Almont North Dakota
1906 Centennial 2006
1950
- "MY STORY OF THE FLOOD"
by FRANCES "O'HENRY" NELSON
I will start Sunday morning when we glanced out of the window in Mom's
bedroom and noticed that the creek was way up! Large chunks
of ice were floating down the creek, and we were sure the ice had
just broken. We watched the ice until time to go to Sunday
school and church, and we were sure it had all gone out by then.
It was a beautiful day, and luckily too, as it turned out we were outside
all day. Marge and Sig came in to church on a tractor that day.
( I think they were just curious to see how the creek was coming along).
On the way to town they drove through a little water on the road by
the two dams, and as soon as church was over they learned that the water
was running over the road so high in that same place that they would
have to drive on the railroad bed for a ways to get by it.
After church Sig decided it would be interesting to drive out to the
Sharff bridge and see how close the water was to it, so the whole family
rode along. When we got there everyone told us we had just missed
the ice jam and we were so sorry, but we hadn't been there five minutes
before the ice started jamming against the bridge again. Each
huge chunk that would come down the swollen creek would hit with a terrific
crash and jar that old bridge something terrible. A few of the
chunks managed to slip under the bridge and as they did the planks on
the bridge would just rise up.
There was a crowd of people on both sides of the bridge by now with
the Almont people on one side and the folks from the south country on
the other. The only folks on the south side who didn't belong
there were the Bob Atkinson's, who were planning on having dinner that
day at the Knutson's. When they drove across the bridge everyone
questioned their sanity and wondered why they would stay on the wrong
side of the bridge to watch it go out, but they said they didn't believe
it would go. But---with those chunks hitting the bridge and the
old frame gradually giving more and more, they must have thought it
over and soon the whole family ran back across to the town side. They
didn't even take their car but Bob finally decided otherwise and went
back and drove it across. (Lucky he did too, or it would probably still
be on that side!).
Anyway, all the time this was going on the ice jam was getting bigger
and bigger and we were getting hungrier and hungrier. But would
we go home and eat? No sir! We might miss something! We
and about fifty other people out there! Oh the money a person
could have made with a hamburger stand out there at the bridge that
day! We finally decided we could take a few minutes to run into
the cafe and grab a bite - except for Torge. She would rather
starve than leave that bridge! And all this time I have been wearing
spike heels and my feet were killing me! I hadn't been home since
church and wasn't about to run home and change!
After a quick lunch the whole family and Torge - whom we picked up at
her house after she decided to eat - but before she got to! - drove
out to the Art Feland bridge to see how that was fairing. It was
still there and in fine shape with no ice damage or backup, as the ice
was all at the other bridge! Art and Dolly were on their side
feeling pretty bad about the whole thing because they were sure it would
go out - and it had just been build the previous fall. The Sims
Creek had started running across the road pretty bad at another place
on the road home to Sig and Marge's so he said they would have to start
home soon, which made Marge sick as she thought she would miss all the
excitement.
When we got back to the Sharff bridge the jam was back around the bend
in the creek and the ice seemed endless. There was also a nice
bend in the bridge too that had just developed before we arrived! Obert
Barstad came hiking from the other side of the bridge with his suitcase
in hand and everyone cheered him as he bravely - but rapidly - strolled
across the bridge. He had been across approximately three minutes
when the men who were watching the ice from up on a small hill yelled "Move
back! There she goes!!!" There was a very excited scramble
as the huge crowd on both sides moved back away from the bridge. Mom,
of course, was one of those nearest to the bridge. Anyway, the
ice started moving then and we all just stood and watched as it just
took that old bridge away down the stream with it. It seemed to go so
easily too!! That certainly was an odd sensation to see it go
and it was not a very gay feeling, that's for sure!. In fact I
noticed tears in quite a few of the spectator's eyes, and as for me,
I had goose pimples that seemed to be two inches high. And no
one had a movie of that event!!
We tore home then and got there just in time to see the bridge float
quietly by, and then on the curve in the creek just beyond Mom's house
it turned over. It is still there now.
