Minnesota River Flooding
[The property is near the Minnesota River and Charles Smith commented - "I could write a few books about flooding"]
Video Text: "You see that tree line right over there? That’s the Minnesota River, just a few yards just past that tree line is the river, and it runs. It’s a lot thicker that direction. It comes around like this, it loops around. [The Minnesota River has been] about two feet from running out on top up here. The fuel tanks over here were in the water, probably about, I don’t know if you can see water marks on them or not, they were in the water about half way. Gradually we have been taking a couple away from this side of the creek, because we don’t use these buildings anymore. The last time the water was that high was in 1993.
Probably the worst flood we have ever had here and highest the water ever was, was in the spring of 1969. It came up here and turned right around and went right back out. It was really running. One of the times it was running, the hardest flow I have seen was when they built the road. They got eleven inches one night and then a couple nights later they got nine more. You could hear the rocks rolling and down below they were tossing rocks around. The red rocks over here look water worn and up in New Ulm they have sharp edges, so it gives you an idea of how much they got tossed around."
Video Text: "Indians were here because they got the stuff out of the creek, had open water, shelter, and most of the time, in the winter time, you don’t get any wind down in here. We have found a lot of [Indian artifacts]: pottery pieces out in the fields, arrowheads. My dad picked up two field knives, one chip of one, and one back half of one. They didn’t use a lot of fields, most of them flint. They say that’s why they came here because there is flint in the creek and most of the local arrowheads are made out of the flint that comes out of the creek. Up in the ravine, there is clay up there that they used. It’s kind of a bright green layer of clay up in there, and evidently they wanted that.
The idea is that they camped here when they were hunting or fishing. They lived here because of the open water I think. It was easy, good hunting. Everything else had to have water in the wintertime. What a better place to get them"
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last updated 8/08
Minnesota River Basin Data Center | Minnesota State University, Mankato
184 Trafton Science Center S, Mankato, MN 56001 | Phone: (507)389-5492
| FAX: (507)389-5493 | Email: mrbdc@mnsu.edu