” The Oregon History Project.)

 

USGS: “Flood….Dec 12, 1861. Willamette River Basin Oregon coastal rivers. 100 [years, recurrence interval]. Largest of known magnitude on Willamette and Rogue Rivers. All towns on Willamette River were flooded or washed away.” (USGS. National Water Summary 1988-89. “Floods and Droughts: Oregon,” p. 461.)

 

Wells: “The winter of 1861-62 began with one of the greatest floods ever known in the Willamette River and other streams in western Oregon, and later developed into the coldest winter ever known in this region since the coming of the white man….The story of the flood at Oregon City is so well told in the Oregon City Argus that the following…quotation is taken from the issue of December 14, 1861:

 

During the month of November the rain had been falling almost continuously, and a vast amount of snow must have accumulated in the mountains….

 

…the river, up to Sunday, December 1^st, exhibited no indication of an unusual rise….

 

The Island Mill was kept running Monday and through the night, Mr. John Chapman and his wife being on the Island unsuspicious of danger. But the crash of the falling bridge just before daylight, destroying all egress to the main land….

 

“Tuesday evening’s gloom settled in on a scene such as probably never was witnessed in our Valley before….the darkness was only made more visible by the glare of torches and hurrying lights, which with the shouts of people from the windows of houses surrounded by the water, all conspired to render the hour one of intense and painful excitement….

 

“The flood has covered the highest mark of January ’53, and is still rapidly rising….All night, as on the night previous, people whose homes were being invaded hurried to places of security, glad to escape even with the sacrifice of all their goods.

 

“The light of Wednesday morning revealed a scene of desolation terrible in its extent no less than in its completeness. The Oregon City and Island Mills; the Willamette Iron Works, Foundry and Machine Ship; all the breakwaters designed to protect the mills and upper end of Oregon City except one short piece are carried away, and over where they stood now sweeps a foaming current against which no building unprotected by a solid breakwater as a defense could possible stand…An immense amount of drift has passed and apparently the debris of many houses but everything is ground so fine and is hurried out of sight so quickly that little can be known for certain….We were compelled to vacate out office this afternoon, the water rising nearly two feet on the floor. Main Street is navigable for skiffs past our door down as far as the Masonic Hall.

 

“….As there was no flood warning service, there was little opportunity to prevent loss of life and property; perhaps not a great deal could have been done in any event. The rivers were the main arteries of travel; mills, freight depots, and storehouses for grain and other foodstuffs were built on the water front; other business houses and many residences were near the best landings; farm buildings were likewise mostly on sites conveniently reached from the rivers… The historic town of Champoeg, where the first provisional government in Oregon was adopted, was completely destroyed, never to be rebuilt. The same was true of the town of Orleans, across the Willamette River from Corvallis….

 

“The conditions were quite as bas along the lower Umpqua River as along the Willamette….

 

“A letter from Port Orford, published in the Oregonian of January 11^th says:

 

We have had a devastating flood. It has swept off the settlers’ property on the Coquille, and also done great damage on Rogue River and on Smith’s River in California and on other small streams. The Government property in the Fort at the mouth of the Klamath was much damaged and much of it was carried away by the flood.

 

“….There was much damage on the Deschutes River, particularly to toll bridges….An undated report, published in the Oregonian of December 11^th, says that the Columbia was rising at an unprecedented rate, having risen some 14 feet at The Cascades (now Cascade Locks)….

 

“It has not been possible to learn how many lives were lost in the flood, because of the delay and uncertainty in communication, but it is known there was a considerable loss of life. There would have been more but for the heroic efforts of a number of individuals. The steamer Onward rescued abut 40 persons in one trip on the Willamette; some of them were clinging to trees and nearly dead from exposure. Waccom Umphroville saved 30 lives….” (Wells. “Notes on the Winter of 1861-1862 in the Pacific Northwest.” Northwest Science, Vol. XXI, No, 2, 1947, pp. 76-79.)

