The record-union., 1892-12-10
GRAY'S BEND.
Sacramento viii Find No Relief From
That Source.
The Flood Waters of the Sacramento
River and the TuIe Basin of
Yolo County.

and prosperity, / desire space to talk
with your readers "as man talketh to his
own friend" At intervals there is re-
vival of discussion of certain local ques-
tions in every city or town. Public
thought is directed to the subject, public
discussion onlightens opinion and opinion
crystallizes into judgment, and the sub
ject for time ceases to be topic of con-
versation, until uninformed opinion re-
wives it.
Whoever looks at the map of the rivers
in the vicinity of Sacramento, including
the Feather. the Yuba and the American,
with their catchment areas, will see a
crook in the Sacramento, above its con-
f1uence with the Feather, which indicates
that the fall from point west of Gray's
Bend to the mouth of the Feather River
is directly, or almost directly, to the east;
it is in fact little northeast. When the
Sacramento is low and the flood waters
of the Yuba and the Feather strike the
river there is a current up the Sacramento
even beyond Gray's Bend. All steam
boat men know this.
The rivers of California are torrential;
the Sacramento and the San Joaquin least
so. The American River rises some fifty
miles east of the city of Sacramento. Its
level OF the sea, and all this tall must be
distributed to its channel in a distance of
nifty, certainly not TO exceed sixty, miles.
The catchment area from Folsom east
ward is as precipitous as the IoOfofa house.
The extent of a catchment area and the
volume of precipitation upon it are not
Rll the factors to be considered in eStlmat-
ing the flood maximum or flood varia-
tions of a river. The precipitous charac-
ter OF the catchment area must be con-
sidered. All you people in Sacramento
know how precipitOus the catchment areas
OF the American, the 1uba and the
Feather rivers are east of the point at
which they debouch into the valley.
There is a fall in the American River of
some 200 feet between Folsom and Sacra-
mento, distance of twenty miles in
straight line, so that even after the
American strikes the plains it has fall
of ten feet to the mile, which gives the
current five times and perhaps ten times
the velocity of the Sacramento at the
point Of their confluence.
Thus great floods are delivered into
the Sacramento channel below Gray's
Bend, and the Sacramento itself, having
from the city of Sacramento, or from the
mouth of the Feather River, a fall Of only
forty feet to Suisun Bay, is a very slug
gish current.
In this familiar talk let the reader re-
call the fact that a stream may have
more water through its channel than
navigable stream with a sluggish current.
Let the Sacramento itself furnish an Illus
tration. All those who have passed up
the Sacramento canyon, above Redding,
know that the river is but forty or fifty
feet wide, in many places not over
twenty, but the fall from the headwaters
of the Sacramento at Sissons to Redding
is enormous, and the catchment area un-
der the tremendous rainfall in the region
of Delta is as precipitous as the roof of A
Gothic church. Phenomenal rainfalls of
five inches in a few hours are frequently
reported, and yet cross section of the
Sacramento River at its highest floods
Immediately below Delta is very small,
but the river with but little accession be-
comes broad, navigable stream at Red
Bluff and below. But | repeat, whoever
has examined a map Of these rivers and
has seen the very short angle called
Gray's Bend has had the suggestion
come to the mind that canal from Gray's
Bend through the basin of the tule would
deliver the surplus floods of the Sacra-
mento and lower their maximum. This
is not true.
All the water escaping from Gray's
Bend into the tules during the floods of
the Sacramento-that is, when the great
floods come down from its upper sources
is detriment to the Sacramento River
at Sacramento and increases its flood
gauge. Let this be simply and plainly
illustrated. The tule basin, lying west of
the city Of Sacramento, is Intercepted on
the south by the MonteZuma Hills. Into
that basin are poured the waters of two
enormous StreamS-enormous at flood
tide. Cache Creek carries the catchment
area of all of Lake, Y olo and a part of
Colusa Counties. 1t has fall from Rum
sey, at the head of Capay Valley, to where
it delivers its water into the basin of the
tules of $50 feet, distance of about forty
L. $3.50 80
Creek rises away westward, from a point
at which it delivers its water into the ba-
sin, a distance of 125 miles.
When heavy precipitation occurs on
the headwaters of Cache and Putah
Creeks, the steep grade Of their channels
delivers a volume of water equal to the
Sacramento at ordinary stages. This
water flows directly against the Monte
yuma Hills, where 1t is turned eastward
with a strong current, crossing the Sacra-
mento and the islands at its mouth. When
the Cache and Putah Creeks are at their
flood stage, a food in the Sacramento
River, breaking out at Grayss Bend,
crosses the line of the tule basin and
strikes the MonteZuma Hills in about
one-fourth oSkhe time required to reach
the same pW% if it followed the Sacra-
mento chariG& by the mouth of the
Feather River and by way of the city of
Sacramento. Thus a great flood in the
Sacramento River breaking over at Gray's
Bend, or the surplus flood waters of the
river being permitted to flow into the
tule basin, reaches the vicinity OF Grand
Island, opposite Walnut Grove, long be-
fore the flood in the Sacramento reaches
it by the regular channel of the river. 1t
does this because it is a straight, short
line, and because it is always reinforced
by high waters in Cache and Putah
Creeks.
The floods which cross the tule in this
manner strike the MOnteZuma Hills and
are thrown to the eastward. They be-
come the equivalent of a dam thrown
across the current of the Sacramento. In
1878, think it was, when a flood OF this
kind o'er-topped the levees of Grand
Island. Shortly after its subsidence l
visited Walnut Grove, and the people OF
that village described to me the great cat
aracU which flowed over the levee on the
east side OF the island into the old river.
before the levee itself yielded to the
eroding force of the current. 1t was a
flood higher than the Sacramento, higher
than the leVees which had been depended
upon TO reclaim the islands. Ii is, in
short, great river, greater than the
Feather or the American at their medi-
um stages, and in the instance cited must
have been greater than either OF these
rivers at their maximum flood, since it
crossed the Sacramento and crossed the
island with a depth greater than the
highth of the levees.
These facts were pointed out to me
many years ago by such men as the Hon.
Christopher Green, William +. Knox,
Jerome Davis, r. S. Carey, General
Thomas II. Williams and General L, w.
Sheehan. They present the real facts of
the situation. II the tule basin west of
Sacramento opened into Suisun Bay
through the Montezuma Hills with an
rhannnl Arrr