MEMORIES: MY SEVENTY-TWO YEARS IN THE ROMANTIC COUNTY
OF YUBA CALIFORNIA

BY W. T. Ellis

with an introduction by Richard Belcher

EUGENE: THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON

PRINTED BY JOHN HENRY NASH

1939

Copyright, 1939, by W. T. Ellis, Marysville

DEDICATED TO MY OLD HOME TOWN MARYSVILLE

CHAPTER LXI
Amusing Experience in a Federal Court

WHEN dredging for gold first commenced on the Yuba River, the first Company was the Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields. Later on John Martin and his associates acquired a large area downstream from the former mentioned Company's holdings for gold dredging operations and their Company was called the Marysville Dredging Company. The Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields had been operating for several years before the Marysville Dredging Company commenced to construct a dredge in the bottom lands near the south bank of the river and when this dredge was completed, its first operation was to dredge up a rock pile for some distance, directly north and south at right angles to the river channel. This was done with the idea of protecting the dredge from the onslaught of a swift current which might occur the following winter. This first protecting dredge embankment was approximately 2000 feet long and was situated about 3500 feet southwesterly from the lower extreme end of Daguerer Point Hill. The latter Company used good judgment in doing this as later on a flood occurred and this dredge wall deflected the heavy current to the north and protected the dredge from the force of the water but, unfortunately, the current which was deflected northerly, was directed against the north training wall, which had been previously constructed, causing a break in that training wall. This occurrence, together with the fact that before any gold dredging had commenced, we in Marysville had acquired easements for the Federal Government to conduct such operations as they saw fit in the then adopted plan to control the flow of debris and when the Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields commenced operations, they had asked for and obtained permission to operate dredgers on the lands covered with these easements, while the Marysville Dredging Company had declined to ask for and obtain similar permission from the Federal engineers, all of which resulted in unpleasant relations between the California Debris Commission and the Marysville Dredging Company. This finally culminated in a suit entitled United States VS. Marysville Dredging Company; it started in the spring of 1918 and finally came to trial in December 1919. The suit, as I remember it, was for damages done the north training wall, but the real motive was to compel the Marysville Dredging Company to recognize the authority of the Federal Government and obtain a permit to dredge from the War Department.

The suit was in the Federal Court before Judge Van Fleet, and Colonel Rand of the California Debris Commission had invited me to come down and listen in and possibly render some assistance.

After a presentation of the complaint about damages, etc., by the attorneys representing the Federal Government, the defense put on their main witness, Mr. C. E. Grunsky, a very well known and eminent engineer who had a national reputation and who had been one of the members of the Panama Canal Commission when that canal was first being constructed.

After Mr. Grunsky had given his name, statement of his experiences and qualifications as an expert engineer on hydraulics, etc., he proceeded to state that he was very familiar with the Yuba River, had many years previously conducted surveys in connection with flood and debris control, that he had since then visited the Yuba River area on several occasions, several years apart, making casual observations and that he considered that he could explain just what had happened and which had resulted in the break in the north training wall. He then proceeded to explain that the diversion of the entire Yuba River through the new “cut” at Daguerre Point had resulted in the flood flow being diverted against the north training wall and that, as a result, the new conditions which had been created by the Government's works had been the cause of the damage and that the Marysville Dredging Company was in no way responsible. Mr. Grunsky made a very impressive witness and the case was about to close with his testimony and it also appeared that the Federal Government was about to lose its case. I was sitting by the side of Colonel Rand and I leaned over and whispered to him that “Mr. Grunsky's testimony was all wrong,” and proceeded to explain to him why; he asked if I could prove my contentions and I said that I was quite sure I could do so and showed him a blue print, which I happened to have with me, which had been made by the other Dredger Company and which showed in detail, every area which had been dredged thus far and the different angles in which various dredgers had worked the ground over.

He then had his attorneys call me as a witness. After I had given my name and address, I was asked if I was a civil engineer and replied “no,” and there were smiles on the faces of the opposition; then when I was asked what my business was and replied that “I was a groceryman,” there was a general laugh and the Judge rapped for order. The next question was, did I believe that I could qualify as an expert on Yuba River conditions; I replied that I thought I could because of many years of very close and continuous observations of the changing conditions of that river. I was then asked if I had listened to the testimony of Mr. Grunsky and did I concur in his statements. To this I replied that it was no doubt rather presumptuous on my part to disagree or criticize the testimony on the part of such an eminent engineer as Mr. Grunsky but that he had made several mistakes in his testimony, and that they were unquestionably unintentional but were simply due to the fact that he had only visited the Yuba River area several times in a good many years; and that of all the rivers of the world, the Yuba River was one which made many changes in channel location and channel conditions every year, that it had many channels and sometimes the main channel would change its location a half mile or more within a few hours; that the original river was only about 500 feet in width, that debris finally made it about three miles in width, that it flowed now on an elevated plateau, with its bed in many places higher than the farming ground on the opposite side of the levees and that it had been my custom for many years to go down the river in a canvas boat from Daguerre Point to Marysville every spring and make observations of the changed conditions which had been made the previous winter season, etc.

Judge Van Fleet asked some questions about the various channels and their many changes and asked for more explanation and I replied that possibly I could better bring out the point I was endeavoring to explain if he would permit me to tell a “story”; the Judge stated that it was not the custom of having “stories” brought out in testimony in his court but if the story I wanted to tell was apropos to the subject, that I would be permitted to tell the story. I then said “that once upon a time, an old lady had decided to read Webster's unabridged dictionary all through, from beginning to end and when she had completed her task, she was asked if it had been interesting; she replied, that it had been exceedingly interesting to her, the only trouble was, that the subject changed quite often.” So, I said, the same thing applies to the Yuba River, the channels and their conditions “change quite often” and only constant observations, such as I have been in the habit of making for many years, permits of necessary knowledge to have definite information as to that river's eccentricities and changes and which is impossible by casual observations in a few years, as testified to by Mr. Grunsky.

I was then asked if I had any more testimony to offer and I replied that I wanted to explain one vital error Mr. Grunsky had made when he had testified that the flood waters on January 16, 1909 and which he testified had been diverted through the new Government “cut” at Daguerre Point was responsible for the damage done to the north training wall in that certain year; that for an actual fact, the “cut” in Daguerre Point was not opened until September of the following year (1910); that this flood of 1909 had been in its usual old main channel on the south side of Daguerre Point during that certain freshet; that these flood waters had been directed against the new north and south dredge wall which had been constructed by the Marysville Dredging Company and that that wall had deflected the river current against the north training wall and that the construction of this protecting cobble wall by the Marysville Dredging Company had been the cause of the damage. The Federal Attorney then said to the opposing counsel, “Take the witness,” but they asked no questions; the case was closed. On my way out, Colonel Rand said to me, “Well, the groceryman won the suit for us.” Mr. Grunsky came up to me--I had been well acquainted with him for many years--and said, “Well Mr. Ellis, I guess your are right, I haven't been visiting the Old Yuba River often enough in the past to know just what has been going on up there.”

No decision was ever rendered in the case, however, as shortly after, the Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields bought out the Marysville Dredging Company's interests and arranged for an extension of the south training wall and the suit, at the request of the Federal Government in 1923, was dismissed.

CHAPTER LXII
The Great Floods of the Winter of 1861-62

THE earliest Indian tradition of a great flood in the Sacramento Valley was in 1805.

While this is only a tradition, the fact remains that the records obtained by the Los Angeles Water District, from records kept by the Padres in the various old Missions in Southern California, showed that there were heavy floods during that year in Southern California, which no doubt also prevailed in Northern California as well.

Another large flood is reported to have occurred in the winter of 1825-26. This is on the authority of a well known trapper and guide by the name of Indian Pete and also corresponds with the records of the padres, as mentioned above.

When the whites arrived, authentic records of a large flood are had, this flood being in the winter of 1849-50, at which time, both the Yuba and Feather Rivers were in heavy flood and the lower and westerly portion of the site of Marysville was inundated. In the winter of 1852-53, there were four floods when Marysville was then a “going concern” and the old City Directories tell of a Grand Ball which was scheduled to take place in the three story brick Merchants Hotel, situated at about F and First Streets, near the bank of the Yuba River, which then was much lower than the D Street area and “the water surrounded the hotel and was several feet deep on the first floor. Many young men and their ladies had to obtain boats to reach the hotel from other parts of town and attend the festivities on a New Year's evening; they made merry on the second floor of the hotel.”

On March 25, 1859 another flood occurred and again this hotel was in the flooded area, “the water being about eight inches higher than it was five years previous” and again, boats were necessary to reach the hotel.

Then came the “great floods” in the winter of 1861-62, when a still higher flood plane was established, “several large buildings were undermined, among them being this same Merchants Hotel; the floors of the hotel fell through to the basement, but fortunately, most of the inmates had left the hotel this time but some few had remained and four were injured but no one killed.” My father told me that he and my mother were living in this hotel and left the hotel a short time before the floors gave way. This flood (there were three in all, one in the latter part of December, the other two being in January), is conceded by all State and Federal authorities to have been the greatest discharge of water in the Sacramento ever known, much greater than the floods which have occurred since then, including the “big flood” of 1907.

I have in my possession a book which was printed in 1863 by H. H. Bancroft & Company of San Francisco (now Bancroft-Whitney Co.). Some years ago this book was shown them and they had no record of ever having published the book; inquiries of the State Library at Sacramento disclosed that they had no copy of this book, in fact I believe that it is the only one in existence.

This book is “an official register and business directory of the Pacific States” but in it are a number of pages of the “Notabilia of the floods of 1861-62,” written by Thomas Rowlandson, F.G.S.L. on the “meterology of the United States and territories on the Pacific.” I quote herewith, some of the comments made by him of that flood, which he made an investigation of, shortly after these floods had subsided. His explorations commenced at San Francisco, northerly through the State, then into Oregon, then through Washington to the Canadian line; he then reversed his travels and made his investigations south of San Francisco to the Mexican line. From his statements, there were three heavy storms between December 9, 1861 and January 10, 1862, each extending from the Canadian to the Mexican borders, each preceded by heavy snowstorms, which reached to the floor of the valleys and each followed by very heavy rainfalls, which brought down the snows before they had packed.