 

Utah

 

Ingram: “In southern Utah, 1861-62 became known as the ‘year of the floods,’ 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 confluence of the Santa Clara and Rio Virgin rivers, was destroyed in January 1862 as the floodwaters chased the villagers from their homes, leaving only mud and debris for miles….Brigham Yound had visited Tonaquint in May 1861, just months before the destructive winter floods, 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, engulfing southern Utah with rising waters. And just ten miles up the Santa Clara River to the northwest of Tonaquint, a group of Swill Saints had settled in the village of Santa Clara, growing fruit, grapes, and cotton. When the floods struck, the Swiss Saints fled for their lives, their peaceful village utterly destroyed.” (Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell us About Tomorrow. 2013, p. 37.)

 

Schick: “Virgin River, UT destroys town.” (Schick. … the Great West Coast flooding of 1861-1862. 2012, slide 69 or 72.)

 

Washington County [UT] Historical Society: “January 1862: Santa Clara & Virgin Rivers Flood. It started on Christmas eve of 1861 and continued for 44 days and nights. It is still considered the most sever flood in Dixie since the days of the early Mormon settlers. It was part of a pattern that covered the entire southwest United States.” (Washington County Historical Society. Major Floods in Washington County [website]. Washington County, Utah. © 2011-2016. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: http://wchsutah.org/water/floods.php

 

Sources

 

Albany Democrat-Herald (Kyle Odegard), OR. “Remembering the Christmas Flood of 1964.” 12-24-2014. Accessed 11-30-2016 at: http://democratherald.com/news/local/remembering-the-christmas-flood-of/article_2442dce4-a6ef-5e2c-802b-ff2711e98a7f.html

 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of the Pacific States of North America: Arizona and New Mexico 1530-1888. San Francisco: The History Company, 1888. Google preview accessed 12-9-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=P7gUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: History of Oregon: Vol. II, 1848-1888. 1890. Accessed 10-22-2012 at:   http://www.nevadaobserver.com/Reading%20Room%20Documents/rogue_river_indian_wars_1890.htm#_ftnref62

 

Baxter, Paul, Christopher L. Ruiz and Patricia A. Benner. “`A Village of Some Pretention.’: Rediscovering the Original Orleans, Linn County, Oregon. Pp. 20-33 in Willamette Valley Voices: Connecting Generations (A Publication of the Willamette Heritage Center at The Mill). Keni Sturgeon, editor. Salem: Willamette Heritage Center, 2013. Accessed 11-30-2016 at: https://www.willametteheritage.org/pdf/Willamette_Valley_Voices%20Summer%202013.pdf

 

Boston Post, MA. “All Sorts of Paragraphs.” 1-11-1862, p. 2. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/massachusetts/boston/boston-post/1862/01-11/page-2?tag

 

Corning, Howard McKinley. “The Last Days of Linn City!” Oregon Journal, 12-14-1947, p. 3. Accessed 11-30-2016 at: https://westlinnoregon.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/library/page/7380/lastdayslinncity.pdf

 

Daily Journal, Indianapolis, IN. “From California.” 12-16-1861, p. 3. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/indianapolis-daily-journal-dec-16-1861-p-3/

 

Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “From California. Great Freshet,” 12-17-1861, p. 1. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/wisconsin/milwaukee/daily-milwaukee-news/1861/12-17?tag

 

Davenport Daily Gazette, IA. “By Telegraph…The Inundation of Sacramento, Cal.” 1-21-1862, p. 1. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/iowa/davenport/davenport-daily-gazette/1862/01-21?tag

 

Dresbeck, Rachel. Oregon Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. Guildford, CT: Insiders’ Guide, an imprint of the Globe Pequot Press, 2006.

