Almont North Dakota
1906 Centennial 2006
THE ALMONT
FLOOD OF 1950
by Clayton Anderson
The flood
of 1950 was the worst in the history of Almont. The water had never
come up in the town before and this time it was two and three feet deep
in places. Many basements were filled with water and it was even on
the floors of some buildings.
It was on a Sunday afternoon, April 17, that
the creek began to come up. It kept rising all afternoon and evening, higher
and higher.
We heard that the Curlew creek was getting
pretty high, so my dad said, “Let’s drive over and see how
high it is.” We drove over near Albert Anderson’s but could
only get as far as where the old railroad track used to be. From there on
it was all water. The whole flat was covered with water. There was water
all around Albert’s house and buildings, and we could see someone
riding a horse between the house and barn. We heard that Albert’s
moved out and were staying at Pete Thorson’s. They also had to get
all the livestock our of the barns.
All the fields on the bottoms were covered
with water, and there was water all around the bridge.
From there we drove on down to Almont. The
water was very high, but wasn’t running into town yet. Someone told
us that they had just seen the bridge down at Scharff’s go out. Then
we heard the bridge near Art Feland’s was gone and also the one near
Charley Hoeger’s farm.
I don’t think anyone in Almont slept
much that night, because they were all watching the water.
My dad was in town till quite late, also watching
the water. When it began to come into the town, he thought of Mr. and Mrs.
Tobias Olson who are old and alone, and had no automobile to get out with.
He walked in water to get to their house and had to wake them up. He asked
if they didn[‘t want to come home with him for the night as it was
hare to tell how high the water would get before morning. So they came home
with Dad and stayed at our place that night. Tobias was quite worried for
his chickens. The next morning he wondered if he could get them out.
About 4:00 in the morning our phone rang.
It was Fred Ramsland who asked my dad, “Could you go to New Salem
and get help? Maybe you could get someone with a boat. The water is getting
so high we don’t know if everyone can get out.”
“Surely,” my dad said, “I will do what I can.”
He went to New Salem and no one was up yet,
so he had to get people out of bed. He got in contact with Mayor William
Behrbaum and Cal Dickey, the newspaper editor, and the late Chief of Police,
Ed Mumby. By six o’clock people from New Salem were coming to help,
in cars, in trucks and some brought boats. By the time they got to our place
which is three miles north of Almont, Hailstone Creek had come up so high
that it was running over the road for several hundred feet, stopping traffic
to and from Almont. Almont was really isolated.
People didn’t know if they dared to
drive across, fearing it might be washed out. Finally Arden Olson who had
lots of nerve said, “I’m going to try walking across.”
He walked across in the water probing around
with a stick before him to see if there were any holes. After he had walked
across he finally drove across in his truck. Then others began to drive
across too, but there was great danger of the road washing out at any time.
Later on in the day some sand bags were put on the road to keep it from
washing out.
About nine o’clock Robert Feland went
to New Salem and asked about securing quarters for the duration of the flood.
People of New Salem and the Red Cross made arrangements to house Almont
people in the auditorium. About the time they were going to take the first
women and children to New Salem it was noticed that the water level was
beginning to drop and a large majority of the people decided to “stick
it out” to see what was going to happen.
By night fall many had moved back into their homes. Some stayed at our
place again that night. Some went to Melvin Olson’s, some to Leo
Timpe’s and some to Clarence Nilles’.
A lot of damage to basements and wells was
done. Many basements were full of water and had to be pumped out, and many
of them caved in. Water in the wells was contaminated and unfit to drink
for a long time.
Water stood around the town for a long time.
There was no place for the water to run out, so a ditch was dug near the
Tavis Cafe to drain it out into the creek.
Almont all the bridges around Almont were taken out or damaged by the
floods. Our county commissioner, Herman Kaelberer, was a very busy man
that spring watching bridges and roads for washouts and trying to save
them.
The farmers along the creeks and lowlands
lost a lot of fences that year, and all their fields and hay ground on the
lowlands were flooded over and left with a lot of brushwood, bones, tin
cans, and silt, which had to be carried off. The flood made lots of work
for some people.
At the time of the flood Joe Olson, who then
lived on his farm west of Almont, was very sick with pneumonia and needed
the care of a doctor and medicine. Doctor Gaebe could not get there by automobile
because of the flood, so he was flown in in an airplane.
On the Sunday the creeks started to come up so high, a fellow almost
drowned in our creek. His horse did drown. It happened up the creek
from our place about three miles. Cap Gunder and Conitz of New Salem
were out riding horses. They crossed the creek in the morning and when
they came back the creek had come up pretty high. They had to get across,
so they started to swim their horses across. The horses were warm and
sweaty and one of them cramped up and could not swim. Conitz made it
across all right and threw a rope out to Cap who caught it and was pulled
into shore safely. But his horse went on down the creek. The next day
my brother said to me, “Lets go see if we can find that horse.”
We found him about a mile up the creek from
our place. He still had his saddle and bridle on. He was a very nice looking
horse, belonging to Bill Backson of New Salem who came and got his saddle
and bridle.
Mr. and Mrs. Morris Christianson probably
had about the biggest loss of anyone in Almont in the flood. They live in
a basement house which was filled with water to the ceiling. They managed
to get a few things out and put them on top of the house but most of their
belongings were left inside. The walls all had to be refinished and some
of the furniture was ruined. It was an awful mess to start cleaning up.
Morris also had quite a pile of lumber near
his place which floated all around town and some may have gone down the
creek too.
I think the lumber yard also lost cement that
got wet from flood waters.
We didn’t have school for a week after the flood. The sewer had
backed up into the school house, and then too the water was contaminated
and everything had to be cleaned up.
` One sight that was funny to see in Almont during the flood
was a tractor driving around the streets pulling a boat behind it.
After the bridge near Scharff’s was
washed out, the people from the south country who came to Almont to trade
had quite a time. They would drive up to the creek and then had to walk
across on a food bridge or hanging bridge that was built across the creek
near Grace Nelson’s. They would have to carry everything across. If
they wanted to drive to town in their cars or trucks they had to drive around
the hills through Nels Seim’ s pasture, were there is no road, just
across trails. Then down through Nels’ yard and across on the bridge
near Albert Andersons’s and then to Almont.
A new bridge was put in during the summer.
Everyone was very happy to have it in again as there really is a lot of
traffic over that bridge every day. We hope it will never go out again.
I hope Almont will never see another flood
like this one. A flood can ruin so much and make so much extra work for
people.