“Mr. Thomas, who with his brother lost two saw mills, in the foothills above Visalia, stated that the water in many of the ravines rose to a perpendicular height of seventy feet, and that hundreds of immense pines, being uprooted, were all ground up fine by the time they reached the plains. A huge boiler from one of their mills was carried many miles and most of the massive iron works have never been seen since.”

Referring to excessive rainfall, Mr. Rowlandson refers to the precipitation in the Sierra Nevadas “from Mariposa to the Tejon Pass” and states, “Unfortunately, no record has ever been kept of the rainfall in this region; in some parts it must have been enormous, probably more than 200 inches perpendicular for the entire wet season of six months.”

“I learned that there was a tradition existing among the Indians, that during one year not a drop of rain fell in central California, whilst the converse of this is also reported, namely that heavier rains and floods than have been witnessed during 1861-62, have been known. The truth of the latter is greatly corroborated by the fact, that marks exist on trees, growing in the San Joaquin Valley, showing that a former flood had been fully six feet higher. From the bank at Bradford's Ford on the Smith River, the ground has a gradual rise in a northerly direction, and was overflowed a mile or more; from this high water mark, and a quarter of a mile in the same direction, are several drift logs, evidently deposited by a former and still higher flood. The Indians have it that this former flood occurred about forty years since, possibly contemporaneous with that, the evidences of which are still to be witnessed in the San Joaquin Valley.”

“According to the rain-gauge kept by Dr. Ayers, near Stockton and Clay Streets in San Francisco, for the season of 1861-62, the fall amounted to 40.674 inches; the one kept by Mr. Tennant indicated 49.27 inches and the one observed by Dr. Logan, at Sacramento, showed 35.549 inches for the same period; while at Fort Gaston, Hoopa Valley, Klamath County, according to the published statement of Dr. C. A. Kirkpatrick, the fall from September 1861 to June 18, 1862 amounted to 129.16 inches. Mr. Richy, from observations made four miles west of the Sierra Nevada, on the Big Tree Road, the total fall of snow from November 11, 1861 to March 23, 1862 was 50 feet 2 inches.”

“Dr. Logan remarks, that, on the occasion of the first inundation at Sacramento, on December 7, 1861, it commenced raining at 12 M., and ended at 9 A.M. of the 9th, amount in inches, 2.57; the flood commenced at 10 A.M. of 9th December, and at 10 P.M. had reached 2 feet 6 inches in my office; by daylight it had all subsided. At the second inundation, on January 5, 1862, rain commenced at 10 A.M. and ended 1:30 A.M. on the 6th; during that interval there fell 2.69 inches. On January 8th, rain commenced at 11 A.M. and ended at 7 A.M. on the 10th, between which periods there fell 2.84 inches. On January 10th the flood reached my floor at 2 P.M. and at 8 P.M. came to a stand at 3 feet 11 inches above my floor. The Sacramento River rose during this night to 24 feet above low water mark; on the 14th, the water had receded from my floor.”

“There are two circumstances, which will most invariably be found the accompaniments of extremely heavy floods, namely, that of occurring early in the season, previous to the early fallen snow on the mountains having become hardened and compact--in the former state being more easily percolated, and consequently dissolved by warm rains, which occurred; and secondly, the direction of the strong winds being continuous for some time from the southeast to northwest, by which means the tidal waters of the Bay of San Francisco become elevated beyond their normal condition, and to that extent impede the outflow. At the former flood, the former cause was the chief one; at the second one, each cause had its influence.”

“The inundation thus caused, extended over probably more than six million acres, the remedy for which evil can only be sought in mountain impoundage, for which the physical character of the district surrounding the great central valleys affords singularly great facilities, and in positions remarkably favorable for the utilization of the proposed imprisoned waters for mining, manufacturing and irrigation purposes, which, if placed under proper regulations, and combined with a judicious improvement of the lower Sacramento and San Joaquin, their rivers could, at no great expense, be made susceptible of floating large ocean going steamers to Sacramento and Stockton. The arrangements made for leveeing the swamp lands under the existing law, may be sufficiently effective during small floods, but should the same policy be pursued over any considerable area, it will be found to aggravate the evil and the first large rainfall will demonstrate its insufficiency.”

“Among other curious phenomena connected with the last floods, was the fact that of considerable breadths of tule floating in the bay, on the surface of which there was generally found a number of land snakes, some of which floated into the Pacific, others got landed under the wharves, and for a long time after the floods had in a great measure subsided, numerous snakes were to be found about the wharves of San Francisco.”

“Most singular of all, however, was the fact that bay fishermen frequently caught fresh-water fish in the bay for from two to three months, the surface portion of entire waters of the Bay of San Francisco consisted of fresh water, to the depth of eighteen to twenty-four inches. Dr. W. O. Ayers gave to the California Academy eight varieties of fish so found.”

“The oysters placed on oyster-beds fattened and died; mussels became fresh and flavorless.”

“AT THE GOLDEN GATE, FOR NEARLY A FORTNIGHT, THE STREAM ON THE SURFACE WAS CONTINUOUSLY FLOWING TOWARDS THE PACIFIC, COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF FRESH WATER, THE TIDE NOT AFFECTING THE SURFACE FLOW, AND THE WATER WAS BRACKISH AT THE FARALLONE ISLANDS.”

In confirmation of the statements made by Mr. Rowlandson in this book, published in 1863, the following may be of interest:
From the Sacramento Union, December 10, 1861.
“Another calamity has overtaken our City--a destructive flood--it came with the rapidity of a hurricane--in a few hours the whole City was under water--the damage has been great--thousands are houseless while hundreds are in second stories in this City of 15,000 inhabitants--many houses, two story high were swept and dashed to fragments on their way to Sutterville--at 10:00 o'clock, the water had receded two inches.”

From the Sacramento Union, December 24, 1861.
“The Sacramento River continued to rise during Tuesday night and is now three inches higher than the previous raise.

From the Sacramento Union, January 7, 1862.
“The Sierra on the East and the Coast Range on the west are covered with snow to the foothills. The Red Bluff steamer, which arrived yesterday, brings word that the snow at that point fell eight inches deep. In Yolo County, near the foothills, the snow is twelve inches deep. Four inches of rain fell in San Francisco between 12 o'clock Saturday night and 9 o'clock Monday morning.”

From the Alta California, January 12, 1862.
“Sacramento is again deluged and worse than ever; the flood was twenty inches higher than ever before--the entire City is under water and boats are used in an attempt to aid people--about 9 o'clock the deluge was at a standstill--rain fell in torrents and the wind blew almost a hurricane;--at 2 o'clock the water was again rising--the water came from the American River, but the height of the Sacramento prevented the water from running off, the latter stream was nearly 24 feet above low water mark.”

From the Alta California, January 18, 1862.
“For some days there has been no flood coming in through the Heads (Golden Gate) but the ebb continues during the entire twenty-four hours;--the immense amount of water coming down from the interior being of less specific gravity of salt water, has entirely covered the surface of the harbor and continues to flow out to sea in an uninterrupted current. A rain gauge, accurately kept and registered by Dr. Snell of Sonora, Tuolumne County, shows that from the 11th day of November, 1861 to the fourteenth day of January, 1862, seventy-two inches of water fell at that place.”

From the Marysville Express, January 18, 1862.
“The rain storm continued to pour down on Friday--persons who arrived yesterday from the mountains, inform us that they traveled all the day in a drenching warm rain, experiencing no cold or chilly effects, until they had passed the foothills and got on the plains back of Marysville; snow was two and a half feet deep at La Porte on Thursday and a second storm was coming down with great violence when our informants left, about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. When about eight miles below La Porte at Yankee's Nest, the storm changed to rain, the weather moderating considerably. The rain fell at Strawberry Valley, the New York House and all along the road from the former place to this City, during Thursday night and yesterday and it is a safe supposition that the rain storm extended to La Porte.”

From the Alta California, January 23, 1862.
“Referring to lives lost--This record must embrace white men alone, for Chinese have been lost by the hundreds. On the Yuba alone, there were fifty; in Placer County, one hundred and fifty; according to the Courier, intelligent Chinamen say the number of their countrymen destroyed in the State by the December floods alone was about 500.”

From the Sacramento Union, January 24, 1862.
“The members and attaches of the Legislature left Sacramento yesterday, with all the furniture and appointments appertaining to it, and took passage for San Francisco. The water continued to rise during Sunday night and until 3 o'clock yesterday morning. At that hour it was five inches above that of December 9th and within fifteen inches of January 10th.”

From the Alta California, January 25, 1862.
“The inundation of Stockton is complete--it is standing in the City over the highest grade, varying in depth from twelve to eighteen inches; the flood is attributed to the back water from the river with no show of a decrease. In Wells Fargo Express Company's office it was nineteen and one half inches deep at noon. The Webber House, which escaped previous flooding, has from ten to twelve inches on the ground floor. All the business houses on El Dorado Street, which escaped previous injury from the waters, are now accommodated with about a foot.”

(Note by the Author.)

