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Show 1 Events Related To Greatest Storm j Of Dixie History In 1861 Told By Reid j BY H. L. REIT) The greatest storm of all Dixie history began on December 25, 1861, while the St. George pioneers pio-neers were having a festive Christmas time. It rained more or less for 40 days. "Wagon covers and tents proved to be but poor shelter for such a continuous con-tinuous dovn-pour". The excessive rains during the month of January and the fore part of February, according to the reports, nearly suspended all kinds of business and labor throughout the Dixie regions. "The whole country seemed as if the bottom had fallen out and in some instances the stock would mire on the high black ridges". January was a month of floods in both the Virgin and the Santa Clara. "The ravages of the floods along the Virgin was great". Nathan C. Tenney's house at Old Grafton (about two miles down steram from the present Grafton 1 was washed away, in the night of January 8. a few minutes after his wife with her new-born son were conveyed from the house in a litter to the nearby hillside. "At Adventure (Rockvillel where Apostle Orson Pratt and family had located, a blacksmith shop, tools and all, were swept away by the angry waters. "There were a number of hair-breath hair-breath escapes but no lives lost". At Heberville (Price) some 500 acres of land were submerged, leaving a deposit of from two to (Continued on page ten) Early Dixie Floods (Continued from first page) six feet of sand. The canal and dam covering this project were completely destroyed. The following fol-lowing year this land was resur-veyed resur-veyed and the canal and dam rebuilt. Swiss Colony The Swiss colony, upon their arrival at Santa Clara on November Novem-ber 28. 1861. began immediately the construction of a canal and ditches covering the new town-site. town-site. This project, including the dam, was completed, at a labor cost of S1030 on December 25 the very day of the commencement commence-ment of 40 days of rain. The most destructive floods on the Santa Clara occurred on January 17. 18 and 19. At that time they destroyed the dam and canal and also swept awav the Fort which had been built durin-trie durin-trie winter of 1856-1857- "Also the rr.st mill, school house seven dwellings and other building with orchard and vinevards tV gether with a large " body of valuable land". "The few log and willow houses ,1", r Seldom Ston Seldom Sop) as it was sometimes some-times called, were washed awav Tine bl of the virein and of the Santa Clara were greatly deepen! e 1 for miles above their junc. |