 

Hedges, David. “Canemah,” The Oregon Encyclopedia [website]. Accessed 11-30-2016 at: https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/canemah/#.WD8jVFxVawo

 

Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood: Lessons from a forgotten Catastrophe. A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern California underwater for up to six months, and it could happen again.” Scientific American, 1-1-2013. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atmospheric-rivers-california-megaflood-lessons-from-forgotten-catastrophe/

 

Ingram, B. Lynn and Frances Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell us About Tomorrow. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2013. Google digital preview accessed 12-8-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Id7_aLijS8oC&dq=The+West+Without+Water:+What+Past+Floods&source=gbs_navlinks_s

 

Kattlemann, Richard. “Flooding from rain-on-snow events in the Sierra Nevada. Destructive Water: Water-Caused Natural Disasters, their Abatement and Control (Proceedings of the Conference held at Anaheim, California, June 1996).  IAHS Publication No. 239, 1997, pp. 59-65. Accessed at: http://iahs.info/redbooks/a239/iahs_239_0059.pdf

 

Kohnen, Patricia. “Clackamas County History 1860 to 1900.” Usgennet.org. Accessed 11-30-2016 at: http://www.usgennet.org/alhnorus/ahorclak/timeline4.html

 

Localwiki.org. Yuba-Sutter. “Ousleys Bar.” Accessed 12-8-2017 at: https://localwiki.org/yuba-sutter/Ousleys_Bar

 

New York Times. “Severe Storm in California.” 12-15-1861, p. 3. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=7566150

 

New York Times. “The Great Flood in California: Great Destruction of Property Damage $10,000,000.” 1-21-1862. Accessed 11-28-2016 at: http://www.nytimes.com/1862/01/21/news/the-great-flood-in-california-great-destruction-of-property-damage-10000000.html

 

Newbold, John D. “The Great California Flood of 1861-1862.” San Joaquin Historian, San Joaquin County Historical Society & Museum, Vol. V, No. 4, Winter 1991, pp. 1-8. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: http://www.sanjoaquinhistory.org/documents/HistorianNS5-4.pdf

 

Newport Daily News, RI. “The Late Flood in California,” 1-29-1862, p. 1. Accessed at:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=62044742

 

Null, Jan, and Joelle Hulbert. “California Washed Away: The Great Flood of 1862.” Weatherwise, Jan-Feb 2007, pp. 27-30. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: http://www.skagitriverhistory.com/PDFs/wwjan07.pdf

 

Oregon Historical Society. “The Great Flood of 1861.” The Oregon History Project. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/the-great-flood-of-1861/#.WD2tuFxVawo

 

Peninsular News and Advertiser, Milford, DE. “Sacramento and Marysville Flood.” 1-17-1862, p. 1. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/delaware/milford/peninsular-news-and-advertiser/1862/01-17?tag

 

Schick, Larry (Meteorologist, Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). Warning from the Past: The message, meteorology and myths from the Great West Coast flooding of 1861-1862 (annotated slide show). California Extreme Precipitation Symposium (2012 Theme: The 1861-1862 Floods: Informing Decisions 150 Years Later). Davis, CA: University of California, Davis, 6-26-2012. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: https://cepsym.org/proceedings_2012.php

 

Secrest, William B. Jr. and William B. Secrest Sr. California Disasters 1800-1900.  Sanger CA: Quill Driver Books, 2006.

 

Smith, Winchell and Wilbur L. Heckler. Compilation of Flood Data in Arizona 1862-1953.  Tucson, AZ: U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey, August 1955, 115 pages. Accessed 12-9-2017 at: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1955/0170/report.pdf

 

State of California Department of Water Resources. California Water Plan Update 2009, Appendix 3A, Flood Management, Historic Floods. Accessed at:  http://www.waterplan.water.ca.gov/docs/cwpu2009/1208prd/vol3/appendices/3-RR_SF_PRDappA_flood.pdf

 