In view of long later developments, Mr. Rowlandson was “born 70 years too soon”; his vision of impounding waters in the mountains has since been adopted by the State's Water Conservation proposed plans, covering the entire State. When Mr. Rowlandson made his suggestions of the possibility of “large ocean going steamers navigating to Stockton and particularly Sacramento, he did not realize what detrimental effects hydraulic mining was later going to have on the Sacramento River and its tributaries; when he commented on the small levees, which were then beginning to be constructed to reclaim some of the swamp lands, he never realized that eventually all the islands in the San Joaquin Valley and the vast overflow areas of the Sacramento Valley, would be reclaimed with massive levee systems, leaving only by-passes to carry excess flood waters of the rivers. When this flood of 1861-62 occurred, there were no levees in either of the two great valleys, the floods had an unobstructed flow to the ocean, while now, these areas are cluttered up with reclamation districts, the river channels have been filled with debis, Suisun and San Pablo bays are mud flats as compared with their original conditions; what effect these changes will have, when at some future time, the great floods of 1861-62 again occur (which some day they will), remains to be seen; engineers may make calming prognostications but only the flood itself will give the correct answer. I do not want to pose as an alarmist, but I am rather fearful of the correct answer. I will make this statement however, and this statement is as follows, THAT IF EVER A SUPER MAXIMUM FLOOD OCCURS IN THE FUTURE, GREAT ENOUGH TO DROWN OUT ALL THE SACRAMENTO AND SAN JOAQUIN VALLEYS, THAT AFTER THAT FLOOD HAS SUBSIDED, IT WILL BE ASCERTAINED THAT THERE WERE TWO DRY SPOTS, AND THOSE TWO DRY SPOTS WERE MARYSVILLE AND THE SUTTER BUTTES.

I have put in a lifetime of effort to carry out that idea, as regards Marysville; it has taken much time, study and effort but with only two more additional improvements I have in mind for the Marysville levee system, which I hope to have completed before long, then when these additional improvements are completed, I will consider, in my judgment, that Marysville has a sufficiently strong and fool-proof levee system to make it immune to any future floods; a lifelong job will have been completed and I will be willing “to step out of the picture.” Proper care and necessary maintenance will of course be important and in another chapter I will make recommendations.

The following comparisons of rainfall records at Nevada City, between this flood of the winter of 1861-62 and the large flood of the winter of 1906-07 may be of interest.

In the winter of 1861-62, rainfall at Nevada City was a total of 115 inches.
In the winter of 1906-07, rainfall at Nevada City was a total of 67.93 inches.
On December 8, 1861, the rainfall at Nevada City in 24 hours was 6.00 inches.

The above are taken from the Nevada City Transcript files, a newspaper still being published in that City, and shows that, what we in late years, term “the great flood of 1907,” was really not to be compared with the greater floods of the winter of 1861-62 and that this latter flood was also exceeded at one time, if the Indian legends and Mr. Rowlandson's observations of “marks on trees” and “drift logs” are correct.

CHAPTER LXIII
Flood of 1875

I WAS only nine years old when this flood occurred but I have a very vivid recollection of looking out of the second story of my father's home at 8th and D Streets, then close to the bank of the present lake and watching the rush of waters down that waterway, carrying with it some barns, small houses, several cows and particularly a side of a barn, with a lot of chickens on it, the roosters doing a lot of excited crowing. I remember also that as soon as the water had subsided from the first floor, leaving about two inches of muddy slime on the floors and carpets, that notwithstanding I had been cautioned not to go downstairs, my curiosity got the better of me and when I reached the lower floor, my feet slipped from under me and I rolled over into this slime and received a spanking for my disregard of instructions.

The levee at that time, took in a larger territory on the north and the west side of town; the two cemeteries at that time were enclosed in the levee and on the west, the levee then was on M Street, in place of K Street, as at present. The first break occurred where the levee crossed over the head of the slough inlet, just about two blocks north of our present County Hospital, and the old levee and this old break are still in evidence there today. After this break occurred, the water still rose until it ran over the entire levee crown. After the town was flooded, the levee on the south was cut at First and Orange Streets, to permit the flood waters to drain out of town. The east levee of town at that time was on Covillaud Street and did not include the territory where the Cheim airport is now situated.

The flood waters were heavily charged with hydraulic mining debris and for many years afterwards, a yellow line on various buildings showed how high the flood had reached but these marks have gradually been painted out or removed by the elements so that there are at present, only two places in town that I know of, which still show distinctly the yellow line of the flood height. One is the one story brick residence belonging to Charles P. Miles, situated at 723 B Street, where the water was 5 feet deep; the other, is the Raish one story brick residence, situated at 724 D Street, where the yellow mark is very distinct on the north wall of the house and where the water was 4 feet 9 inches deep. The flood was six inches deep on the floor of the Court House. On the low land areas, west of F Street, the water was from ten to twelve feet deep (since then, all that area was filled and raised about five feet). At this flood the water reached 15 feet 2 inches on the D Street gauge.

Mayor Hawley immediately arranged for a Citizen's Relief Committee and an Executive Committee was appointed consisting of W. T. Ellis, J. H. Jewett, N. D. Rideout and A. J. Batchelder, with their headquarters at the W. T. Ellis store. The Steamer Flora came up two days later from Sacramento, with Mayor Green and others, with a large supply of food stuffs; later, other steamers arrived from San Francisco with large donations of food stuffs, blankets, bedding, etc., which were badly wanted by hundreds of citizens; large cash donations were received from San Francisco banks and business houses. Only one life was lost in the flood but the property damage was very heavy. In the Appeal, under date of January 26th is given a list of the heavy losers by the flood, W. T. Ellis being at the head of the list with a loss of $25,000 and an additional loss of $20,000 for the firm of Trayner & Ellis, who were operating a flour mill situated at about F and 2nd streets. This mill was never operated again and in later years my father told me his loss from the flood was about $45,000. As soon as the waters had receded from D Street, the first business houses to open for business were the saloons and they did a thriving business; my father “took that day off,” going from saloon to saloon, treating the crowds in each saloon; that is the first and only time I ever heard of him “taking the count” from liquor; the next day he got busy on relief matters and at the same time, having a large number of men at work cleaning out the damaged goods in the store.

After the flood everyone conceded that before another winter season arrived, something should be done to protect the City against a possible flood the next winter.

The City Council engaged an engineer to make a survey and suggest a plan for a new location, particularly on the west and north side of the City and to take in more territory on the east. This was done, the new levee on the west being located on K Street in place of on M Street as formerly.

On March 15th the City Council adopted the new location and on March 18th, bids for doing the work were advertised for. On April 26th, bids were opened on sixteen sections of the proposed work, the bids on different sections varying from 14 1/2c to 35c per cubic yard, and the total of the lowest bids was $68,751.05. The successful bidders were A. J. Binney, E. Parrish, William Hilderbrand, James Trayner, Jacob Schimpf, William Elliott and McGrath & Maguire.

The large brick culvert, to be under the new levee at E and 15th Streets was let to James B. McDonald. The successful bidders were notified that they would have to accept scrip in payment until such time as money could be obtained by taxes. Other work followed and before the end of that year, there was expended $97,860.66 on the main seven miles of City levee and an additional $10,361.25 on the Browns Valley Grade levee. I was only nine years old at that time but I remember that my father took a great interest in this levee work and almost every day he would drive out with his horse and buggy and watch progress and I almost always accompanied him on these trips.

CHAPTER LXIV
Flood of 1881

AFTER the flood of 1875, there occurred a flood on March 6th, 1879 when the river reached 15 feet, 11 inches, or nine inches higher than the previous flood.

Again, on April 22nd, 1880, there was another flood with a still higher reading of 16 feet, 2 inches on the gauge. This was followed the following year with the 1881 flood which occurred on February 4th and when the river made a new and much higher mark of 18 feet, 2 inches on the gauge. A gopher hole in the levee, situated directly behind the old Greely home, in the curve of the levee at 6th and Yuba Streets, nearly resulted in a break in the levee. From Yuba Square, easterly for almost a mile, the water ran over the top of the levee in a thin sheet and hundreds of citizens worked hard to stop the overflow and succeeded; it was a narrow escape. This was a “double” flood because three days previous, the river had reached the 17 foot, 7 inch mark, it then fell about 18 inches, and a continuation of the storm, brought the river back to the higher mark of 18 feet, 2 inches. At that time, there was a graveled road on the top of this levee, from Yuba Square to its intersection with 12th Street; that season, the levee was raised on top of this elevated road to 12th Street and from there easterly, a slab and higher levee were constructed from 12th Street to the east City limits, and beyond.

That year and the next following four years, $149,947.34 was expended on various portions of the City's levee system for improvements.

CHAPTER LXV
Flood of 1904

I HAD been President of the Levee Commission for four years when this flood reached here on February 25th, and made another new high water mark at midnight of 20 feet on the gauge; this was also a “double flood,” and when I use the term “double flood,” I mean that there were two heavy storms in the mountains, a few days apart, producing two river peaks, also a few days apart; for example, the following will demonstrate two peaks, one on February 16th and the other, a higher peak on February 25th.

GAUGE READINGS, D STREET BRIDGE, IN 1904

February 16th, 18 ft. 6 in. (first peak).
February 17th, 18 ft. 4 in.
February 18th, 16 ft. 4 in.
February 19th, 14 ft. 8 in.
February 20th, 13 ft. 10 in.
February 21st, 13 ft. 4 in.
February 22nd, 15 ft. 0 in.
February 23rd, 19 ft. 0 in. (second raise commences).
February 24th, 18 ft. 3 in.
February 25th, 20 ft. 0 in. (second peak, midnight).
February 26th, 19 ft. 0 in.
February 27th, 18 ft. 6 in.

