Arizona republican., 1906-12-31
THE CLIFTON FLOOD
 ENSUING LITIGATION
The Subject of County Division Again Agitated in the Populous Eastern Part of Graham.


 disaster in the history of this place the town is again beginning to assume a more pleasing and normal aspect but to one viewing it for the first time since the flood, there still remains enough devastation to prove what mighty powers the waters developed at their height and the awful loss and destruction that was incurred by prop erty owners.
 Strange as it may seem, it is never theless a fact that the sand, mud and tailings brought down the little stream known as Chase creek did more dam age than the water itself. The flood of course carried down the stream dog ems and dozens of houses and buildings of one kind and another but the actual loss 10 storekeepers and others was sin the damaged and almost ruined goods that the mud settled around. T Many of the stores and dwellings along the creek were almost submerged in ewater and when it receded the height ! ,of the water was marked by an accu- mutation of mud that 1t required days A of hard work to clean out.
 One of the Clifton schools, a splen- .r did building, where by the way a grad ,uate of the Tempe Normal. Karl Lee brick, is principal, was left with every h desk on the lower floor completely ,r buried in sediment. At the time of the disaster there was such an enormous n amount of work to be done that help was scarce and it required a weeks d time on the part of the principal and ,r what little help he could secure to lr clean the building up and get school ! started again.
 I Stores and homes that formerly were several steps above the level of the creek are now on the level or below lit and have been almost dug out of the mud.
 To the ordinary observer not famil- far with conditions. it appears that any subsequent flood in time to come will necessarily be more destructive than the one that has just been experienced. for the creek bed both in Chase creek and the Frisco river is filled up to a great extent and it would seem that the same amount of water or even less coming down again will naturally rise to a higher level. The residents of Clifton, however. are a peculiar people in that they take flood in matter l SbAN Ol way SDlTll ana Though their loss may be great. they Apparently take little thought of it. but the moment the waters go down sufii- lciently to permit work commence lcleaning up and repairing the dam age. At the present time. after what was the most destructive flood in the memory of the oldest residents. where the pfeperty loss Is roughly estimated at half a million dollars and where lives were lost, the people are actively engaged in reconstructing their homes and stores. and remarkable as it may seem. ak,nost- without exception they are bull ling on the identical spot where put a few weeks ago water stood anywhere from one to twentyfeet deep. They are doing this with a full real ization from past experience that it Is only a question of time until there will be other floods, for they are of an- nual occurrence. only that some are less severe than others. The only pre- : cautions that are being taken by prop erty owners to prevent a repetition of the disaster of December 3 is the use of brick where adobe was formerly used and the raising of some of the buildings a few feet higher than they were formerly. It is said that there are houses along Chase creek that have been flooded and fin turn raised higher year after year from the time they were built and now stand many feet higher than their original location.
 In the business and different resi- dent sections of the town there was scarcely building that was not more or less damaged. though in a few pro- tected places the owners escaped loss Those few fortunate ones. however. are greatly in the minority. Notwith- standing the awful property loss. the people met 1t with smile and showed wonderfully cheerful dispositions in coping with the work of rebuilding the town. A prominent man of Clifton remarked 10 the writer that though the estimated loss to the residents was half a million, there was no apparent feel ing of 1t. It is such a prosperous little place that IL takes but a short time for the business men and others to re- trieve what loss was incurred. The firm in which he was interested, for instance, was just on the verge of pay ing 15 per cent dividend a few days after the flood. Instead of paying this dividend, the money was used for re- building and repairing the damage.
 THE LOSS OF LIFE.
 As to the loss of life during the flood it transpires that this phase of the .question was grossly exaggerated by lthe dispatches that were sent out first, not through any desire on the part of the senders to make the disaster seem lany worse than it really was. for the best was bad enough, but in many cases the dispatches were entirely re- written and disfigured beyond recog- hilton to such an extent that while they appeared more sensational they did not at all give the real facts of the case. Editor Leonard of the Cop per Era is the writer's authority for the statement that so far as has been learned but four bodies have ever been recovered. that of Mrs Thrum and three unidentified Mexicans. Others of course may have been drowned and their bodies carried further down str cam and buried. but it is not prob able that at the very worst more than half dozen people lost their lives.
 DAMAGE SUITS. An interesting outcome of the flood | that will no doubt be watched closely