The creek was rising rapidly now and was about four feet from the top
of the bank, which was about fifty feet from Mom's house! We heard
that it was quite bad up Curlew way and that a warning had been sent
down to Almont that morning, But we never dreamed that it could go over
the banks here. It never had!
Marge and Sig decided it was time they were going home and they were
going to stop again at the Art Feland bridge to see what happened when
the ice got there, so Torge and I decided to ride along on the
tractor and hook a ride back. It was only then that we decided
to take off our Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and put on jeans.
When we got to Art's bridge the whole crowd was already there. Eddie
was there too, having ridden horseback from Sig's place, and he said
the water was too high now for Marge and Sig to even try to cross. It
had come up to the stirrups on his saddle when he came through. After
waiting about half an hour the ice started to come and jam at Art's
bridge. It was just a pity to see and hear those chunks hit unmercifully
against the bridge. Art and Dolly were on the other side, their
side, just waiting and knowing what was going to happen. Art did
manage to rope a couple of planks from the Sharff bridge that floated
by, saying that he should get something out of the deal. Well,
the bridge finally went but not as majestically as the other one. Art
had managed to tie it on his side so when it broke loose it just floated
over to the side and stayed there. Marge, Torge and I then hitched
a ride back to town as Sig stayed to help the guys move some of Art's
railroad ties away from the water before they floated away.
When we got to the house Harry was terribly excited and glad to see
us as the water was backing up into the basement through the sewer faster
than Mom could carry it out! We all ran for the basement but met
Mom halfway up the steps with a bucket of water, and just about played
out. She had been carrying it out as fast as she could but couldn't
keep up. We organized a 'bucket brigade' with two of us scooping
and two carrying. I commented that it was interesting watching
the flood by the two bridges, but I never dreamed I would have to carry
it out of our basement!! (Sig had been sort of worried about that
sewer backing up but Mom had jokingly said that if it did, he'd just
have to sit on that hole in the basement to keep it from coming in!). After
we had hauled at least a hundred buckets of water out to our back yard,
Al Stegmier came by and rescued us by pounding a fence post into that
drain hole and plugging it. We were certainly thankful as we would
have soon played out!
All this time the creek is getting higher and higher. We kept
picking out marks on the creek bank and when we went by we would say," Now
when that rock there gets covered, it is really time to head for high
country", but soon that rock would be covered as would others that
we would pick out later. The old creek was rising and rising,
but Almont had never been flooded and we just didn't think it would
happen now.
About this time we got word that the sewer had backed up in the school
too and Mr. Shanks said there would be no school on Monday. We
knew then that conditions were really bad!
Next the basement at the cafe filled with water - from the sewer too
- and they were busy trying to pump it out. When the Willman boys
ordered Ed Reef to take all the electric motors out of the basement
of the store they all thought it was going just a little too far, but
it turned out to be a very smart move.
( Note: By this time, most of the buildings in Almont had septic
tanks and those situated beside the creek, such as Mom's, sometimes
had a drain from the basement floor directly out to the creek bank. When
water reached that level and above it of course flowed the other way
up into the basement! I am sure that some of the sewage was also
disposed of in the same manner - there was no EPA at that time!)
We and most of the townspeople sort of settled in for the night right
out by the creek bank, but Sig decided to go to bed so he would be rested,
just in case he had to be up later. (We sure were glad Marge and Sig
were in town with us!). Before Sig turned in we all took one last
tour of the flood situation. It was about ten P.M. then and this
little town was really humming! At that time the water was coming
up the ditch in front of Troviks, but that didn't seem to worry us as
much as the area by Everett's and by our house - both right beside the
creek. When Sig turned in it didn't seem like the water was rising
any more, but Torge and I kept strolling back and forth to downtown,
just to keep posted you know.