About 11:00 P.M. of the 25th, our levee foreman reported that apparently the flood would reach the crown of the levee, about two miles east of the present airport; we immediately obtained several teams with wagons, helped ourselves to lumber at the Union Lumber Company yard, and with a lot of sacks, shovels, stakes and men, within about a couple of hours, had raised the levee about sixteen inches for a distance of about 1500 feet, with boards, set on edge and backed up with stakes and bags of earth; the water finally reached about six inches on these boards at that low place. There was no excitement as no one knew what was or had been done until the following morning, by which time the flood had commenced to subside. That summer, the Levee Commission decided to raise about six miles of this levee, making it four feet higher. We had plans and estimates made, advertised for bids and were disappointed in receiving no bids. At that time, there were two contractors in town who did levee construction; they “got their heads together,” believing that if they did not put in a bid we would come to them and say “please help us out” and get a high figure. I did go to them, as they expected and they wanted 60c per cubic yard; I told them it was a “hold up”; they asked “well what are you going to do about it”; I replied that I would ask the Commission to let me do the work by day labor. One of them said, “Young Bill, you are going to learn a hell of a lot, if you do.” On June 7th, at a meeting of the Commission, a Resolution was adopted, “that W. T. Ellis, Jr., was authorized to have the work done by day labor or otherwise as he might deem fit.” I first took the matter up with the Board of Supervisors and obtained a donation of $5,000 as the proposed work would be a protection to the County road. There happened to be an outside contracting firm named Carney Bros. near here, who were in financial troubles; I arranged to lease from them a lot of their mules, scrapers and other equipment, purchased a lot of new scrapers, hired more horses, set up a camp, after I had arranged for material for the levee from adjacent land owners, paying them $100 per acre for the use of the land, the soil being only three or four feet deep to the hardpan, the land was practically worthless after we had finished with it. Not wanting to be bothered with the cookhouse, tent and equipment (which we also leased from Carney Bros.) I arranged with I.M. Kemp, wife and daughter to run same, paying them a total salary of $110 per month, with a promised bonus of $15 per month, if they kept the cost of the meals per man, 59¢ per day. They earned this bonus, when the work was finished a few months later, when it was ascertained that the cost of the meals was $.438 per day. Regular laborers were paid $1.50 to $1.85 per day and dumpers, loaders being paid from $1.75 to $2.10 per day, board and lodging being furnished free. Horses were hired at the rate of 50¢ for such days as they were worked; our records showed that a horse averaged 18 3/4 pounds of rolled barley and 30 pounds of hay, the total cost for the feeding and care of a horse being 37¢ per day.

I wanted a foreman, and at that time, there was a man named Obe Lebourveau, who had a lot of experience in that line but who was then working as foreman in the gas plant of the P.G. & E. Co. I obtained permission of that Company to let him have a “vacation” and work for me, with the promise that he would have his job back when our levee work was completed. They agreed and Lebourveau took the job, being paid $4 per day plus his board and lodging. For a timekeeper, I employed S. L. Williams, he being paid $60 per month, plus his board and lodging. When the job was completed, we had expended the following:

32 new scrapers,                             $1,382.22
Construction and repairs,                      916.59
Boarding house account,                    3,192.93
Horse feed,                                       3,457.40
Labor account,                                11,764.63
Horse hire account,                           4,038.38
Plow rent account,                                 77.75
Scraper rent account,                             37.24
Rent of camp outfit,                              255.00
Rent of wagons,                                     13.00
Surveying, by W. F. Peck,                   102.25
Land purchased,                               2,336.92
Sundries a/c,                                          12.80
Additional work afterwards, on
old Citizen's levee, labor, board, etc. etc.
                                                        1,132.50
         Total                                    $28,719.71

The work was performed in three sections, making necessary the moving of the camp site.

First section was about two miles east of east boundary of town.
Second section was at east boundary of town.
Third section was back of the old Buckeye Mill, on Yuba Street.

First section cost,                      $ .409 per cubic yard.
Second section cost,                 $ .253 per cubic yard.
Third section cost,                    $ .343 per cubic yard.

About seventy-five per cent of the material was obtained on the land side of the levee, the haul, crossing the county road and dumping the material on the top and water side of the levee was about 500 feet, making about 1000 feet for each load, which was moved with Fresno scrapers, with four horses and one driver. The climb up to and over the road and to the top of the levee being about 17 feet, it was slow and tiresome work on both men and horses and, unfortunately, it happened to be a particularly hot summer. I put in most of my time, watching the job and to prevent loitering, and “Young Bill” had the laugh on the two contractors who had tried to “stand us up”; they never tried it on us again; it was the first and last time I ever ran actual construction work on a levee.

How different is such work done these days with heavy machinery, a diesel engine caterpillar, drawing a Le Tourneau scraper, hauling 24 cubic yards at a load, with only one man as driver. Where one man is now employed, we used to employ about twenty. The development of machinery to reduce costs and save labor resulted in the loss of lots of employment; on the other hand, it is claimed that the perfection of machinery, makes possible a larger output of products and in that way, makes for more employment; it is a debatable subject but in any event, no one can prevent or stand in the way of “progress.”

CHAPTER LXVI
Flood of 1907

SOME YEARS previous to the flood of 1904, I had established a gauge on the Yuba River at Alabama Bar, where a man by the name of A. L. Peterson had been living for quite a number of years in a small cabin. A telephone was placed at his cabin and a private line run up the mountain to Clipper, about two miles distant, to the store operated there by W. J. Schultz. A gauge was erected at Alabama Bar and when previous floods occurred, we had arranged to pay Peterson to telephone the gauge readings every two hours to Mr. Schultz and the latter would relay this information to my office over the main phone line. This gave us about twenty-four hours advance notice what we might expect here or about twelve hours advance notice, when the water was at a standstill at Alabama Bar, what we were quite sure to expect here at Marysville.

I also had established a gauge in the backyard of the Rideout Bank at Oroville, at the river bank, and my friend L. L. Green, cashier of the Bank always kept me advised by phone of gauge readings. For several years, I had kept records of all flood readings on these gauges of both large and small floods and so had established a fairly good system of data as to what might be expected here at Marysville, in advance of the flood peak.

We really had two floods, forty-five days apart, in 1907. The first storm commenced on January 23rd and it rained steadily to February 3rd; the rivers commenced to rise rapidly on January 31st, the gauge here indicating again a new high water mark of 22 feet 3 inches at midnight of February 1st and remained at that height 'till 2:00 P.M. of the following day, when the rivers began falling. As far as Marysville was concerned, there was no cause for alarm.

The second storm commenced on March 4th and it rained until the 24th with the exception of five days; there were heavy snows in the mountains and snow covered the entire valley; the weather moderated and the river, which had been registering about 13 feet for twelve days, commenced to rise quite rapidly. I was constantly getting reports from Alabama Bar and Oroville and when Alabama Bar phoned in that the river was on a rampage and showed signs of exceeding all previous high water marks, having then reached previous high water mark and still rapidly rising, I immediately had a conference with my father and J. C. White, the two other Levee Commissioners and recommended that all the low portion of the Yuba River levee, between the foot of B Street on the east, to the foot of J Street, be sacked. They agreed, gangs of men were immediately placed at work filling sacks of sand and earth, which were taken to the levee top and a double row of sacks, four sacks high in most places, were placed in position. The river at that time registered 19 feet (March 18th) but at 3:00 A.M. of the following day the Yuba reached the all high water mark of 23 feet 4 inches, and the river was at several places touching the second and third sacks of the row of sacks we had placed on the levee the day before. But what happened later on our north levee, was the extremely interesting thing.

For the Feather River, I had been depending on Mr. Green at Oroville for information; he was calling me on phone every two hours, letting me know the gauge reading; then he called up and said a large log had come down the river and knocked over the gauge; still later on, he phoned that the water was still rising and it apparently was going to get in the Bank and he was going to open up the vault and get out documents, etc. and added, that he thought the river would soon be at a standstill; I heard no more from him and found out afterwards that a tree had blown down and put the telephone line out of commission. From the information I had received from him, I figured that the crest would be against our north levee at about 10:00 P.M. and about that time, the flood appeared to be rising very slowly; everything seemed safe, many citizens went to their homes and to bed. At 11:00 P.M. one of my men at the levee cabin at the County Hospital, phoned that the water had commenced to rise rapidly; believing that he was joking, I “called him down” and hung up the phone; a few minutes later the man in the levee cabin at the cemetery phoned me the same thing; I immediately called up the man in the cabin on the northwest levee to ascertain the truth and he said that he was just about to call me and let me know that the water was rising rapidly; I did not know then but ascertained afterwards, that the river had broken through the District No. 10 levees, the water soon filled the District, rushed southeasterly, overflowing the new back levee, just previously built by the Western Pacific Railroad, dumping the railroad tracks off the embankment and the Honcut Creek had broken its levee on the east, these waters then flowing to the south to our north levee and endeavoring to escape via Simmerly Slough to the river again. I found afterwards also of the remarkably high average sustained flood discharge for over four days on the Feather River at Oroville and above, in fact, the “flood wave” of that flood in the Sacramento Valley was 200 miles in length, with a mean four day average discharge of 554,700 second feet.

Immediately upon receiving the news about the water on our north levee, and being satisfied that a great emergency existed, I turned to Mayor G. W. Hall, who had been staying by my side and said, “Bill, we have got to work fast and perhaps do some high handed things,” to which he replied, “Go the limit and I'll back you.” Besides the men we had patrolling the levees, I had in reserve in my office, about thirty men for an emergency and there were also several citizens and business men. These latter, I instructed to wake up citizens whom they thought would go out and work on the levee; I sent other men to hustle out workmen who would like a job and to come to my office at once; other men I sent to the livery stables and told them to have livery rigs sent to my office; I got in touch with the Sheriff and when he told me he had about fifteen petty offenders in the County Jail, I told him I would send rigs to the jail and take these men to the north levee, which he agreed to do. My father always kept on hand, for just such an emergency, several thousand new grain bags; these I had loaded on wagons and sent to the levee. In about three hours, there were several hundred men on that levee, a great many of them being business men, clerks, etc. and they certainly did wonderful work.

I remained in my office, directing operations and receiving reports; at 5:00 A.M. my man in the cabin on the Yuba River levee, about two miles east of town, reported that the river had fallen two inches; at 5:30 A.M. a phone call from the cabin at the Catholic cemetery reported the water on the north levee at a standstill. I had a team of horses and buckboard waiting at my office with a driver; I then had him drive me to the south end of the north levee at the Browns Valley grade and directed him to drive over to the County Hospital and wait there for me; I then started to walk the entire north levee, a distance of about three miles, over which the water had been running for that entire distance. As I walked along, to encourage the workers, I kept calling out, “Stay with her boys, the Yuba River had dropped two feet upstream from town”; well, I was lying to the extent of about 22 inches, but it had the desired effect; many would give a whoop and a cheer and work all the harder. When I reached the north end of E Street, from there on to the Hospital and beyond, the levee was about two to six inches below the flood plane. There I met our foreman, Mike Long, who had all night been walking the levee, showing the men how to sack earth, place boards on end, back same with bags, and see that they did the work properly. Mike and myself had been “on the job” for three days and two nights; Mike said, “Mr. Ellis I feel that we have the old river licked,” to which I replied, “I think we have Mike, and if the people will just let me hold my job, I will see that this never occurs again, but it will cost them something.” We then drove back to my office in our waiting rig, where the man I had left in my place at the office had some cheerful messages he had received in my absence.

