Out of the past

Colville Republican Vol IV. Colville, Stevens County, Washington, Saturday, May 13, 1893, No. 20, page 1

Freak of Nature

A flood of debris, mud, and water submerges and destroys the farm of T. J. Patton

Spokane and Northern damaged

One of the most surprising and disastrous floods that has occurred in the history of the Colville Valley, broke from the mountains, near the little station of Sherwood, about ten miles south of this city last Monday evening.  Had a city of the size and importance of Johnstown been situated along the path of the destructive elements, the result would have been little less in loss of life and property.

It seems that a short time ago, a slide of earth from the north side of Iron Mountain (now Addy Mountain) made its descent into the canon (canyon) which traces the base of the mountain, at a point about four miles east of the Colville River, thus forming a dam across the ravine nearly 100 feet in height. The waters of the little creek at the bottom of the ravine was thus arrested, and held in abeyance for several days.  After the water had accumulated to a depth of nearly 90 feet the pressure against the dam was so great the prison wall of loose earth gave way, and in an instant the tide of destruction went tearing down the canon at a most terrific speed, tearing the earth from the sides of the mountain on each side of the narrow ravine, rolling great boulders in its breakers, and snapping the largest tree known to the forests from their moorings like so many pipe stems.

Thomas J. Patton, a well to do and industrious farmer, who lives in the beautiful spread of prairie that widens out at the lower end of the canon to a width of nearly half a mile, was an eye witness, and tells u how the elements destroyed the home that he had been four long years in building, in less than two minutes.  He states that at about 7 o’clock in the evening, he heard the distant rumbling as of an approaching railway train.  The direction from whence the noise came was the question that puzzled all the members of his family as well has himself. The rumbling became more distinct, and came at intervals of a minute or such as matter as the approaching of a thunder storm.  It was some little time after they heard the first sounds of approaching disaster before the timber far up the canon could be seen to give way to some relentless forces, as the field of grain would fall before the sickle. They realized that there was not time to be lost in seeking a place of safety, and after taking from the house, such things as they could conveniently carry, they ran to the side hills several hundred yards away and awaited results. They had scarcely reached a place of safety before the flood of water and debris forming a breast 40 feet in height broke from the timber about a quarter of a mile above the house and spread all over the valley.  What may have been pure sparkling water at the time it broke through the earthen dam from its cistern far back in the mountain fastness was a mass of thin mud, mingled with rocks and trees of all sizes and lengths, by the time it reached the habitations of the people living along the valley and in the foot hills.  The flood spread out over the fields and gardens of Mr. Patton, and also over those of his neighbors that happened to be so situated as to receive it, and in less time than it takes to tell the story, their homes were covered four feet deep in debris.  It so happened that that residence of Mr. Patton, was situated just below a clump of large cottonwood trees, which formed a sufficient protection to ward off the stream that had lost the great part of its force by having spread over the valley. Every other spot on the place was covered with the flood, and the lands that had been seeded, but a few days ago in the fond hope of a bounteous crop, were covered four feet deep in newly made earth’s surface.

The track of the Spokane and Northern railway was covered up with debris for a distance of several hundred feet, and the Tuesday morning express, from Spokane, was obliged to hang up and transfer around the wreckage.  The clearing of the track proved a very difficult task, owing to the continued flow of the stream of mud for two days after the first rush of the flood.

Original newspaper viewable on the Crossroads on the Columbia project http://www.crossroadsarchive.net/items/show/13202