Taylor, W. Leonard and Robert W. Taylor.  “The Great California Flood of 1862.”  The Fortnightly Club of Redlands, California. 2007. Accessed 12-8-2017 at: http://www.redlandsfortnightly.org/papers/Taylor06.htm

 

The Mountain Democrat, Placerville, CA. “Flood in Sacramento and Marysville,” 12-14-1861, p. 5. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/weekly-mountain-democrat-dec-14-1861-p-5/

 

1991. S. Geological Survey (Richard W. Paulson, et al., Compilers). National Water Summary 1988-89: Hydrologic Events an Floods and Droughts (Water Supply Paper 2375). Denver, CO: U.S. Geological Survey, and U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=CFlz5TNtUpMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Vargo, Cecile Page. “The Great Floods of the San Gabriel Mountains, Part 1.” Explore Historic California, Feb 2005. Accessed 12-8-2017 at: http://explorehistoricalif.com/ehc_legacy/floods1.html

 

Weekly Oregonian, Portland. “Flood East of the Cascades.” 12-7-1861, p. 2. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/portland-weekly-oregonian-dec-07-1861-p-2/

 

Wells, Edward Lansing. “Notes on the Winter of 1861-1862 in the Pacific Northwest.” Northwest Science, Vol. XXI, No, 2, 1947, pp. 76-83. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: https://web.archive.org/web/20110610144529/http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/org_NWS/NWSci%20journal%20articles/1940-1949/1947%20vol%2021/21-2/v21%20p76%20Wells.PDF

 

Additional Reading

 

BEC Crew. “Every 200 Years, California Endures a Flood of Epic Proportions — And This Could Be It.” Sciencealert.com, 2-22-2017. Accessed 12-8-2017 at: https://sciencealert.com/every-200-years-california-endures-a-flood-of-epic-proportions-and-this-could-be-it

 

Burt, Christopher. “California’s Superstorm: The USGS ARkstorm Report and the Great Flood of 1862.” Wunderground.com. 1-26-2011. Accessed 11-28-2016 at: https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/californias-superstorm-the-usgs-arkstorm-report-and-the-great-flood-

 

Caldbick, John. “Rains, heavy snow, and unprecedented cold hit Washington Territory during the winter of 1861-1862.” HistoryLink.org, the free online encyclopedia of Washington State history, 2-20-2012. Accessed 11-29-2016 at: http://www.historylink.org/File/164

 

Eymann, Marcia (Sacramento City Historian). Sacramento City Floods: 1949-1862  (annotated slide show). California Extreme Precipitation Symposium (2012 Theme: The 1861-1862 Floods: Informing Decisions 150 Years Later). Davis, CA: University of California, Davis, 6-26-2012. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: https://cepsym.org/proceedings_2012.php

 

Harlander, Thomas. “California is Due for a Megaflood. Los Angeles Magazine. 1-11-2017. Accessed 12-8-2017 at: http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/california-due-megaflood/

 

Russell, Jesse, and Ronald Cohn. Great Flood of 1862. Book on Demand, 2012, 138 pages.

 

Wikipedia. “Great Flood of 1862.” 10-27-2017 edit. Accessed 12-7-2017 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862

 

 

 

 

 

[1] We note below how problematic are estimates of Chinese deaths in CA — deaths specified in the press at the time. Ingram has it that thousands died in CA, though as we note we have not been able to derive an independent number. Not having anything else, we choose to use the figure 1,000 for the entire five-state area impacted by flooding. Additionally, we received email from Larry Schick, retired USACE meteorologist and “extreme storms West Coast specialist,” who notes he researched these storms for many years and is of the opinion that framing the fatalities in the manner of  “>1.000?” seems the correct way.

[2] Source for all River Basin flooding entries is Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 38.

[3] USGS includes Topock area on Colorado River Main Stem, 1862, in its “Floods in Arizona” chart for “Period of record of maximum annual peaks.” (Smith and Heckler. Compilation of Flood Data in Arizona 1862-1953. 1955, 8.)