Many people claimed afterwards that the breaks on the Sutter County side had saved Marysville, but such was not the case; I always made it my business to get full information of such things and my records show as follows;--

March 19th--River standstill on our north levee 5:00 A.M.
March 19th--Shanghai Bend Break, Sutter County, 2:00 A.M.
March 19th--Starr Bend Break, Sutter County, 7:00 A.M.
March 19th--Berg Ranch Break, Sutter County, 11:00 A.M.
March 19th--McGuire Bend Break, Sutter County, 10:00 A.M.
March 19th--Hock Farm Break, Sutter County, 10:00 A.M.

This information I obtained afterwards, talking with various men who had worked on the levees at those places. With the exception of the break at Shanghai Bend, which did not release much water for several hours, all of these breaks occurred after 5:00 A.M. when this flood had reached its crest on our north levee.

SOME INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD

The fifteen odd prisoners, whom the Sheriff took out to the levee, did good work and when danger was over, they “forgot” to return to jail, no doubt presuming they had earned a release, which they had.

Three men, whom I sent to Kimball's Stable on C Street to obtain three large “carryalls” and other livery rigs, phoned me that Kimball would not let them have the rigs; that he said he was hitching up everything and was going to take all of them to Browns Valley. I asked the man who phoned me, how many men Kimball had there; he replied only one man besides Kimball, but that Kimball said he was going to get more drivers; I told him to tell Kimball that he and the other two men would punch both Kimball and his hostler on the jaw if he refused to let them take the rigs; it had the desired effect, we got the rigs. Several days later, Kimball called and said he had no complaint to make for what I had done, but was mighty mad at the time.

One of the best workers on the levee that night, was a slightly built young Englishman, named Farrant, who worked in the Northern California Bank of Savings. To look at him, one would think he would have been unable to do any hard work whatever, but he worked steadily all night, filling and handling heavy bags of earth as if he was used to that sort of work. This is in no way in disparagement to many other citizens who did work, which they were unaccustomed to and all of whom took no pay for their services, after the flood was over.

Both the newly constructed Western Pacific and Sacramento Northern Railroad Companies suffered severe damage to their newly constructed earth embankments; Mr. Emery Oliver, Division Engineer of the Western Pacific said, “Well both railroads, each have about fifty miles of right of way left any way.”

A certain high county official on horseback, was investigating conditions about the levee when the water was at its highest; at one place on the north levee, where the railroad tracks crossed the levee near the Catholic cemetery, some sacking had been done, and he noticed some water trickling between the sacks, which is not unusual and not dangerous; he considered otherwise and immediately started to town on a “Paul Revere” ride, riding down the main streets and shouting that the levee had broken. It created great excitement and consternation and for a short time, my office was swamped with telephone calls and we were kept busy denying the rumor and quieting citizens, many of whom, living in two story houses immediately commenced to move some of their effects to the second story, while others, in one story houses were frantic. The local newspaper the following day, without mention of name, certainly “paid its respects” to this gentleman for his error in judgment.

The next day, when danger was over, the hired help on the levee had to be paid; I went to the Decker-Jewett Bank and borrowed $5,000 in five dollar gold pieces and assorted silver and took it to my office at D and First Streets; with the assistance of the police, a line was formed on the sidewalk reaching one block to the Western Hotel. The emergency had arisen so suddenly, no timekeeper was provided, we had no idea what men had worked on the levee and realized that attempts to impose upon us would be made. One of our hard workers that night on the levee was Scott Hendricks, son-in-law of W. P. Hammon; Scott was a personal friend and I told him I had another and easier job for him; I gave him a time book and told him, that as each man came in for his pay, to ask him his name, look in the time book, pretend to find his name, ask him how many hours he had worked, agree on the amount due and we would pay and take his receipt. I had a man go along the line and notify those in line, that we had their names and time and for them to figure up in advance how much was due them, to save time when they reached my office. This caused quite a number to drop out of line; they were of a type who did not have enough “savvy” to realize that we had had no way to have obtained either their names or their time. It took quite a long time to pay them off, several we recognized as “repeaters” who had been paid off and then got back in the line again, so I had two other citizens to watch their faces and try to remember them as they filed by.

One large merchant, who did not go on the levee but hired men to help him raise his goods to his top shelving, etc. (which would have done no good), was watching the pay-off proceedings; he said to me, “Don't you think that is a pretty loose way of doing business?” I told him, that it was, but that I would rather have some few men paid for services which perhaps they had not rendered, than to take a chance of having some man or men “hold a grudge against the Marysville Levee, because they had worked and had not been paid.” I then said also, “Now Mr. --, let me tell you something and it is this; the night the water was running over the levee and it looked as if the City was going to be flooded, lives lost and perhaps a million dollars of property damage, if I had come to you and said, Mr.--if you will give me $5,000 I will guarantee that the levee will not fail and your merchandise not damaged, I am quite sure you would have given me the $5,000 yourself for that guarantee, so don't you complain; you have lost nothing and the total cost to the City will be about $5,000.” He apologized and said he hoped I would forget what he had said.

When we had finished paying off the labor and later on for the supplies, we had largely without permission “helped ourselves to,” the cost was as follows:

Laboring men,                                              $2,073.25
Northern Electric Co.--Greek Labor                 296.10
Hong Wo Co.--Chinese Labor                           72.50
Livery hire,                                                       250.50
Shovels, lanterns, etc.                                       649.23
Lunches, coffee, etc.                                        292.75
Sacks,                                                             418.96
Telephone messages,                                         31.60
        Total                                                   $4,084.89

A number of merchants, who furnished supplies, were so thankful they declined to render bills; if we had paid for those items, also the many citizens who gave their services for nothing, the total cost might have been double the above amount. I thought the City had gotten off mighty cheap and the Levee Commissioners were well satisfied; both the Western Pacific and the Southern Pacific Railroad Companies, had trains of cars, loaded with sacks of sand and placed at my disposal. They did valuable work; and made no charge for such services.

Had it not been for the advance information I received from our gauge at Alabama Bar, we would not have sacked the Yuba River levee and the City would have been flooded. As it was, the City had an awful narrow escape on its north levee that night, because of the failure of a telephone line which prevented me getting exact information in advance from Oroville. Since then, more gauges have been established not only around the City itself, but higher up on the rivers, such as at Colgate and Goodyear Bar on the Yuba River and Los Plumas Power House, Los Plumas intake, as well as at Oroville, on the Feather River. With increased telephone lines, giving practically uninterrupted service, such as we had in the 1928 flood, when with practically hourly reports, which I received for several days at that time, I knew exactly what was occurring at exactly twenty-five different places on the various rivers and “forewarned is forearmed.”

CHAPTER LXVII
FLOOD OF 1909

ON JANUARY 1ST, rains began. It was a wet month, raining every day that month except on the 3rd, 10th, 11th, 28th and 29th; in all, 8.39 inches of rain fell that month of January. After it commenced on the first of the month, the river rose from 8 feet 9 inches to 17 feet 2 inches on the gauge; in the next two days it fell to 11 feet 5 inches, then it commenced to rise each day for the next four days when on the 15th, the river had established another new high water mark of 24 feet on the D Street gauge, at 7:00 P.M. The following day it had dropped to 23 feet 3 inches, dropping to 16 feet 7 inches on the 20th but the constant rains brought the river back to 18 feet 8 inches on the 18th, after which it gradually continued to fall until the rains ceased on the 27th, at which time the gauge indicated 13 feet 1 inch. There was not only a prolonged storm but a very prolonged average high water plane in the river.

The large amount of work performed on the levees in the two previous years had our levees in first class condition to care for the situation without any difficulty. The only place where the levees were a little low was the Yuba River levee from the foot of B Street, westerly to the foot of G Street, and as the tracks of the Western Pacific were located on top of this stretch of levee and there happened to be within the City limits two long trains of Oroville dredge tailing, I asked Mr. Emery Oliver, Division Engineer of the Western Pacific to have this material on their cars, unloaded on the side of their tracks. This was immediately done and relieved the anxiety of some people, although it was really unnecessary for our levee we knew was considerably higher than the levees on the south bank of the river and if the river continued to rise, those levees would be sure to fail and give us relief; this is what then happened. The Western Pacific Railroad Company again made no charges for their services or the material which they placed on the levee during the flood.

To the north, west and south of Marysville, the levees of other districts failed and the flood waters extended for miles in every direction, Marysville being an “oasis” in a “desert of waters.”

That year and the year following, we continued our work of completing our plan which had been laid out after the 1907 flood and during 1909 and 1910 we expended $60,425.25.

A few days after the flood had subsided, I wrote to Mr. Emery Oliver, Division Engineer of the Western Pacific Railroad at Oroville, thanking him and his Company for the very valuable assistance his train crews had given us in the recent flood and knowing that they had furnished about ten thousand bags of sand for the levee at various places, requested that he let us know what we owed for this material. We received the following reply:

Oroville, California.
February 2, 1909.

LEVEE COMMISSIONERS, CITY OF MARYSVILLE.

GENTLEMEN:

Relative to the work performed by this Company in and about Marysville at the time of the flood, I have been instructed by V. G. Bogue to make no charge for this service.

Yours respectfully,
EMERY OLIVER.

For the following nineteen years, there was only maintenance work performed on the levees, the annual expenditure being about $3,000 per annum, until the flood of 1928 occurred, which will be told of in the next chapter.

