Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1899-09-20
TRICKY TEXAS STREAMS.
DRY GULCHES THAT SUDDENLY BE-
COME RAGING TORRENTS.

~ Floods Miles Wide-A Zig Rise Wipes
Ss Out Band orCoinanches.
<<N The most treacherous streams in
- the United States are those of west
6: ern Texas For the most part of the
year, and occasionally for period ex
s tending over several years, these
ssrivers and creeks are merely dry beds.
5t4iThe. older inhabitants, who have pro-
lifted by past experiences, are ac-
guainted with the character of the
streams and know that at any moment
torrent. OF, water may rush down the
S{sastlryb bed and overflow its banks, sweep
esing, to- destruction everything before
4Ssit. SIT is for this reason that one
1Snever sees Cow aud hunting camps
&Slocated near the creeks and rivers of
ssthe section referred to. IT is not oaly
50 wise policy, to pitch camp on high
Eyground, bntit has. also been proved
that cattle and sheep should be kept
sSout OF theaow.counery when. on the
itraiI. Instances are known when
BSherds of thousands of head Of cattle
s4have beer swept away by sudden
Sgood. xiu.>,e
- Thereceut high waters in the Nueces
sSsSand Hondo rivers and Los Moros
s. Cresk washed away many thousands
isSof cattle, horses and sheep. Los
SsMoros Greek is ordinarily a dry
{ ESstream. For several years no water
s;w whatever has flowed in its bed on its
upper course. THE new settlers of
Shat locality looked upon it as dry
s;arroya. What was the surprise OF
s5fhese unknewihg ones'a few mornings
:. ago when they awoke to find in place
of the dry bed of the Insignificant
Screek raging river five to seven
3miles wide, its width varying accord
: ing to the character of the country
Through which the stream passed.
SThe tepiDle food came down upon the
aunsuspecting people without warning.
s = There are many dry beds west of
ksA4stin- which mark the course of
former large st cams. 1t is related
,-:bv-oft- inhabitants~ that during the
period o. about twenty years, from
IS28sto1 S4S, there were frequentsand
Tferrifc rains in western Texas and
abatamans OF the little watercogrses
that are now forgotten were large
rivers then. In 1S45 there arrived in
San Antonio from Germany young
man. named G. H. Guenthcr. lie was
asmiller by trade, and soon after
1rea @hing this state he began to look
eahouthim for suitable place to estab-
lish grist mill. He went to what is
now Gillespie county, where large
colony of Germans had located but
few years b fore. On his way to that
colony he cameupon stream of large
volume and he picked out q mill site
upon its bank and proceeded to erect
Srist mill. He ran the mill for three
years, when the waters OF the stream
began to. recede so rapidly that the
mill had TO be. closed down and finally
abandoned. The ruins of, that mill
stand today, and thereF are,absolutely.
no indications that there was ever any
water flowing in the bed of that dry
arroya. 1t has been dry for more than
thirty years,
= Many lives have been lost along the
course of the Nueces and Hondo rivers
in sudden floods even. within the past
fifteen years. About nine years ago
party. Of Louisiana sportsmen came
to western Texas with a camping out
fit. They located their camp on the
sleft bank of the, Nueces not fargfrom
the town of Uvalde. There were six
men in heparty, among them being
z t. L. Besseur, wealthy sugar
planter. The frsFnight they ,werein
camp mountain of water r. lied down.
the Nueces valley from the hills above
and swept everything before it saAll
the menbees of the hunting party,
we're sdrowned, the Southern Pacific:
railroad bridge, WAS washed out8and
thousands OF dollars damage was done
to farm and ranch property. ,
Tom Kersen, "a veteran ,Indiana
fighter andi Texas rangerssnow resid-
ing in Austin, has a vivid recollection
of one OF the ''big rises OF western
Texas stream, aud he is thankful that
it happened, ,+for, itpfobably saved the
lives OF several members of his COM
pany. In the spring of 1872 Kersen,
who was corporal in Captain Halls
ranger company, WAS sent ma scout
after band Of Comanche Indians who
had been railing the ranches along
the Ctohcho, Nueces aud Houtlo rivers.
Kersen had seven men with him, and
although they know that they were
likely to run; inio force of Indians
many times their number, they had no
fears. The trail of the Indians was
struck near where the town OF Sabinal
is now.
''We examined the, traiIvery care
fully" Kersen sad ttoe a New York
Sun correspondent, ':and it was easy
to see that there were not less than
forty redsEins in. the party. The trail
was about eighteen hours old when
we first struck IT. It was abous the
middle of the forenoon, and we calcu-
lated that we could overtake the band
by evening of the next day unless
they. should. become suspicious land
scstter. Ehe trail was followed brisklI
alltliat day Sand the: travel was kept
Zip as long as the moon gave light that
night. The trail began to grow warm
in literal sense shortly after the
middle of the following day, when we
came upon the embers Of their camp
fire Of the previous night. By this
time we were near the Dry Frio, which
at that time was nothing more than
the dry bed of a creek. The country.
is very rough and the Indians were
following the valley Of the dry stream
-northward, their destination appar-
emily being the Panhandle country,
where their tribe held forth at that
time. We had observed Asayy, Black
clouds hanging over the mountains to
the north of us and banked up against