[4] Bancroft writes, in relation to the movement of a Confederate force in Arizona in Feb 1862, that “the recent floods…greatly increased the difficulties [of traveling] destroying Gila and Colorado cities…” (Bancroft. History of the Pacific States of North America: Arizona and New Mexico. 1889, p. 513.)

[5] Bancroft. History of the Pacific States of North America: Arizona and New Mexico. 1889, p. 500

[6] Bancroft writes that in 1861 Yuma was called Colorado City, but that the few buildings there “were washed away in the flood of 1862…” History of the Pacific States of North America: Arizona and New Mexico. 1889, p. 489.

[7] “A Chinese spokesman informed a Tuolumne County paper that ‘fourteen hundred of his countrymen have been drowned in different parts of the state by the blood’.” Newbold 1991, p. 3, citing: Mountain Democrat, 2-1-1862.

[8] Presumably “thousands” must translate into at least 2,000. However, it must be said that it does not appear that Ingram got to this estimate by tallying X drowned at one location, Y number at another, Z number at yet another. It appears more as a conviction or presumption based on reading first-hand and other accounts.

[9] The 1000 estimate pertains to Chinese stated to have been killed on the West Coast during the flood events. But there are other statements of 500 or “over 100” deaths, all apparently traced back to an account of a “Chinaman” claiming this number of deaths at a single location. We view it unlikely that 500 or 1,000 died in one location. Perhaps more than 100 did, or perhaps it was dozens, or even less. There is no historical evidence we have seen.

[10] The 500 estimate pertains solely to Chinese stated to have died in December 1861 flooding.

[11] Taylor and Taylor. “The Great California Flood of 1862.” The Fortnightly Club of Redlands, California. 2007. Ingram and Malamud-Roam write: “The flood obliterated all…in one tragic hour: the traditional adobe houses seemed to dissolve into the brown, churning water; large trees were uprooted and carried away, along with horses, cows, and sheep. All that remained of this idyllic village were the front steps and two marble pillars of Father Borgatta’s church, bearing testimony to the highest elevation the Santa Ana River reached on that devastating night.” [Pp. 27-28]

[12] “The entire population…was forced to flee rising floodwaters. People abandoned their homes in the middle of the night. Some found refuge, others drowned.” Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific Amer., 1-1-2013.

[13] Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.

[14] “In and around Anaheim, flooding of the Santa Ana River created an inland sea four feet deep, stretching up to four miles from the river and lasting four weeks.” (Ingram. “California Megaflood…” Scientific Amer., 1-1-2013.)

[15] “The enormous pulse of water from the rain flossed down the slopes and across the landscape, overwhelming streams and rivers, creating  huge inland sea in California’s enormous Central Valley — a region at least 300 miles long and 20 miles wide. Water covered farmlands and towns, drowning people, horses and cattle, and washing away houses, buildings, barns, fences and bridges. The water reached depths up to 30 feet, completely submerging telegraph poles that had just been installed between San Francisco and New York, causing transportation and communications to completely break down over much of the state for a month.” (Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.)

[16] Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.

[17] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 35. A landslide.

[18] Cites: Engstrom, W. N. (1996) “The California Storm of January 1862” Quaternary Research 46, 141-148 Article No. 0054.

[19] Newbold footnote 27 cites: Daily Independent, 13 December 1861.

[20] New York Times. “The Great Flood in California; Great Destruction of Property, Damage $10,000,000.” 1-21-1862. Written that “It appears that the poor fellows remained in their cabins on the bar; as they had done during the previous floods, until the raging waters rose about them and rendered their escape impossible.” Notes they drowned.

[21] “Sixty-six inches of rain fell in Los Angeles that year [Dec 1861-Jan 1862], more than four times the normal annual amount, causing rivers to surge over their banks, spreading muddy water for miles across the arid landscape. Large brown lakes formed on the normally dry plains between Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean, even covering vast areas of the Mojave Desert.” (Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.)

