Rainstorms and warm temperatures in December 1861 combined with a well-above-average snowpack in the Cascades created the largest Willamette River flood in recorded history. An observer of the flood wrote, "The whole Willamette valley was a sheet of water". From Eugene to Portland, thousands of acres of farmland were washed away, and many towns in the valley were damaged or destroyed. The "Great Flood", as it is sometimes called, was massively destructive to human development because most of that development was located on the river's floodplain, which provided rich soils and ready access to water transportation. The 1861 flood peaked at —more than the Mississippi River usually discharges in the 21st century—and inundated some of land. This flood destroyed the town of Linn City. When the flood ended on December 14, only three homes remained standing in Linn City. No one died in the Linn City flood, but the destruction was too significant for the town to recover, and it was abandoned. Today the city of West Linn stands about where Linn City once was.