Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-07-24
DISASTER AT SILVER CITY.
Additional Details Regarding tn,
Situation of Flooded Metropolis
of Grant County.
Description of the Cienega Upon Which
the Flourishing City Was Located
in lS7l-Plucky People will
Restore It-Help Not Need
ed at Present.

Between 8 O'Clock and midnight Sun
day night five inches of rain fell at Silver
City and on the mountains north of town.
Before 9 O'Clock water was rushing down
the mountain sides in torrents and few
minutes later the principal business
streets were filled with food from four
to eight feet deep. The grade of the
streets is heavy and the water rushed
through them with such swiftness that a
crossing was impe ssible. A foot-bridge
constructed 80 that the people in the
lower part of the town could cross to
places of safety in case of flood was swept
away and all means of getting out of the
flooded district we're cut off.
THE NIGHT WAS INTENSELY DARK.
The night was intensely dark and for
three hours the people we're panic strick-
en-. Scores Of people gave themselves up
for lost when some of the weaker build
ings began to crumble before the flood.
Nine buildings we're washed down and
many others injured, but, strange as it
may seem, no lives were lost.
The business part of the city beggars
description. Many buildings are settling
and the loss will reach fully 100000.
Some estimate the loss to be as high as
$l5O,0O0, but this is probably excessive.
RAILROAD SUFFERS HEAVY LOSS.
The A., 7. & s. F. railroad company
sustained heavy loss and it will take
more than week to repair it's track so
that trains can be got in there. Tele-
graph communication was entirely cut
off all day Sunday and Monday and until
| about noon yesterday.
COL. WILSON DESCRIBES THE SITUATION.
Col. R. B. Wilson, of this city, who
was engaged in surveying for the govern
ment in southwestern New Mexico when
silver was discovered at Silver City in the
winter 1901 and was constantly en-
gagged in mining and smelling there from
1878 to 1876, talked intelligently to a
NEW MEXICAN reporter this morning re-
garding the location and surroundings of
the flood-desolated county seat of Grant
county. When he went there first, in the
early part of 1871, what is now known as
Silver City was then called Cienega San
Vicente. The town was soon after started.
He was approached by Abrahams, Gold
ing, Cohen and others, who were already
on the ground getting out adobes for
stores, to lay off the town on the fiat
cienega between the hills, but declined to
do SO because he was satisfied that the
town would always bein danger of floods.
Other surveyors, however, did the work
and the town was located according to
the views of the business men named.
HAD BEEN FLOODED BEFORE.
Col. Wilson's description of the situa-
ton, as it then presented itself to his ex-
perienced eye, explains his action. He
says that the cienega or meadow, from
l 800 to 1000 feet wide, widening toward
the north and contracting to a gulch on
the south, with low hills on either side,
evidently had been flooded to the depth
of folly twenty feet at some time in the
past. This was proved by the rim of
drift-wood clinging to the sides of the
surrounding hills and twenty feet above
must catch the drainage from the divide
nine miles north and extending east and
west about the same distance convinced
him that, in the event of extraordinary
rains or cloudbursts to the west or north,
other floods might be anticipated. His
predictions we're sadly realized in the
disastrous floods of 1874, and, in spite of
the expenditure of large sums of money
in protecting against future disasters,
much damage has been done there by the
water nearly every year since.
SILVER CITY WILL BE RESTORED.
The colonel says that Silver City, with
it's magnificent resources and plucky peo-
pie, is certain to be restored, but predicts
that the principal business houses and
residences will be built on the solid
granite above the oienega and that the
latter will become beautiful park.
rELEaRApHIo CORRESPONDENCE.
In response to telegram of inquiry
and sympathy from Gov. Thornton,
Mayor Fleming sends the following:
Silver City, N. NJ, July 24.-Damages
lDout $IUo,ooo. NO iivon iosU' No per-
ION injured. Many thanks.
(Signed) J. W. FLEMING.
In reply to dispatch from the editor
Il the NEW MEXICAN asking if funds
we're needed to relieve the suffering
,oor, Mayor Fleming to-day answered in
imilar tone as the above and said con-
ributions were not necessary at this
ime.