We tried to call Audrey and Leon to tell them about all this excitement
but the long distance lines were out of order and then on one of our
trips downtown Torge and I heard that Central had gotten a long distance
message and all she heard was that there was a special flood warning
for Almont, and then the line went dead! That made us excited
and we dashed home just busting to tell this news, and be darned if
everyone wasn't in bed! Marge wasn't sleeping though and had just
crawled into bed with her clothes on so she, Torge and I went out to
view the situation around town again. We took the Kaiser this
time and sure enough got stuck right by the Lutheran Church so had to
go the rest of the way on foot. We weren't alone though as most
everyone was walking around town that night. By now we found that
the water had come into the ditch on the other side of Troviks, was
across the street by the Catholic Church and had flooded the whole ball
diamond! We still didn't think the town would flood as the water
hadn't risen. We didn't realize it was just spreading out!
When we returned to the house we got a telephone call from Central telling
us there had been a warning from Glen Ullin that three more feet of
water were coming! That really did scare us and Mom got up and
we all went over to the Church and moved everything from the basement
upstairs. Then Mom and Marge went home and tried to get a little
sleep. Sig was still sleeping.
By now Donna had joined Torge and me and the three of us kept patrolling
the streets. At two A.M. we came home and made some cocoa and
toast but soon were on our way again. Each time we came back Marge
was anxious to hear the latest. The last time we walked around
we saw the first trickle of water run across the street by the Catholic
Church toward the other part of town. We walked on up to Troviks
and when we came back that trickle was a heavy stream and getting deeper!
We rushed home and told Marge this latest and then went downtown again. We
had just got to the Cafe - about three A.M. - when we heard the cars that
had been patrolling the streets begin to honk continuously. We
rushed out and were told this was the first alarm to wake the people
up and be ready to leave as the water was coming in fast! I can
still feel that panicky feeling I had!! We took out on the run
for home and Marge decided it was now time to wake Sig up! Mom
was still sleeping. Torge and I went with Thelma to take Mrs.
Oscar Olin over to Torgeson's and when we got back from there Marge
and Sig had gone out to look over the situation. Sig had already
pulled the Kaiser out of the mud.
Finally they came back and Sig said it was time that we left. Everyone
knew we couldn't go any further that the Almont Hill because water was
over the road at Oliver Andersons. We woke Mom up and told her
we would have to leave. We didn't want to scare here, and I don't
think we did, but she sure was surprised! Harry got up and dressed
but he was so nervous he said his stomach hurt him so bad he could hardly
stand it! Sig shoveled some dirt over the basement windows and
Marge, Torge and I carried some canned goods from the basement and we
were off! We didn't know what to take seeing as how we had never
been in a flood before, but we did take some blankets and a little food
- and Mom took her silver dollars!
In order to make more room in the car for some of the older people in
town who didn't have a ride, Torge and I rode on the tractor with Sig. That's
an experience I'll never forget! Leaving Almont at 4:00 AM on
a tractor because the town was flooding! It was so dark and the
flood water you could see coming into town looked so black and 'inky'. The
water by the Methodist Church was so high across the street that the
tractor barely made it through.
When we got up on the hill north of town we found all our neighbors
and the rest of our family. I had worn my good winter coat for
that ride on the tractor and it somehow got caught on a nice muddy wheel
and did it look a mess. I had to keep wearing it too or I would
have frozen - but I looked very much like the rest of the flood victims.
Well, there we were on top of Almont hill with nothing to do and nowhere
to go. It was just beginning to break daylight when Sig took the
tractor back into town to get anyone else who may have been left or
stayed in town. (He found Mrs. Otto Feland and Ragna but they refused
to leave as the felt they had to watch their basement). Torge
and I just wandered around half frozen - and that wet coat didn't help
much. Finally we crawled into Knutson's car with Donna. It
seemed so funny because at first all the cars were parked way up on
the hill where you couldn't even see Almont but gradually they all moved
down further so they were closer to the city. (That was Frances'
choice to use 'city' in reference to Almont!!)
