Report of Committee on Flood Situation-April 29, 1915

 "Of adversity we of St. Johns have had more than our share, but no one is giving up."

I have been going through more of my research files and came across this follow-up article to the Lyman Dam break in 1915.   It was a very devastating time.

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St. Johns Herald and Apache News

Thursday, April 29, 1915

 Report of Committee on Flood Situation

 St. Johns Arizona, April 29— 

It is now two weeks since the breaking of the Lyman reservoir, the financial losses have been pretty accurately computer, the people are busy repairing the lower ditches and dams, riddle fences are being reconstructed, preparations to put in as much crop as possible are in progress, plans are being formulated to put water into the higher Lyman canal for irrigation of the bench land, six of the eight bodies of the drowned have been recovered and buried, so that the town is somewhat normal again.

The direct losses total up about as follows:

• Lyman dam and injuries to canal….$90,000.00
• Houses washed down at St. Johns…$7,000.00
• St. Johns irrigation company…$3,000.00
• Bridge at St. Johns…$2,500.00
• Bridge at Hunt…$2,600.00
• Crops & Fences ruined at St. Johns and Meadows…$10,000.00
• Meadows dam…$3,000.00
• Udall dam…$18,000.00
• Crops, fences, and ditches at Hunt…$8,000.00
• Woodruff dam…$17,000.00
• Crops and other injuries at Woodruff…$13,000.00
• Three-Mile steel bridge…$4,500.00
• Holbrook bridge…$3,000.00
• Other damage as livestock, etc….$5,000.00
• Total Direct Loss…$186,600.00

 The indirect loss depends on so many contingencies that it is hard to estimate, but this seems a fair, through low, estimate:

• Crop loss at St. Johns…$60,000.00
• Crop loss at Meadows…$5,000.00
• Crop loss at Hunt…$12,000.00
• Crop loss at Woodruff or extra cost if pumping is resorted to…$10,000.00

Yet it is safe to say that other direct losses will make the total up to a full hundred thousand, though in event that the Lyman dam were never again built it would reach over half a million.

 But the agriculturists of this town are well acquainted with adversity, for they have had their “measure heaped up and running over.”  The first farms the settlers developed along the river valley went to alkali and salt grass and almost stopped farming here.  They built the Salado reservoir in their days of poverty to bring their better drained bench lands under cultivation, but ten years ago it went out.  They extended their energies out to the lands of Hunt and built the Udall dam, but it has been washed away three times.    They tried farming at the meadows and have lost two dams there, so that already these hardy toilers have lost agricultural property worth half a million dollars.

 A good force is now at work on the town ditch and old field ditch which belongs to the St. Johns Irrigation company, so that water will soon be on the old fields and in town.  It is a puzzler to know what to do to put water in the Lyman canal and on the bench, for the canal intake is the reservoir gate that stands 20 feet above the river.  Pumping and building a high diversion dam are both proposed.  The chances are in favor of constructing a high, tight, earth diversion dam.

 The fields of Hunt, the Meadows, and St. Johns are all so wet and muddy that little can be done as yet, but as soon as they are dry enough, as much crops will be planted as the natural flow of the river, with last winter’s heavy snow fall, will supply adequate water for this year.

 Many offers of relief have been received.  We need relief, but it is not immediate relief, for we have food in plenty and are able to temporarily care for those of our number who lost their homes.  But, at the same time, many of our Spanish-American whose homes were washed down were poor people and they need help to rebuild and refurnish.  Our farmers were already in debt for the Lyman reservoir and dam and their only hope of ever paying out now lies in rebuilding the dam at an early date, and that will take at least a hundred thousand dollars capital.    If it is not rebuilt, and that right away, bankruptcy awaits the entire community.  Woodruff has food and clothing for immediate relief, but this is the eleventh time that those poor people have lost their diversion dam, and three times it has been because of our reservoir breaks.  The people of Hunt need relief, for they were already heavily involved, and must go deeper in debt to rebuild their Udall dam.  We need capital to assist us in rebuilding, we must have it.  We must find it, and then we can recover.  Of adversity we of St. Johns have had more than our share, but no one is giving up.  It only asks financial aid, and it is willing to repay that.

