The Elbert County tribune., 1904-05-26
Loss May Approximate s1,ooo,ooo.-
Immense Destruction Of Crops
Railroads Lose Heavily.

Souhty priubes ..-........... oo,VvV
Total. 81 .24s, ,oOer
Two deaths-John Owen and Robert
Strauss.
The report says: The foregoing ta-
BILE OF losses between the two cities is
the result of canvass of the situation
MS made by News reporter who
worked up from Greeley to Fort Col
Inns yesterday on horseback. keeping
as near as possible to the center of tho
flooded area.
IL was the first successful attempt to
traverse this section that has been
made since the flood swept fortunes be-
fore II. Even then. however. II was
necessary to swim the river and re-
turn ut times through fields of mud and
miro to the highroad which runs along
the east bluif line Of the valley. TO
make any headway.
Estimates OF the farmers on the loss
in crops that cannot be replaced this
year range from 81 900 900 TO $4,000. 900.
but more conservative figures fix the
loss ut a little less than $4,000
The heaviest loss in crops is near
Greeley. where the vast onion fields are
destroyed.
From Fort Collins to Greeley was n
stretch of thirty miles of fertile plant
ed land. ranging from a mile TO four
miles In width. all of which was swept
and devastated of all vegetation. No
richer farming area of this proportion
exists anywhere, and IL is bardsto esti-
mate the loss in crops.
The farmers were out to-day In wad-
ing boots. collecting such household
goods as fortune had left on their
prnnnh Soma N fhafn lAat
loads OF goods. which were scattered all
the way to points below Greeley. Hay
stacks from n farm near Fort Collins
we're iloated intact to points below New
Windsor. A four-room frame house
was lifted bodily from the ranch OF H.
@. McClenahan. seven miles this side
of Greeley. and deposited by the Hood
in a grove of trees on the farm OF Lee
Evans half a mile away. The food
made general interchange of proper
ty. real and personal. that was not de-
stroyed.
Great suffering among horses and
cattle Ia experienced. The pasture
lands where stock ranged and kept fat
are swept clean OF vegetation. Some OF
the fields are yet under water, and the
horses and cattle are imprisoned be-
yond human aid. standing in water
which, in some instances, reaches to
their bodies Hundreds of others
founder about in ten to thirty inches
of glue-like alluvium. which holds their
feet in its clutches until they fall.
Then they must lie hopeless until aid
comes, which cannot be for days as n
rule
In the lower end OF the valley the
damage was worse as general thing
than 1t was above. True. the Hood
spread out over a greater area, but It's
volume was great enough to sweep ey-
erything but the best anchored houses
before II, and that was enough. Had 1t
been a wall OF water thirty feet high
instead OF twelve, as was the case
when It reached Greeley. the damage
would not have been muc1 more. hut
there would have been n terrible loss.
OF life. especially at all of the settle
ments. n small per cent. of the Hood
ed land in the lower valley was in
beets and some of It can be replanted.
but the farmers say It is doubtful II any
of 1t will be productive this year. and
II 1t should be, scarcely enough is held
in this class to Justify the effort. The
onions and grain cannot be reproduced
Melvin Kyger. eight miles from Gree
ley counted eleven houses that floated
past his house within an hour and
twenty minutes. Near Kyger's home
was the dugout occupied by John
Owen, an old trapper. No one thought
to warn the old man, or perhaps no ono
had time, and to-day his dugout Is sub
merged. II 1t still stands. and he has
evidently been drowned. He was deaf.