Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1912-07-30
A Million Dollar Flood.

/ box cars and logs and small buildings
were carried by the water, sweeping
| the side tracks and carrying into the
river nine CT ten cars loaded with
merchandise. These lodging against
the slough bridge formed another
temporary dam and backed the waters
up along Shingle street, through the
yards of William Paff, back and
around the buildings of the Kickbusch
Grocery Co., into Washington street
as far up as the front of the city hall,
the basement of which, as well as
those of the other buildings men,
toned, being flooded
DAM is DYNAMTED OUT.
About this time the balance of the
pond below the guard locks had
reached such stage that it was a
question whether the Heinemann
mill and yards would be swept away,
and the power plant of the electric
light company was in imminent dan
ger of being destroyed, and as last
resource it was found necessary to dy-
Mantle out portion of the restrain
ing dam. This did DeG afford suffi-
cient relief, and the plant was flooded,
leaving the city In darkness.
Continuing down stream the flood
swept over the Stewart island, top
pling over and carrying with it piles
of sawed lumber ard J1mbers and logs
and slabs, which we're piled up in one
indiscriminate mass in the old river
bed Between Stroller's bridge and the
Heinemann mill, besides which large
quantities were borne across the road
way on the island and out to the
main river. 8 section of the Stroller
bridge was carried away.
BY THE FALLS ROUTE.
The great mass of logs which were
released at the Leahy & Beebe bridge
and which were carried down the
main channel of the river, taking the
bridge with them, pounded over the
dam and Big Bull falls, creating
din that could be heard all over the
city. The impact of the logs against
the granite boulders that reared them
selves in the lower part of the falls in
the river channel, for a time sounded
like the booming of guns and drowned
the roar of the falls themselves. How
great the force of this impact was can
only be realized by visit to the vicin-
ity. Huge boulders of granite, that
had withstood the floocs of years, the
pounding of millions of logs, were
shiyered and ground and have passed
from sight. Great blocks of granite
were torn bodily from the pier of the
Northwestern Railroad Co.'s steel
bridge, and this, although the pier
stood where it did not receive the full
force of the torrent of logs.
TANNERY DYKE AND BRIDGE GO.
In the bend of the river below the
falls, the logs that had made the de-
scent of Big Bull massed together and
swept along the west shore, carrying
everything before them. Great trees
were torn out by the roots and car
ried along by the mass of logs. The
long 70O-foot dyke, built of piling and
stout timbers few years ago by the
Tannery people to protect their prop
erty just above the bridge, was whip
ped out into the stream by the on
rushing logs, the pilingstorn loose and
about 25 or thirty feet of solid land
washed away.
Under two sections of the tannery
bridge the logs got jammed between
the abutments, until there were suffi-
cient below the two sections to pick
them up bodily and bear them along
with them on their downstream
flight, carrying them down river as
far as Miller's island where the two
sections of bridge were bent at right
angles with each other and left strand
ed on the island, resting upon pile
of logs which the city's property held
captive.
NOTICE WAS BRIEF.