Oregon There was an excessive amount of precipitation in November 1861 over most of Oregon, less so in the extreme northwest. It was cold enough at the higher elevations that much snow fell in the
Cascade Range, which, when later melted by the warm rains, produced a great quantity of water that flooded into the
Willamette River and other streams in the Cascades. Tributaries of the Willamette originating in the
Oregon Coast Range did not rise as high. A tropical depression that came in at the beginning of December produced strong, warm southerly winds in Oregon, with extremely heavy rain. Flooding was heaviest on rivers with tributaries arising from the snow-covered Cascade Range. The flood destroyed the historic towns of
Champoeg, site of the first
provisional government in Oregon, and
Orleans, across the Willamette River from
Corvallis. Neither was rebuilt. It washed away or covered the original route of the
Oregon Trail in the river valley.
California California was hit by a combination of incessant rain, snow, and then unseasonably high temperatures. In Northern California, it snowed heavily during the later part of November and the first few days of December, until the temperature rose unusually high and it began to rain. In San Francisco, there were 35 inches of precipitation in December 1861–January 1862, and almost 50 for the season. There were four distinct rainy periods: The first occurred on December 9, 1861, the second on December 23–28, the third on January 9–12, and the fourth on January 15–17.
Northern California Fort Ter-Waw, located in
Klamath Glen, California, was destroyed by the flood in December 1861 and abandoned on June 10, 1862. Bridges were washed away in
Trinity and
Shasta counties. At Red Dog in Nevada County, William Begole reported that from December 23 to January 22 it rained a total of , and on January 10 and 11 alone, it rained over . and covering was under water. The water flooding the Central Valley reached depths up to , completely submerging telegraph poles that had just been installed between San Francisco and New York. Transportation, mail, and communications across the state were disrupted for a month. All Sacramento excepting one street, part of Marysville, part of Santa Rosa, part of Auburn, part of Sonora, part of Nevada City, and part of Napa were under water. However, the series of storms that led to the Great Flood of 1862 averaged precipitation levels that records show only occur once every 500 to 1,000 years. The geographical range of flooding in the state was noted by a traveling geologist from Yale University, William Brewer, who wrote that on January 19, 1862, From December to January 1862 the series of storms carrying high winds and heavy precipitation left city streets and sidewalks underwater. Photographs show canals in place of city streets and boats docked to storefronts. On Inauguration Day, January 10, 1862, the state's eighth governor,
Leland Stanford, traveled by rowboat to his inauguration building held at the State Legislature office. Much of Sacramento remained under water for 3 months after the storms passed. As a result of the flooding, from January 23, 1862, the state capital was moved temporarily from Sacramento to San Francisco. Sacramento put efforts into restructuring the city's foundation by re-channeling the American River, reinforcing the established levee system, and passing a two-decade project to raise the city above flood level. Due to the high costs associated with flood recovery, the city of Sacramento reached out to the aid of the Transcontinental Railroad Co., which was a major turning point in levee resilience and reconstruction. Prior to the great flood, levee breaks and failures caused much destruction from flooding. The Transcontinental Railroad had laid tracks across the Sierra Nevada and stationed its major repair and production line in Sacramento. The Chinese workforce of over 14,000 reconstructed levees under the guidance of Charles Crocker, the head contractor for
Central Pacific Railroad. In response to a weak levee system and seasonal flooding, flood plain architecture was incorporated in residential infrastructure, evident in Victorian buildings throughout Midtown to Downtown Sacramento. Flood design includes raised front porches with stairs leading down to the street. In addition, small hollow spaces are built into the basement level to allow for basement flooding and aeration. Old Town Sacramento was raised 15 feet above flood level. Ruins of the old city remain underneath the streets as tunnels leading nowhere, with hollow sidewalks, filled in entrances, trap doors, and rubble where storefronts and walkways used to be. Large wooden beams and soil brought in from surrounding areas helped to stabilize and build a foundation on top of the once-flooded city.
Southern California In
Southern California, beginning on December 24, 1861, it rained for 28 days in
Los Angeles. The flooding drowned thousands of cattle and washed away fruit trees and vineyards that grew along the
Los Angeles River. No mail was received at Los Angeles for five weeks.
