Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1878-06-04
A DELueE At

A correspondent Of the Chicago times
writing from Deadwood under date of May
%, gives q graphic description of the great
food on Deadwood and Whitewood creeks,
which flow through the center Of the town
of Deadwood. The writer says:
The situation this morning was critical in
the extreme. The two-foot current of q day
or two ago had swollen until its depth was
at least twenty feet, and extended to q width
of fifty and sixty feet, and coursed through
the city with an appalling roar and great
velocity, carrying upon its bosom a litter of
stumps, planks, brush and debris that would
receive a check at some curve or culvert,
where a blockade would occur for a few
moments, until the water, receiving accu-
INFLATED weight, would force the barrier and
rush forward with terrible vengeance.
At 8 o'clock the Infatuated element
gathered beneath the building
occupied by Mcintyre & Clapp, surveyors
and lifting it as though it were a
straw carried it from the foundation and in.
to the seething torrent by which 1t was
borne down the expanse of water and land
ed plump and almost intact upon the Sher.
man street bridge The downfall of the
Mcintyre building opened a way for the
maddened waters and relieved the city of
much of its dangers, still the outlet was too
narrow and the water backed into Welch's
hotel completely flooded the district court
room, expelled the county register, sheriff,
treasurer and district court clerk from their
Offices. demolished out buildings connected
with said offices, wrecked the large board.
ing-house owned by Black Maria" 80 sud.
denly that no furniture or personal effects of
the bosrders were removed, flooded the first
floors of q dozen adjoining houses and
threatened Q dozen more.
Later in the afternoon CONSERVATION was Gre
ated in Chinatown by the washing away Of
rear abutments to an entire block of bust.
ness houses. Great crowds thronged the
banks and watched for the m%omentarily ex-
pected overthrow of the structures. Nor
did they wait it vain, for 7 o'clock, with q
groan and an easy slide, the "Lone STAR
building (where Kitty Leroy was 30 brutally
murdered two months ago, by her husband,
Curley, who afterward suicided) moved into
the water, and, like . giant boat, gracefully
6oated down the current, until arrested by
an abutting Chinese house, where it still
rests. Soon after the sustaining posts of
Kidd, Carpenter & Co.'s carpenter shop
gave way, and that institution careened to
the south and passed into the rapidly-mov-
ing current, and was borne down upon the
"Lone Star" where it adds to the efficiency
of the impromptu dam and back water to
the additional height Of ten feet, seriously
threatening "Mollie Rosencranz'" two.story
dwelling. The inmates Of the bagnio have
removed with their effects TO place of &C.
curity, but there seems no possible hope Of
saving the building. A heavy rain-storm
now prevails, and the chances are that great
damage. will be the result. Over forty
buildings have been completely destroyed,
while twics that number are damaged 70 a
greater or less extent. Many persons have
Lost their entire efects, saving nothing but
the clothes upon their backs. Welch's
hotel, the only thres-story building in the
camp, breasts the storm, and 10 the saliva.
tion Of . hundred houses below II stll
great feArs ass entertained that il will prove
too weak TO successfully resist The enormous
pressure now resting upon II. Every shah
and tunnel ID choksd, all roads are impas.