CHAPTER LXVIII
FLOOD OF 1928

The peak of this flood reached here at 5:00 A.M. of March 27th, the gauge reading showing 24 feet, the same as it was in the 1909 flood. The Yuba River had a full maximum discharge but the Feather River did not have as great a discharge as in 1909 or 1907. There was absolutely no danger to any of our levee system but some of our citizens were again worried about the only remaining low stretch of our levee which was for about two blocks in length on each side of the north end of the D Street bridge and which had never been raised because of the difficulty of doing so. The railroad tracks were on the crown of the levee there and to raise the levee and the railroad tracks would have blockaded the street crossing to the bridge over these raised tracks, necessitating a change by raising the north end of the bridge south of the railroad tracks and the street approach on the north side of the tracks.

When the river was high and still rising, I was asked many questions about the levee being so low there but I explained to them all that, if necessity required, we could easily raise this stretch of levee with bags of sand, with the assistance of the railroad company, but that this would not be necessary because if the river reached the 24-foot mark or possibly six inches more, that the levees on the opposite side of the river would be sure to fail as they were lower than our levees, not as strong and improperly cared for. This is exactly what happened, the levee on the opposite side broke near Alicia Station, in fact, there were several breaks in that area south of Marysville, and the Sutter County levee had a very narrow escape from breaking at Shanghai Bend, below Marysville. Later on that year, as it was then planned to raise and strengthen the levees on the south bank of the river, I had the situation taken care of at the foot of D Street, by having constructed a concrete wall four feet high, backed with earth, for the low levee section from about the foot of B Street on the east, to the foot of E Street on the west, the remaining low section to the west, I arranged with the Western Pacific Railroad to raise their tracks for about three blocks and so save future worry on the part of our people.

While the river reached high water mark, and we were prepared for any possible emergency which might arise, this flood gave me personally about the easiest time I had ever had at a flood period. Outside of staying at my office for two days and nights without sleep, receiving hourly reports from all our cabin watchmen on the levee and from outside points, there wasn't much to do except to answer questions from callers and answer telephone messages, not only from in town but the surrounding country, which was always usual, the public generally knowing that our office was in close touch with the flood situation everywhere. For example, during this 1928 flood, I had 304 telephone calls in two days.

While we had no emergency conditions on the Marysville levee, I was able to render assistance to the levees of Districts No. 784 and No. 10. Just as an example of a gopher's activities and a very narrow escape, on March 25th, I was at home for lunch when I received a phone call from W. M. Connarn, who had a small ranch on the south side of the river, just east of the Southern Pacific Railroad; he informed me that there was a lot of water apparently seeping through the base of the levee and a small area of about an acre had been covered with water in an orchard and wanted to know if I thought it was dangerous; the flood was on its way down the river but the river was at that time seven feet below high water mark, (two days later it reached high water mark). I asked Connarn if the water was clear or muddy, stating that if the water was clear, there was no danger; he replied that the water was quite muddy and I told him to endeavor to get some men, sacks and shovels and I would come immediately. I immediately jumped in my automobile, picked up three men on the street, obtained some sacks and shovels and drove to the place. When I arrived, the gopher hole had enlarged until it was about three feet in diameter and water was rushing through the hole. A cattle guard on the track was nearby, we tore it up, slid it down the water side of the levee in front of the hole, then let down some sacks of earth in an attempt to check the flow of water; the attempt was a failure. The levee at this place had a side track on its crown, this track leading to the Dantoni orchard.

I instructed the men to do nothing more until the hole had enlarged sufficiently to let the upper portion of the embankment and railroad tracks collapse and that, as the river still was not very high, there might be sufficient of the levee material drop down to fill the hole above the river level, then to get busy and shovel more material on top from the opposite sides of the depression and that I would hasten to town for more help. They promised to do as instructed, I drove hastily to town, phoned Robert Watson, the Southern Pacific Company agent, to send men with sacks and shovels to the place
by hand car and when he informed me that they had a large gondola car, loaded with gravel in the yards which could be sent over by their yard engine, asked him to send that also. I then rushed back to the scene of the trouble and just as I arrived the whole upper portion of the levee embankment collapsed into the hole, as I had expected, and fortunately filled the then very large hole, about six inches above the river level. The men sent out by the railroad arrived just about that time and all present commenced to shovel more material on top of the depression and when the large car of gravel arrived, that was dumped as close as possible, (the tracks having a sag of about three feet) and the gravel and more earth used to bring the levee up to its former height. It was about as narrow an escape from the effects of a gopher hole as I had ever witnessed.

The following day, a very weak spot developed on this same levee, just a short distance east of the south end of the D Street bridge and Halsey Dunning with a crew of men saved the situation at that point with bags of sand. I was busy with my own levee by that time. The following day, a tramp reported to the man at the Binney Junction Tower House (at the Catholic cemetery), that the railroad embankment was about to break at its junction with the southeast corner of Levee District No. 10 levee; the tower man relayed the message by phone to R. F. Watson at the Southern Pacific Company depot; Watson phoned me of their trouble stating that they had an engine and flat car ready and could I send them about fifteen men with sacks and shovels; I told him I would have them there in a half hour, which was done; they were rushed to the danger point and were successful in taking care of the very dangerous situation. We always keep prepared with plenty of sacks, shovels and men, IT PAYS.

CHAPTER LXIX
Presented with a Service Medal

ON APRIL 26, 1929 I attended a luncheon of the Marysville Exchange Club; I had been invited the day previously but declined, as I belong to no clubs and noon-time I prefer a very light meal and a thirty minute “siesta”; my father did this same thing for years and I have found that this short relaxation is beneficial. However, upon the insistence of a couple of my friends, I attended.

After the luncheon, Mr. Richard Belcher was introduced as the speaker and it gradually commenced to dawn on me that I was going to be the “target” for some reason; I soon found out and was presented with a “service medal” by Mr. Belcher on behalf of the Club. The following day, an article appeared in the local paper as follows;--

“THE ELLIS MEDAL”
“Friday noon witnessed a form of community expression in Marysville, honoring a local citizen, which should go down in local history as one of the finest acts within the levee bounds.

“On that occasion, under the conception and auspices of the Marysville Exchange club, a man of honored place in our midst acted as spokesman. His duty was to open up the way for the presentation of a mark of distinction. How well he handled his assignment is a matter of pride to his fellows.

“In words of simple force, born of knowledge of his subject, and free of embellishments, he set forth in graphic and colorful manner a swift-moving panorama of the City of Marysville from early times to the present day. This by way of pointing out the service rendered the community by a man whose boyhood experienced the flood of 1875.

“It was a story of devotion to public well being; of a contest with elemental forces and a battle successfully waged. It typified a nature born to overcome obstacles--it heralded a spirit which never surrendered.

This tribute so admirably voiced had that restraint necessary to fit the nature of the man it extolled. Unassuming at all times, in the safeguard of the City which gave him birth, it is fitting that the man honored should have the exposition of his work presented in harmony with his character.

“The Exchange Club has performed a distinct service to the community. In making articulate the gratitude of the City of Marysville to its most virile citizen it is honoring itself and restoring to public consciousness a proper appreciation of a forthright, upstanding man.”

Many people, to be “singled out” under such circumstances, are embarrassed; I know that I was; I do not remember just what kind of an acknowledgement I made to this very complimentary gesture on the part of the Club members. I hope it was befitting the occasion; I do know, however, that I was very appreciative and have always prized this token very highly.

CHAPTER LXX
A Contest with Henry Hazelbush

LONG BEFORE the white man ever came to California, at times of extreme floods, a large portion of the Feather River had escaped over its westerly bank for a distance of several miles at Hamilton Bend, about five miles down stream from Oroville. These escape waters would run in a southwesterly direction, north of the Buttes, then southerly down Butte Slough, thence into both the Sacramento River and into the large Sutter tule basin, until the latter was reclaimed and the Sutter By-pass constructed; and after that, these escape waters drained into the Sutter By-pass, again joining with the Feather River just below Nicolaus, thereby making a “detour” of about sixty miles in length.

In the flood of 1928, the usual large quantity of water escaped in this way and very extensive damage was done to a large prune orchard owned by Mr. Henry Hazelbush and situated a short distance from where these waters escaped from the river. That fall it was reported to me that Mr. Hazelbush had commenced the construction of a levee to protect his property and close off a goodly portion of this overflow. I told these parties that they must be mistaken; that, under the Reclamation Board Act, no one was permitted to construct or change locations of any levees without the permission of the State Reclamation Board and, had such an application been applied for, I certainly would have been so advised. Under their assurance, however, that they had actually seen the levee work in progress, I made a trip to Hamilton Bend to investigate and much to my surprise, found work of levee building in progress. I immediately went to Sacramento and demanded that the work be stopped; and an order was issued to that effect. Later on, a hearing was held at which Mr. Hazelbush and myself appeared and it was then ascertained that Mr. Hazelbush did not know of the restrictions on levee building, that he only desired to construct a short stretch of about 2000 feet of levee, just sufficient to stop the force of the current on his holdings but not to prevent overflow.

As Henry was a fine citizen and I had been well acquainted with him for many years, I relented and stated that if he would not have over 2000 feet of length of levee and construct it as he had planned, near the bank of the river on its upstream end, that I would make no objections. Such permission was then granted, in fact, the State assisted financially.

Mr. Hazelbush did not know (and does not know yet) that the reason why I “relented” was because I firmly believed that where he was building his levee, close to the bank of the river on a fine silt foundation and directly at the bend of the river, that when another extreme flood occurred, he would have no protection, as his levee was sure to fail. Conditions, however, have partly changed there since then. Quite a stretch of this levee is now largely a rock pile, thrown up by two gold dredgers and we are not entirely satisfied with that changed condition, even though the levees on both banks of the rivers have since been raised, presumably sufficiently to take this additional river water, as one dredge has encroached too close to the main river channel.