George H. Crosby, Jr.

A.V. Gibbons

F.W. Nelson,

Committee.

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Little "snippet" underneath this article:

"The Little Colorado is some creek when there is nothing to obstruct it.  There wasn't much need of the bridge before it went out, but now it is hardly safe to try to cross in a boat.  The water is deep and muddy."

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Image from Cameron Udall's book - "Images Across America, St. Johns, Arizona"

I also had a file I had saved entitled:  Dam Failures, Dam Incidents (near failures) Association of State Dam Safety Officials www.damsafety.org.  That gives this little bit of information about the failure:

"thought to be due to sliding of the puddled core which had not dried out, but it appears the dam failed by piping.  Poor construction may have played a role."  

I wasn't sure what "piping" meant so I searched and found this:  "Internal erosion (called “piping” by dam engineers) of an earth dam takes place when water that seeps through the dam carries soil particles away from the embankment, filters, drains, foundation or abutments of the dam. ... When a backward-eroding pipe reaches the reservoir, a catastrophic breaching of the dam can occur."

The database also lists the losses at $500,000 to $1 million.

Stories From the Files: Juan Trujillo Baca First Settler of Round Valley

 

Juan Trujillo Baca, First Settler of Round Valley

 In 1862 a young Spaniard drove his sheep west from the Rio Grande into a bowl-shaped valley at the foot of pine and spruce clad mountains.  Twenty-one year old Juan was the primero hombre – the first man in the Valley.  He was born at a place called La Jolla on the Rio Grande.  His father, Miguel Baca was born there before him.

Juan liked Round Valley (Valle Redondo) and later brought his brothers Dionicio and Francisco to it.  Then, after his father’s death, he brought his mother, Maria Trujillo Baca, and his brother Benino.

 The Bacas were beaver trappers on the Rio Grande during the period when fur buyers and trappers stopped off at Santa Fe on their way to the Rocky Mountains and the west from St. Louis.

 But like other Spanish families along the Rio Grande, they also farmed and ran sheep.  Each summer the flocks were moved to the mountains to the west.  Another such family were the Lunas, after whom Luna, New Mexico, just across the Arizona line, near Alpine was named.  Most of the Lunas were wiped out in a raid by Victorio, the Apache Chief, who also led the Alma massacre and the massacre and burning of Quemado, New Mexico.  But the Bacas fled to the hills each time the Apaches visited Round Valley.

 Shortly after the Bacas settled in the Valley came other families.  The Carillos, who built a fort at the lower end of the Valley where the Little Colorado River enters the hills on its way to St. Johns.  Also, about the same time came the first Anglo-American settlers.

 The first of these was William Milligan in 1869, who started a grist mill in what is known as Milligan Valley at the mouth of Water Canyon just above Eagar.  Then came Anthony Long in 1971.  Milligan was a private in the Cavalry at Fort Apache and had come to Round Valley with the soldiers on their frequent scouting trips.  He came back to settle after being mustered out of the army at San Marciel.

To Round Valley in the fall of 1875 came Harry Springer, who established a store on the west side of Omer (later Springerville).  Springer made the sad mistake of trusting outlaws with feed and seed and as a result soon went broke.  In the area less than a year he left, but later when it came to select a name for the post office, the name Springerville was chosen.

 In 1876 the Beckers established a store in the same area as had been Springer’s store.

 Juan Baca lived to see many come and go and many changes take place during his 90 years in Valle Redondo (Round Valley).  He died 17 December 1952 at the age of 110.  He called it “my beautiful Round Valley.”

From Ancestry.com, first uploaded there by Kimberly Espinoza

From the Arizona Republic, 6 July 1952

From Ancestry.com, first uploaded by Joe Pena

From the Arizona Republic 6 July 1952

 Stories From The Files

Tragedy in the Ray Family When the Dam Went Out

by Jennie Jensen Hancock

The Ray Family
Back Row:  Dewey & Mrs. Ray
3 girls:  Hazel, in front of her mother, Ethel, and Lily.  The dog, Bobbie.