[22] Peninsular News and Advertiser, Milford, DE. “Sacramento and Marysville Flood.” 1-17-1862, p. 1. Cites the Marysville Appeal to effect that “Marysville is slowly emerging from a flood, more disastrous and extensive in character than any which has been known since the place was settled by white people….”

[23] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods…” 2013, p. 28.

[24] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 35.

[25] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 35.

[26] Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.

[27] Newport Daily News, RI. “The Late Flood in California,” 1-29-1862, p. 1.

[28] Taylor and Taylor. “The Great California Flood of 1862.” The Fortnightly Club of Redlands, California. 2007. Write: “We know that the flood created an inland sea in Orange County lasting about three weeks with water standing four feet deep up to four miles from the river.” (Cites Tracey Saltzman. Huntington Beach Flood History, 1995.) Ingram and Malamud-Roam write that entire settlements in the county were swept away. (p. 28)

[29] NY Times. “The Great Flood in California; Great Destruction of Property, Damage $10,000,000.” 1-21-1862.

[30] Newbold footnote 27 cites: Daily Independent, 13 December 1861. Information on location of Ousleys Bar is from localwiki.org. “Ousleys Bar.” Accessed 12-8-2017 at: https://localwiki.org/yuba-sutter/Ousleys_Bar

[31] Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.

[32] Peninsular News and Advertiser, Milford, DE. “Sacramento and Marysville Flood.” 1-17-1862, p. 1, citing the Sacramento Evening Journal. According to the Journal, the Union writes: “There is but little doubt that there was a teamster drowned somewhere this side of Sutter’s Fort, a man and child at Ninth and M streets, and a man at Sixth and P streets….It is greatly to be feared that the lives of women and children have also been sacrificed, as in many instances they were hemmed in one story buildings without any means of even getting on to the roofs of their houses.”[We derive “ten or more” by adding to the four specifically noted, there were, amongst the “lives of women and children” lost, that there were six or more such deaths. Another account in a Dec 14 paper notes “Many lives were lost…” (The Mountain Democrat, Placerville, CA. “Flood in Sacramento and Marysville,” 12-14-1861, p. 5.)

[33] Taylor and Taylor write: “The Santa Ana River rose to the Pine’s Hotel located at the corner of present Third Street and Arrowhead Avenue in San Bernardino, inundating the Valley for miles up and down the river. All this was made worse by Lytle Creek rushing down D Street and crossing to Third. This corresponds to a water level higher than Barton road to the south of the Santa Ana River in the region of the Montecito Cemetery.”

[34] “The Republican of 14 December, reflects on the conditions in Sacramento: ‘The number drowned is stated at from ten to forty persons…’ The Chinese, in their shanties, seem to have suffered disproportional worse than others. (Newbold footnote 26: “As quoted in the Union Democrat, 14 December 1861.”

[35] CA Dept. of Water Resources. CA Water Plan Update 2009, Appendix 3A, Flood Management, Historic Floods.

[36] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 30.

[37] Secrest and Secrest. California Disasters 1800-1900. 2006, p. 96.

[38] Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013. Writes: “The destructive force of the floods was awesome: houses, otherwise intact and complete with their contents, were carried away in the rapids; horses, cattle, and barns were swept downstream for miles.”

[39] Newport Daily News, RI. “The Late Flood in California,” 1-29-1862, p. 1.

[40] “In Shasta County, the Courier states: ‘Not a house was left standing at Union City, Lincoln or Latona, which were flourishing small towns.’” (Newbold. “…California Flood of 1861-1862.” San Joaquin Historian, p. 3.)

[41] Secrest, William B. Jr. and William B. Secrest Sr. California Disasters 1800-1900.  2006, p. 96.

[42] Newport Daily News, RI. “The Late Flood in California,” 1-29-1862, p. 1.