Previous to this disagreement with Mr. Hazelbush I had, in the latter part of 1928, employed Mr. E.A. Bailey, former Flood Control Engineer, to make a survey to arrive at an estimate of how much water escaped in the 1928 flood at Hamilton Bend and, on January 14th, 1929, I received his report and it was concluded at that time that there had been about 35,000 second feet of water so escape, which was about twenty-five per cent of the entire flow of the Feather River past Oroville.

The gold dredgers have about 800 acres to be dredged there for a distance of about three and a half miles. When this is completed, it is planned by the Engineers with state and federal funds to have a levee constructed still further down stream to about the Gridley bridge and so close off all the overflow. Had not the Sutter By-pass been changed to its present eastern location, thereby discharging about five-sixths of the Sacramento, directly into the Feather River, in place of directly into the Yolo Basin, (which was a great mistake, in my opinion), our future flood plane would not be so high as it is expected to be in the future.

CHAPTER LXXI
The “Eccentric” Flood of 1937

THIS WAS a most extraordinary flood and remarkable for the following reasons:

1. It was the first flood of major proportions that ever occurred so early in the winter, the apex of this flood at Marysville being on December 11th; the only time a major flood had previously occurred early in the month of December was the first of the three floods which occurred in the winter of 1861-62 and this first flood of that winter occurred on December 9, 1861.

2. This flood in the Sacramento Valley was not even a “maximum” flood as to quantity of discharge from the entire valley as it was about 300,000 second feet at Rio Vista, as compared with the discharge of 600,000 second feet during the 1907 flood; in other words, the quantity of discharge was about one-half as great as the 1907 flood. Even the Yuba River which, during the 1928 flood, discharged 140,000 second feet of water, this time discharged only 110,000 second feet at the D Street bridge.

3. Notwithstanding the above fact, the Yuba River at Marysville was twenty inches higher than ever known before; as for the Yuba River at Goodyear Bar, the previous high water mark was 17 feet and this time it just reached the old high water mark of 17 feet at 3:00 P.M. on the 10th inst., then dropped to 13 feet at 10:00 P.M. and the following day, again raised to 17 feet at 9:00 A.M. and at 4:00 P.M. had dropped to 13 feet. There was a period of about one-half hour when the gauge there read 20 feet, but this occurred when the water, which was blocked at Downieville for a short time by the new State bridge, was released when the bridge gave way.

4. As for the Feather River, at Los Plumas Power House, the river was 12 feet below high water mark and at Oroville, the river was nine inches below high water mark.

5. As for the Sacramento River at Red Bluff, the river was 1.3 feet above high water mark while at Colusa, the river was 2.4 feet below high water mark; however, at Long Bridge (crossing the Sutter By-pass), the water was 7 inches above high water mark; at Wadsworth pumping plant, the water was 3.7 feet above the 1927 high water mark; at the junction of the Tisdale and Sutter By-passes, the water was 3.6 feet above the previous record of February 24, 1927; at the Chandler pump, the water was 2.5 feet above the 1927 record; at District No. 1500 drainage pump, the water was 8 inches above the 1927 record and at Nicolaus, was 1.4 feet above the 1928 record high water mark.

6. At the Fremont Weir, where the mass of the water escapes into the Yolo By-pass, in 1928, the average depth over this weir was about 4.5 feet while this time, the depth of the water over the weir was 5.0 feet deep on the west end and 4.3 feet deep on the east end.

7. The American River at Folsom was 2.9 feet below the high water mark of 1928 and the Sacramento River at the City of Sacramento was 20 inches below high water mark.

All the above is a series of “inconsistencies,” I might say, “paradoxes.” Why was this so? Why were there over fifty breaks in the river system up-stream from the mouth of the Feather River and no breaks to the south? Why were previous high water records exceeded in many places above the mouth of the Feather River and on the contrary, high water records were not reached below the mouth of the Feather River? Well, I will try and answer these questions, although some engineers will no doubt disagree with my conclusions.

1. When this storm commenced, there was practically no snow on the mountains, there were only some ten inches recorded at the Nordin Summit, so there was no snow pack to hold or retard the precipitation during the storm. In the flood of 1907, the great discharge of water was from the 5000 foot elevation down, and when that storm was over, there was a greater depth of snow at the summit than when the storm commenced but such was not the case this time; there was practically no snow on the summit and this “storm” was not a “storm,” it was a “cloudburst” for two days and more. Just for example, the following may be of interest:

The following is the recorded rainfall for two days, December 10th and 11th. (The following does NOT include the rainfall on the 9th and 12th insts., where in most cases, some precipitation also occurred.)

Precipitation.

Soda Springs 10.8 inches in two days.
Blue Canyon 8.55 inches in two days.
Pike City 8.78 inches in two days.
Scales 18.85 inches in two days.
Lake Spaulding 17.63 inches in two days.
Nevada City 8.67 inches in two days.
Clipper Mills 18.0 inches in two days.
Buck's Creek 12.92 inches in two days.
Mineral 14.13 inches in two days.
Near Sterling 15.58 inches in two days.
Delta 8.20 inches in two days.
Brush Creek 17.76 inches in two days.

If the above does not show a “two day cloudburst,” then I do not know what else to call it. I have been keeping records for many years and I have never known the Yuba and Feather Rivers to have the “first waters” of mountain discharge “reach” Marysville as fast as this one did; however, the “first” arriving flood waters commenced to reach Marysville in record time, the “peak” waters in the mountains made “peak” waters at Marysville in usual normal time; for example:

At Goodyear's Bar on the Yuba River, there were two peaks, eighteen hours apart; the first peak there was nineteen and a quarter hours, before peak at Marysville, while the second peak was thirteen and a quarter hours before peak at Marysville.

At Colgate Power House on the Yuba River, there were also two peaks; the first was twenty-eight hours and the second peak was eleven and three-quarter hours before peak at Marysville.

At Los Plumas Power House on the Feather River, there was only one peak and this occurred eighteen and a quarter hours before peak at Marysville.

As for flood heights at the above mentioned mountain places, the following is also of interest:

At Goodyear's Bar, the flood height was the same as in the 1928 flood, except for about one-half hour, when the highway bridge at Downieville failed and released the dammed up waters above that bridge, causing an excess raise of three feet for a half hour.

At Colgate Power House, the flood height exceeded all previous readings by two and a half feet.

At Los Plumas, the flood height was eight inches below the 1928 record and twelve feet lower than the flood of 1907.

As for the Sacramento River, the flood crest passed Red Bluff on Saturday night (11th), reached Colusa Monday, Sacramento City Tuesday, the short but high “wave” had “flattened out” and passed on to San Francisco Bay without much incident. Had there been a four day good high average of sustained flood height in the mountain regions, such as occurred in 1907, it would probably have been a repetition of what occurred in one of the three floods of the winter of 1861-62, in which case, the area, south of the mouth of the Feather River would have had a different “story” to tell. As it was, there was practically little loss south of Fremont Weir, while above same, there was an estimated loss of $14,000,000.00 because of some 50 breaks and overflow in various unprotected areas. Being more particularly interested in the Yuba and Feather Rivers, the question arises in my mind: Why was the Feather River, from its mouth and up-stream on the Yuba River for some distance of one-half mile above Marysville and up-stream on the Feather River, for some distance above Yuba City, all above previous high water marks? There are several answers but there are two main reasons in my opinion; one was the location of the Sutter By-pass, which was constructed on the eastern location in place of the central location, with a consequent higher flood plane of about 4 feet, as explained in a previous chapter. The other main reason, was the height of the Fremont Weir which, as also explained in a previous chapter, has its crest three and a half feet higher than the bottom of the Sutter By-pass, twenty-four miles upstream.

The Sutter By-pass, where now located, is of course a “fixture” and cannot now be changed but as for the Fremont Weir, the greater portion of it, about its center, could be and, in my opinion, should be, “chiseled down” to the same height as the floor of the Sutter By-pass, which is 30 foot elevation. Wild Irishman Bend, which was very sharp and long, having the shape of a long letter “V,” pointing directly into the Yolo Basin, was a natural inlet into that basin and with the ground level on its banks at about elevation 25, or about five feet lower than the floor of the Sutter By-pass on the opposite side of the river channel; flood waters had no difficulty in discharging into the Yolo Basin. Such is not now the case, since the construction of the Fremont Weir. This weir was constructed at elevation 33.5 by the Federal Engineers with the idea of keeping flood waters at what was considered a safe height to reclamation, at the same time keeping as much water as possible in the river itself to induce scour, in the interest of navigation.

However, I believe that this recent flood has demonstrated that there is too much obstruction to the proper flow of flood waters into the Yolo Basin and a large portion of the weir should be cut down to elevation 30 foot, particularly now, that the Shasta Dam, when completed will release sufficient water during the summer months, which will result in good higher stages in the Sacramento River and permit of easy navigation during the summer months to Red Bluff and particularly from Chico Landing, down to the mouth of the Sacramento River.

During this last flood, the waters of the Bear, Yuba and Feather Rivers, backed up-stream in the Sutter Bypass, not only to the foot of the Tisdale Weir on the Sacramento River, but also backed up the main by-pass upstream to as far as Long Bridge, just west of Sutter City; then, later on, when the peak of the Sacramento River arrived and five-sixths of its volume was discharged into the Sutter By-pass, it had to “reverse” the flow of the water in the Sutter By-pass, practically flowing on top of an elevated “water plateau” in the by-pass, on its way to the Fremont Weir, thereby causing an excessive height in the Feather River which was “reflected” back to above Marysville and Yuba City for some distance.

As for some incidents of the flood, it was extremely unfortunate that District No. 10's levee failed, because of claimed faulty construction at one place; that levee was about four and a half feet above the peak of the flood. It was also unfortunate that District No. 784's levees failed in four different places, as those levees were well above the flood height but some material, which had been used in recently raising and strengthening those levees, turned out to be unsuitable and deflected currents, caused by trees and other obstructions, and some other matters, caused these failures. The north levee of District No. 784 on the Yuba River, just east of the Southern Pacific had an exceedingly narrow escape as that section of levee had not as yet been raised to standard height and cross-section, the flood reaching at some places to the top of the levee and several “sand boils” occurred, all of which required about 5000 bags of sand to prevent a break. Knowing of the situation there, I had the day previous warned Mr. Donald Bull, a large land owner, to be prepared and he had heeded my warning and with several thousand bags of sand, saved a very critical situation.