The Los Angeles Star reported that: The plains of Los Angeles County, at the time a marshy area with many small lakes and several meandering streams from the mountains, were extensively flooded, and much of the agricultural development that lay along the rivers was ruined. In most of the lower areas, small settlements were submerged. These flooded areas formed into a large lake system with many small streams. A few more powerful currents cut channels across the plain and carried the runoff to the sea. In Los Angeles County, (including what is now
Orange County) the flooding
Santa Ana River created an inland sea lasting about three weeks with water standing deep up to from the river. At
Santa Barbara County, the narrow coastal plains were flooded by the rivers coming out of the mountains. The
San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct that was still drawing water from a tributary of the Ventura River for the town of
Ventura water system, was abandoned due to the damage in the area that became the separate
Ventura County in 1873. In
San Bernardino County, all the fertile riverside fields and all but the church and one house of the
New Mexican colony of
Agua Mansa were swept away by the Santa Ana River, which overflowed its banks. A priest rang the church bell on the night of January 22, 1862, alerting the inhabitants to the approach of the flood, and all escaped. In
San Diego, a storm at sea backed up the flood water running into the bay from the
San Diego River, resulting in a new river channel cut into
San Diego Harbor. The continuous heavy downpour also changed the look of the land, the previously rounded hills were extensively cut by gulleys and canyons. However, later it was estimated that approximately one-quarter of the taxable real estate in the state of California was destroyed in the flood. The state almost had to declare
bankruptcy due to the costs of the damage and the loss of tax revenue. In the vicinity of
Aurora, there had been light snowfall in November, then mild weather until Christmas Eve, when there began a heavy and rapid snowfall for days. The temperature dropped below zero and the passes over the
Sierra were closed. During the second week of January, it warmed slightly, and the snow became a torrential rain. Esmerelda and Willow gulches overflowed their banks and flooded Aurora. With water standing up to deep in many buildings, adobe buildings turned to mud and collapsed. After a week, it cooled again, and snow began to fall again. Within a few days, the snow was deeper than it had been before the rains had begun to fall. Samuel Young of Aurora recorded in his diary that the snow and rain had fallen for 26 days out of 30 since December 24, 1861.
Utah The early southwestern
Utah settlements in
Washington County:
Fort Clara,
St. George,
Grafton,
Duncans Retreat,
Adventure, and
Northrop were nearly destroyed by a flood on the
Virgin and
Santa Clara Rivers, that followed 44 days of rainfall in January and February 1862. Survivors of Fort Clara established the modern town of
Santa Clara a mile east of the old fort on the Santa Clara River.
Springdale and
Rockville were founded in 1862 by settlers flooded out of Adventure, Northup and other places in the vicinity.
Arizona In western
New Mexico Territory, heavy rains fell in late January, causing severe flooding of the
Colorado River and
Gila River. On January 20, 1862, the Colorado River began to rise, and on the afternoon of January 22 it rose suddenly in three hours from an already high stage nearly , overflowing its banks and turned
Fort Yuma in California into an island in the midst of the Colorado River. At 1 o'clock on the morning of January 23, the river reached its crest.
Jaeger City a mile down river from Fort Yuma, and
Colorado City, across the
Colorado River from it were washed away. The river overflowed its banks to the extent that there was water deep on a ranch in the low-lying ground just above
Arizona City where the Gila River joined the Colorado. The riverside home of steamboat entrepreneur
George Alonzo Johnson and the nearby Hooper residence were the only places in the town unharmed because they were built on high ground. Colorado City had to be rebuilt on higher ground after the 1862 flood. The Gila River also flooded, covering its whole valley at its mouth where it met the Colorado from the sand hills on the south to the foothills on the north. to the east of Fort Yuma, it swept away most of the mining boomtown of
Gila City along with a supply of hay being gathered there to supply the planned advance of the
California Column into
Confederate Arizona. Further east the road was flooded, buildings and vehicles swept away and traffic was disrupted for some time thereafter by the mud covering the road to Tucson. The great flood in the Gila and Colorado rivers, covered their bottom lands with mud. Much of the livestock along the rivers drowned and the crops of the Indians along the river were destroyed. The overflow of the 1862 Colorado River spring flood waters reached the
Salton Sink via the
Alamo and
New Rivers, filling it and creating a lake some long and wide.
New Mexico The spring and summer thaw of the immense snowpack during the winter of 1861–1862 in the southern
Rocky Mountains and other ranges flooded the
Rio Grande, and changed the river's course in the
Mesilla Valley. Mesilla, built on the west bank of the Rio Grande, was left by the movement of the river on its east bank where it remains today. The flood impeded the
Union Army's
California Column as it pursued the retreating Confederate
Army of New Mexico. On July 8, 1862, Lt. Col.
Edward E. Eyre,
First California Volunteer Cavalry wrote: Instead of crossing at Mesilla, the high waters and shift of the river forced Eyre's detachment to cross the Rio Grande upriver at
San Diego Crossing below
Fort Thorn, after a week awaiting the water to go down, which enabled the Confederates' escape into
Texas.
Sonora, Mexico Until the Great Flood of 1862, what became
Port Isabel Slough, in
Sonora, Mexico, was a shallow tidewater slough, but the extreme flood waters of that year cut its channel much deeper, so that at low tide it still was three fathoms deep. The mouth of this slough was only from the mouth of the river and sheltered from the extremes of the
tidal bore of the Colorado River and deep enough to prevent stranding on
shoals or
mud flats at low tide. This made it an ideal anchorage for maritime craft to load and unload their cargo and passengers from the
steamboats that took them up and down river without the danger from the tides that they were having to risk in the
estuary at
Robinson's Landing. In the month of March 1865, the
schooner Isabel, from
San Francisco, commanded by
W. H. Pierson, found and entered this slough and discharged her cargo there for the first time. Subsequently, the steamers,
sailing ships and later ocean-going
steamships loaded and off-loaded their cargoes there, and the steamboat company established
Port Isabel above the mouth of the slough. The port lasted until 1878. After the
Southern Pacific Railroad reached Yuma, it was abandoned the following year, the shipyard there being removed to Yuma. event == Current interest ==