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06/16/1965 - Our own great flood

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Contributed by: Dave Schallert on 6/16/2008

Today is the 43rd anniversary of our own Great Flood of 1965 ... and I'm pretty sure a huge majority of folks around here don't know anything about it.

It was June 16th, 1965 and I was 6 years old ... but I remember some things real well about that day and the days following w/ all the photos and news of the destruction (as well as driving around and seeing it for ourselves).

We lived in old Littleton on Lakeview Street. Large storms had sat over the areas south and southwest of Littleton (Castle Rock, south of Sedalia, and southwest of Waterton Canyon) for hours.

Warnings were heard on the radio of possible flash floods of the South Platte River. My Dad packed us up in the car in the late afternoon and we headed up to a high point on Ridge Road and parked along w/ many others to watch the spectacle below ... with a full view of the Platte from around what is now Mineral Avenue (which wasn't there then) north to Bowles Avenue (which was) and everything in between.

This was in the pre-Chatfield Dam days...the Platte was fed by Plum Creek and waters from the mountains and converged around what is now C-470 and Santa Fe Drive (FYI...Chatfield Dam was built as a direct response to the 1965 flood).

We stood and watched a wall of water build and come roaring down from the south while a few folks on horseback tried to rescue horses from land still above water between Santa Fe Drive and the river itself.

This flood took out the Bowles Avenue bridge (as well as many others downstream towards Denver), Centennial Racetrack (what is now approximately Belleview and Federal Blvd.), Wolhurst Country Club and trailer park (what is now the Polo Reserve development...but the trailer park is still there!)...basically everything west of Santa Fe and let's say east of Federal Blvd.

Think about how much water that was...high enough to take out bridges over the Platte! High enough to put parts of Santa Fe Drive underwater!

You can read more about it here:

http://www.littletongov.org/history/othertopics/flood.asp

So when you drive down Santa Fe Drive, and C-470, or visit Chatfield Reservoir, drive on US 85 between Littleton and Castle Rock, visit Aspen Grove at Mineral and Santa Fe, cross the Bowles Avenue Bridge, or shop at the Home Depot at Belleview and Federal...perhaps you'll look at these areas/places differently now knowing that they either didn't exist (Chatfield) or were almost all completely under water and/or destroyed 43 years ago today.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Dave Schallert

Parker , CO

Dave Schallert has posted 19 stories and 11 comments since joining on 7/12/2007. Dave Schallert 's average story rating is 4.57.

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