Last night I was looking through a packet of old family photographs and ran across these flood pictures, which had been copied from somebody's photo album. I became curious about where the flood was and started doing some photo detective work this morning.
Because my family lived in Canon City when most of the photos were taken, I first thought it might be Canon City. But I didn't think Canon City had street cars and I didn't find any mention of a flood in the Arcadia Canon City book. Then I wondered if it might be Pueblo, so I googled Pueblo flood and discovered the 1921 great flood in Pueblo.
I visited the Denver Public Library digitized photo collection to look at photos of the flood and thought I was on the right track. I knew there was one way I would know for certain it was the right flood. I could read the name "Kress' Store" on a sign in the first photograph, so I looked up Pueblo in the 1921 Colorado Business Directory on HeritageQuest and I found the Kress store on 211 Main Street. The Great Flood of Pueblo killed 1500 people.
Someone in the Christison or Frankenbery families must have gone to Pueblo and to take the pictures.
5 comments:
Ever hear of Stuart Mace? His brother was married to my (great)aunt.
He photographed the flood. See:
http://bit.ly/d2VPr2
Hi Randy! I hadn't heard of Stuart Mace, but the piece you sent was interesting. I'll keep an eye out for his photos. Thanks for writing.
If you're ever in the Pueblo Courthouse in downtown Pueblo (the old building with the dome on it, even if court is now in another building), there are a bunch of photos of this flood on the wall--in the hallway around the corner from where you get your license plates. It looked pretty devastating. But obviously, the town survived.
I just wanted to say I really like your blog... keep up the great work!
Steve
Common Cents
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
Interesting reading, keep it up. Happy New Year, 2011
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