The Pend Oreille Swells Toward a Record Crest

At noon today, Thursday, the gauge at the Navigation Company’s docks showed the river to be 18 feet 7 inches above low water mark. This is a little more than two feet higher than the high water mark last year, when the gauge showed 10 feet 6 inches on June 14, the highest point reached. The river is still rising at the rate of about half an inch an hour and shows no signs of having reached high water mark as yet. Large quantities of drift and logs are coming down.

The boom at the Jurgens mill was badly damaged about six o’clock last night. Seven piers gave way and were carried down the stream. In some manner the boom sticks broke just right and about 50,000 feet of logs belonging to the Fidelity Lumber Co. remained in the boom. The boom was badly filled with trash before the piling gave way, and the mill had closed down a few hours previous to the accident. They would have been compelled to close today as the Fidelity people could not bring logs to the mill from the falls on account of the swiftness of the current.

Old residents expect that the crest of the flood will not be reached for another week, as the waters from the Montana country have not yet arrived in this section. They think that the river will raise probably several feet more before subsiding. Reports from above state that a large dam on the Flathead and a big boom at Clarkfork have broken and that thousands of logs are coming this way.

The river will have to raise at least 10 feet more before the booms of the Fidelity Lumber Co. at the falls are endangered. These booms contain about 8,000,000 feet of logs at the present time. The booms are new and have not been tested as to their strength, so the officials of the company are naturally somewhat apprehensive regarding them.

A portion of the piling at the Appel Bros. and Northern Mercantile Co. booms have been carried away by the floating drift, but these booms have not been badly damaged. The Mercantile Co. shut down after clearing their boom and will not resume work until after the water recedes.

The Defender came up late last night, after the Fidelity Co.’s pile driver, which was needed to protect the boom at Dalkena. This morning the booms at Dalkena and at Cusick were still intact, but the Button & Coulter boom at Lenora has gone out.

Reports from Kalispell indicate that much damage has been done to grain fields and that perhaps 50 per cent of the crop will be lost. Telegraphic reports from Clarksfork say that the river has started to fall at that place.