[43] New York Times. “Severe Storm in California,” 15 Dec 1861, p. 3.

[44] Schick. Warning from the Past…meteorology and myths… Great West Coast flooding of 1861-1862, slide 68.

[45] Peninsular News and Advertiser, Milford, DE. “Sacramento and Marysville Flood.” 1-17-1862, p. 1.

[46] Ingram, B. Lynn. “California Megaflood…” Scientific American, 1-1-2013.

[47] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 37.

[48] Bancroft writes that after the Christmas snow melt, and flooding: “It strewed the plains with dead men, whose remains were washed down by the next summer’s flood…”

[49] This is, however, just our guestimate. Given our inability to locate mentions of specific fatalities, we note below examples of villages, towns, and cities that ranged from being just flood-damaged to being essentially swept away. The assumption is that given the widespread and historic nature of the flood there were at least 10 drowning deaths.

[50] Webpage from the Oregon History Project, Oregon Historical Society. In section on one community notes “several” deaths there. Writes “A few small towns were wiped out by the 1861 flood and were never rebuilt…”

[51] “The river [the Willamette] crested at Albany on December 8, with out-of-bank waters so extensive that the riverboat Onward left the channel to collect refugees from the roofs of their houses.” Cites: Howard McKinley Corning. Willamette Landings. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society, 2004. According to Albany Democrat-Herald article of 12-24-2014, “In December 1861, floodwaters peaked at a whopping 41 feet in Albany.”

[52] David Hedges. “Canemah,” The Oregon Encyclopedia [website]. Accessed 11-30-2016. Writes: “Canemah prospered until 1861, when a flood swept most of the town over the falls.”

[53] “Beyond causing significant damage to property, the Great Flood had far-reaching implications for settlement patterns in the region. Entire communities, such as venerable Champoeg, were swept away, or at least drowned, by floodwaters.”

[54] “Flood….Dec 12, 1861. Willamette River Basin Oregon coastal rivers… Largest of known magnitude on Willamette and Rogue Rivers. All towns on Willamette River were flooded or washed away.” (Nat. Water Sum.)

[55] Howard McKinley Corning. “The Last Days of Linn City!” Oregon Journal, 12-14-1947, p. 3. Writes of the “great flood.” “When New Years day, 1862, dawned cold with a clear, pale sun, a light mantling of snow overlay Oregon City. But Linn City [across the Willamette River from Oregon City] had vanished.” Notes that the town originally consisted of 25 blocks and occupied between 40 and 50 acres. On the flood background, writes: “…late in October the customary rains began. During November…rain fell almost continuously over Northwestern Oregon. It was a cold rain and in the still colder mountains a vast amount of snow accumulated. In the closing days of the month the temperature softened, but a humid downpour that melted the snow continued. The Willamette rose at a rapid rate and was soon lapping over its banks for its entire 190-mile length. As darkness settled on Monday, December 2, water was rising over the lower Linn City streets…In the early half-light of Tuesday morning, the wooden bridge from Abernathy island on the Oregon City side, where the Island Mills were situated, was carried away…The mills, the warehouse, and all of the stores and houses on the rocky flat of Linn City were deep in the mounting flood. All day stranded people were removed through windows of their houses by boats courageously manned, but precariously controlled in the driving current. During that afternoon a large part of the breakwater protecting the Works gave way before the immense pressure of water….Gradually the flood’s force became too great to resist; walls of houses and stores were crushed or were picked up bodily and borne away. With the breakwater gone, the grist mill and the sawmill collapsed and their wreckage was sucked into the current. Finally, with the gray break of Wednesday morning, the extent of the destruction was fully apparent. At Linn City only two dwellings and the warehouse at the Works remained standing….The Willamette’s streaming level stood 55 feet higher than it’s lowest 12-foot stage reached in summer; it was 12 feet high than the flood of 1853-54….”