A number of tractors had been used to evacuate and they were kept busy
all morning, going back to town on errands and getting food so everyone
could have breakfast at Alfred Olin's, the only house in town that wasn't
flooded. That was quite a job for a cook, feeding breakfast to
everyone in town in a little two room house. I really wasn't very
hungry but did want to dry off a bit so I wouldn't get double pneumonia,
so we just walked in the kitchen and someone slapped a couple pieces
of bread in our hands with a slab of butter and a hunk of meat. Then
someone else hands us a soup dish full of coffee - they had run out
of cups long before - and we were on our way thankful for what we could
get! We kept thinking how nice it would be if we could drive to
New Salem, but there was just no way we could get across that lake over
the road about two miles north.
It seemed like it was about noon but it was only about 7:30 AM when
someone said they didn't think the water was rising any more, and we
all breathed a sigh of relief. I had my portable radio along and
on the first newscast it was mentioned that Almont was flooded. And
sometime during all of this Marge, Sig and Vernon were down at our house
damming up the creek bank and saving the house from being flooded. Thank
goodness!!!
Finally about 9:30 AM when the sun had come out and everyone was beginning
to feel a little better, the first car was able to make in down from
New Salem, and soon there were quite a few showing up. The County
Commissioner came with his truck and wanted to take it downtown and
tour the flooded city. He said anyone could ride along so naturally
Torge and I were right there. We had a long tour of town but the
truck had to be towed by a tractor as the water was too high to drive
through. It was right up to the door at every business place and
over the door in the lower ones. We toured and toured until I
was getting anxious to get back to the good old 'hill', and tired. We
even got stuck while being pulled in one place behind the cream station
and water started coming into the cab of the truck. Torge and
I were standing in the truck box right beside Mr. Hyde and he was so
very nervous! The water by his place was so deep we couldn't even
drive over there so I am sure he was imagining what it was like inside! A
couple of high school boys were floating around on an old oil drum until
they fell off, and Don Olin had brought a boat from Glen Ullin and was
rowing around Main Street. Meanwhile Sig was busy putting back and forth
on his new Diesel tractor. It sure did get initiated.
Finally we got back to the hill and by then Mom and Harry had decided
to go to Glen Ullin with Mildred so Torge and I decided to go along. We
were both dead tired and I guess looked like it too. Everett and
Mildred had been among the first people to come in from the north that
morning on their way home from Dickinson - without being aware of the
flood in town - so were quite surprised. Everett drove us back
across the high water on the highway but didn't go any further. When
we got to Audrey's she had just heard about the flood and of course
was shocked and worried. I think we shocked her more by our appearance
when we showed up there - sun and wind burned and dirty! Leon
took one look and made a fast trip down town for three loaves of bread
and a big package of meat, thinking we were starved. I guess we were,
but Audrey did have a lot of bread around the house for a few days.
After we ate, Mom, Torge and I laid down and we sure did sleep too but
only for and hour and a half because then Leon came home at 3:30 and
we started out for 'flood city' again. Mom was kind of anxious
to get back.
The water had gone down a little by the time we got there but not a
whole lot. Sig took Audrey and Leon on a tractor tour while we
listed to two radio broadcasts which had been made right at Almont. The
both praised Almont for the fine spirit of cooperativeness, and said
that we should be set up as an example for other communities.
By the time evening came people were deciding when to spend the night. New
Salem people were ready to take everyone but a lot of folks, Mom and
Harry included, decided to stay at home, even though there was no power
in a lot of the homes. Sig and Marge stayed with them and Sig
got up once during the night just to make sure the creek wasn't getting
any higher. I could have stayed home too but Ervin Olin's asked
Torge and I to go to New Salem so we did. When we got there I
guess we must have looked like flood victims because the New Salem people
knew right away that were some of those' poor people from Almont'. We
made one more trip to Almont that night with Rusty so he could view
the flood.
That about finishes my story. We came home the next morning and
I never knew a flood could do so much damage - caved in basements all
over town! We still boil out drinking water and on Saturday we
found out that the water at school has bacteria in it too, and we had
been drinking it for a week! With the bridges out the only way
into town from the south is across a foot bridge by Everett's. It
is in constant use and there are usually a lot of cars parked right
on the other side.
And now we have more snow!!