Violet Willden Ray was born 29 November 1874 in Beaver, Utah to John and Margaret McEwen Willden.  The Willdens had 11 children--two born at Fort Willden (now Cove Fort) the others in Beaver.  All grew to maturity.

In the early spring of 1887, when Violet was 12 years old, her parents decided to move to Mancos, Colorado to join other relatives who were already there.  In the company were the Willdens and their 8 younger children; Margaret's sister, Elizabeth McEwen, her husband Henry Walters and their 7 children; their brother Joe McEwen; Lavina Ellicker, Joe Armstrong, and a boy names Merrimore or Merriweather.  The trip was made in covered wagons.

Regardless of which route they went out of Beaver, the trip was not easy.  There were miles of desert waste, rocky mesas, and canyons.  There were few tracks to follow.  Once they became lost and wandered around for about a week.  The children's Uncle Joe wouldn't let them out of the wagons for fear of scorpions and centipedes.

They crossed the Colorado River at Hite, then known as the Dandy Crossing because it was so much better than the other river crossings.  The group reached Mancos on 10 May that same year.

Violet married Reece James Ray on 31 December 1893.  He was born in Peoria, Illinois.  Seven children were born to them: Olga, Olive, Dewey, Girland (died in infancy), Hazel, Ethel and Lily.  Mr. Ray died of Cancer in August of 1914 leaving Violet with 4 children still at home to support.

Dewey had had typhoid fever which affected his heart.  The doctor advised his mother to take him to a lower altitude in Arizona.  She purchased a wagon and team and she, Dewey 17, Hazel 8, Ethel 6, and Lily 4 prepared to leave Mancos.  The morning they left, our family went to bid the goodbye.  I was only 11 but a friend of my folks had given me a camera.  I took their picture just before they climbed into the wagon.  Two childless couples traveled with them in another wagon.

When they reached St. Johns, Arizona help was badly needed to repair a leak in the Lyman dam.  Jennie Palmer and her husband kindly let them stay at their house which was about a quarter of a mile below the dam.  Dewey worked with the team a a scraper the day the dam broke.  The Palmers had gone to St. Johns to buy some things for the last day of school (Mrs. Palmer was a school teacher) and attend a dance in the town.  They left their 3 small children with Mrs. Ray.

Mrs. Ray and her 3 little girls were sleeping in a bed.  When the dam broke Hazel awakened her mother saying she could feel water in her hair.  Her mother immediately carried Ethel and Lily out.  Before she could reach the house for more children the water was too deep and she was swept away.  Panic-stricken, Dewey jumped in the water and he was also drowned.  The three Palmer children were drowned, as was also Mrs. Ray, Hazel, [along with Dewey].  Hazel's body was never found.  Those who found Dewey's body said every bone in it was broken.  Mrs. Ray's hair was so full of cockle-burs it had to be cute close to her head.

As soon as word reached Mancos, Mrs. Ray's brother Elliot and her older daughter Olive, went immediately by car to St. Johns to make funeral arrangements and take the two little girls back with them.

Lily live a few years with my parents (my mother being Mrs. Ray's sister), and Ethel stayed with another sister, Martha Kernan.  When Elliot married, he took the two little girls until they married.  Both are living near Los Angeles.

Hazel was a happy child.  It is ironic that all that day she sand "Good-bye I Hate to Leave You", and "On the Next Rainbow I'll be Home"--both popular songs at that time.

All of the Ray family's loved ones and relatives who remember them will be forever grateful to the people of St. Johns who searched for the bodies, and to the Relief Society women who made Mrs. Ray's burial clothes and all the other kindness they showed at this time.

The [picture included above] is a copy of the one I took of the family.  The enlarged and colored one hanging in the museum is one my mother, Celiea W. Jensen, had made from the original.

My father's father, Soren Jensen, built the first [LDS] meeting house in St. Johns, also the tithing granary and office with the help of other men.

                                        --Jennie Jensen Hancock