[56] Baxter, Ruiz and Benner. “A Village of Some Pretention.” Pp. 20-33 in Willamette Valley Voices: Connecting Generations. Keni Sturgeon, editor. Salem: Willamette Heritage Center, 2013. Write that the flood had such a “profound impact” on the community that it was one of those “which faded into history.”

[57] At Oregon City all the mills, the breakwater, and hoisting works of the Mill­ing and Transportation Company, the foundry, the Oregon Hotel, and many more structures were destroyed and carried away.”

[58] Bancroft.

[59] “In the streets of Salem the river ran in a current four feet deep for a quarter of a mile in breadth.”

[60] “The Umpqua River rose until it carried away the whole of lower Scottsburg, with all the mills and improvements on the main river, and the rains destroyed the military road on which had been expended fifty thousand dollars.” Cites the Oregon Statesman, Dec 9 and 16, 1861.

[61] Bancroft.

[62] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 37.

[63] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 37.

[64] Ingram and Malamud-Roam. The West Without Water: What Past Floods… 2013, p. 37.

[65] Schick (USA COE), estimates CA population at the time at 500,000 and OR at 50,000. (Slide 30 of 72).

[66] Newbold Footnote 3: Quoted in Charles M. Weber Memorial Foundation, Newspaper History of the Great California Floods of 1861-1862 (Stockton: Weber Foundation Series, Publishers, 1958), Section III, p. 5.

[67] Slide 3: Winter of 1861-62 for the West Coast was “Equivalent to 4 major hurricanes plus many tropical storms.”

[68] Notes, at Slide 53 of 72, that flood waters in CA Central Valley were 20-30 feet deep.

[69] San Bernardino County Museum Quarterly (2000) Vol. 47, Number 3&4, p. 61.

[70] Beattie, William and Helen, (1951) “Heritage of the Valley, San Bernardino’s First Century, Oakland: Brobooks

[71] Crafts, E. P. R (1906) “Pioneer Days in San Bernardino Valley” Press: Kingsly, Moles Collins Co.

[72] Hayes, B. I. (1929) “Pioneer Notes from the Diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, 1849-1875” Privately Printed. Edited Published by Margorie Wolcott; printed in Los Angeles.

[73] Engstrom, W. N. (1996) “The California Storm of Jan 1862” Quaternary Research 46, 141-148 Article No. 0054.

[74] Sidler, W. A. (1968) “Agua Mansa and the Flood of January 22, 1862 Santa Ana River” San Bernardino County Flood Control District Publication, p. 4.

[75]  Saltzman, Tracey (1995) “Huntington Beach Flood History”

[76] Secrest, W.B. Jr. & W.B. Secrest Sr. (2006) “California Disasters”, 1800-1900, Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press, Inc. Sanger, California, ISBN 1-884995-49-7.

[77] Bancroft, H. H. (1890) “History of California”, Vol. 8, 1860-1890, p647. (Printed in facsimile from the first American edition by Wallace Hebberd, Santa Barbara, 1970.)

[78] Brewer, William Henry (1966) “Up and Down California in 1860-1864”, Yale University Press, 1930, reprinted by the University of California Press, F. P. Farquahar, Ed.

[79] Gilbert, G. K. (1917) “Hydraulic-Mining Debris in the Sierra Nevada”, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, No. 105.

[80] Mount, Jeffery F. (1995) “California Rivers and Streams”, University of California Press

[81] Jelinek, James. (1998/1999). “Property of Every Kind: Ranching and Farming during the Gold-Rush Era” California History, Winter volume, 1998/99, VLXXXVII No. 5, Chapter 11, p. 233.

[82] Bosque, Edward (1904) “Memoirs”, Self Published in 1904, Reprinted by Holms Book Company, Oakland, 1952.

[84] Bancroft citation:  “Or. Statesman, Dec. 9 and 16, 1861. The rain-fall from October to March was 71.60 inches  Id., May 19, 1862.”