The Elokomin River Breaks Its Banks
A severe freshet destroys dams, bridges, and farmland, leaving the local rural community with thousands of dollars in damage.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Last Friday, the Elokomin River reached its highest level in many years. Rain over the previous four days, coupled with snowmelt in the mountains, raised the creek to alarming proportions. The usually quiet stream was transformed into a boiling, seething mass of muddy water. Logs were carried downstream, colliding with such force that the noise echoed like distant cannons. Jake McCoy’s new dam, barely completed, was unable to withstand the pressure and was swept away, lodging on a sandbar near Harley Page's property. Further downstream, fifty feet of Sahlren's dam was demolished. The county-owned Kent bridge also fell after its south approach piling was undermined by the current, causing the structure to collapse into the water. Farms along the river suffered significant losses in land, fences, and livestock. Many meadows remain covered in debris, and in some instances, salmon were left stranded in fields by the receding waters. The total damage is estimated at $15,000.
“The usually quiet stream was transformed into a boiling, seething mass of muddy water, rushing madly onward.”
The Elokomin (now commonly referred to as the Elokomin River in Wahkiakum County) remains prone to flooding during heavy rainfall. This account highlights how vital, and fragile, infrastructure like bridges and dams were to early agricultural communities, a vulnerability that continues to challenge rural infrastructure maintenance today.
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