On the Sutter County side, a gopher or squirrel hole caused a very serious situation for a while at the Sultzberger Ranch in District No. 9; at Yuba City the flood reached the top of their levee in some places, necessitating a row of sand bags; at Shanghai Bend, the water was above the top of the levee and rows of sand bags, several sacks high, prevented a break. The river was still rising at this point, when District No. 784 levees broke on the Yuba County side, otherwise, a large portion of the District No. 1 would have been flooded.

As for Marysville, our lowest levee section was on the Yuba River, just west of the D Street bridge, but the concrete levee wall would have withstood another four and a half foot raise; as for our levees on K Street, they were four to five feet higher than the Sutter County side.

In 1907, our levee from the Jewish cemetery southerly to the D Street bridge had been raised by the Railroad Company with dredge material brought from Oroville; it had cost us nothing except for a franchise to the Railroad Company; we had considered the material good for the crown raise. In 1928, however, we had discovered a seepage through this top material at the foot of Willow Street, notwithstanding that the crown of the levee there was about one hundred feet in width. Since then, we have been obtaining State and Federal funds and have completed an earth “slab” on the levee down to about 6th and K Streets, the levee, with this slab, in many places being raised an additional four feet, to bring all this stretch to a uniform height, when this last flood occurred, and where the work was incomplete, on the north 5th Street subway wall, also for about 2000 feet of the Yuba River levee, westerly from the D Street bridge. As a result of this work being incomplete, there were seepages at the north subway wall, also at the foot of Willow and E Streets, because of the additional flood height. This seepage was not through the old original levee, but over its old crown and through the mass of dredge material on top of and on both sides of the old levee core. It was not dangerous but “did not look nice” and as the citizens became alarmed, we slabbed these places with about 5000 bags of sand; as soon as the river dropped eighteen inches, this seepage entirely stopped. Our previous contemplated plans for caring for these places by raising the “slabbing” will be performed this coming summer and so prevent similar occurrences and at the same time, increasing the levee height, the latter to an elevation higher than the levee systems on the opposite sides of both the Yuba and Feather Rivers, which it has been the policy of the Marysville Levee Commission to do, so as to always guarantee the safety of the City against any future floods.

A TORNADO

Shortly after this flood, on February 9, 1938, there occurred a seventy mile south wind; my mercurial barometer dropped to 28.9 that afternoon at the height of the tornado. This tornado reached from San Francisco northerly through the Sacramento Valley with various intensities in various portions of the Valley. Great damage was done to buildings, trees, etc., both in Cities and Country areas; nothing like it is of record in the State.

A meeting of the State Reclamation Board was called for on May 4, 1938 and the Marysville Levee Commission (and other interests) were requested to present their views in connection with recent flood conditions, so on behalf of our Levee Commission, I wrote the following letter

STATE RECLAMATION BOARD,
Sacramento, California.

GENTLEMEN:

In response to the invitation contained in your letter of April 29th, relative to the meeting to be held on May 4th, in the matter of complaints of certain land owners in the vicinity of Meridian, of damages caused by seepage waters of the Sacramento River, might we not state as follows: --

The Marysville Levee Commission has no direct interest of course in these complaints; we assume that they have been in connection with the heights of the new weirs which were constructed on the Sacramento River in the vicinity of Colusa and we realize, that with the unprecedented long sustained high flood plane in the Sacramento River in that area, during the last four months, heavy seepage conditions have naturally resulted which, plus the almost continuous rain precipitation, has resulted in such a high ground water table, particularly where orchards are established, that large areas of those orchards will be destroyed, as well as other products of the soil. These weirs were designed (as we understand it) to give proper relief to the river at high flood stages and the altitude of the crowns of these weirs (as we also understand it) were fixed, at such elevations, as in the best judgment of the engineers, would result in safe reclamation and at the same time, keep as much water in the rivers as possible, in the interests of navigation, and induce all possible scour. Another result, it was hoped to be accomplished, would be to enable the unreclaimed areas in the Butte Basin, to have a longer cropping season each year. If the weirs were lowered, no doubt but what, in extraordinary seasons, such as this one has been, it would materially assist in lowering the water table in the ground and reducing the amount of seepage, however, the lowering of the crowns of these weirs, no doubt would bring objections on the part of the owners of the unreclaimed areas in the Butte Basin and also objections from the land owners, on the north side of the east levee of the Sutter By-pass and lying at or below the forty-five foot contour. It would appear that you gentlemen of the Reclamation Board have quite a difficult problem to solve. However, as previously stated, we have no direct interest in this Meridian area problem, but, now that you have given us an invitation to express our views on this matter, might we not be permitted to give our views on some other matters, which however have not only a direct interest in this Meridian area problem, but, in our opinion, a very direct interest to the Feather River, up to and including the Cities of Marysville and Yuba City.

Many years ago and prior to the Reclamation of any portions of the large basin areas in the Sacramento Valley, these basins contained the following approximate areas;--

Colusa Basin 93,000 acres
Butte Basin 60,000 acres
Sutter Basin 116,000 acres
American Basin 53,400 acres
Sacramento Basin 32,300 acres
Yolo Basin 164,000 acres
A total of 518,700 acres, with a storage capacity of over four million acre feet of flood waters.

The commencement on the part of large financial interests, to reclaim certain portions of some of these basin areas, finally resulted in the adoption of the Flood Control plan, which was conceived by Captain Thomas H. Jackson of the California Debris Commission, with the idea of having an orderly and safe plan for reclamation and to also protect the “rights” and requirements of the rivers themselves at flood periods and the Federal Government's interests in navigation. Previous to and since this Flood Control Plan has been adopted and now practically carried to completion, there has been reclaimed the following areas of the aforesaid basins, as follows;--

Colusa Basin 93,000 acres
Butte Basin none
Sutter Basin 91,995 acres
American Basin 53,400 acres
Sacramento Basin 32,300 acres
Yolo Basin 94,000 acres
A total of 364,695 acres

Before all these areas were reclaimed, the flood waters used to “hesitate” at these various basins and filled each in turn “with a good big drink” of water, then continued onward in their course and finally discharge into the bays below; these immense basins acted then as large “equalizing reservoirs” and there were no obstructions in the way then of flood waters on their way to the sea. Now that this reclamation has been accomplished, in place of these flood waters having great widths with comparatively low altitude flood planes and traveling by “slow freight,” these flood waters are forced to travel by “fast express” through artificial by-passes to the bays below, with quite natural and to be expected, higher altitude flood planes. Before all this reclamation, these flood waters, as just stated, had great widths, at the latitude of the present Tisdale By-pass, this overflow area was over twenty miles in width; at the latitude of the mouth of the Feather River, the overflow area was about seven miles in width, while now, at the latter location, all the flood waters, north of the mouth of the Feather River have only two ways of escape, one being down the Sacramento River itself, commencing at the mouth of the Feather River, and the capacity of the Sacramento River there to the City of Sacramento is only some 107,000 second feet or about twice that small creek, known as Bear River, all the balance of the flood waters, from the Yuba, Bear, Feather and Sacramento Rivers has to escape into the Yolo Basin By-pass, over the Fremont Weir, or about one-fifth the width as formerly.

The estimated flood discharge from these four rivers, above the mouth of the Feather River is 450,000 second feet, of which, only some 107,000 second feet can escape down the main Sacramento River itself, all the balance, or 343,000 second feet is forced to escape over the top of the Fremont concrete Weir which is only some 9200 feet long and the crest of that weir is at elevation 33.5 or three and a half feet higher than the bottom of the Sutter By-pass, for some twenty-four miles upstream, as that by-pass follows the thirty foot contour.

Now what happened during last December flood?

In the first place, this was NOT a maximum flood discharge in the Valley as a whole; for example, in 1907, the flood discharge at Rio Vista was about 600,000 second feet, while last December flood was about one-half that quantity, or some 300,000 second feet; notwithstanding this fact, between Marysville and Yuba City, the river was approximately two feet higher than ever known before, while at Los Plumas Power House on the Feather River above Oroville, the peak of the flood there was 12 feet below high water mark with no four day high sustained average, as in the flood of 1907.

Now what caused this extraordinary condition?

It was the result of a very heavy rainfall, of cloudburst character, reaching up to the summit of the mountains, where, at the Donner Summit, there was only some ten inches of snow on the ground; this heavy rainfall, of some sixteen to eighteen inches at places in forty-eight hours, with no snow pack to retard it, caused this discharge of water to reach the floor of the valley in the fastest time on record. When the combined waters of the Bear, Yuba and Feather Rivers reached the mouth of the Feather River and less than one-third of it could escape down the main Sacramento River, the balance, being unable to escape at once into the Yolo Basin, because of the height of the Fremont Weir, at the foot of the Sacramento River levee, but also upstream on the main Sutter By-pass to Long Bridge, near the south base of the Sutter Buttes, a distance of thirty miles upstream from the Fremont Weir; then some thirty hours afterwards, the Sacramento River commenced to discharge into the Sutter By-pass, and had to reverse the flow in that by-pass for thirty miles. In other words, it had to commence to flow over an “elevated water plateau,” so that the peak of the flood waters, in thirty miles, from peak flow at Long Bridge to peak flow over the Fremont Weir (approximately 5 feet deep over that weir) the slope of the water in the Sutter By-pass for those thirty miles was only six and a half inches to the mile; this condition was reflected upstream on the Feather River to Marysville and Yuba City.

At the D Street bridge across the Yuba River at Marysville, the much greater discharge of flood waters in the flood of 1907 reached 22 feet 4 inches on the gauge there while last December flood reached 3 feet 4 inches higher, or 25 feet 8 inches, this, notwithstanding the fact, that the bed of the main Yuba River channel at that point had in the meantime, scoured approximately twelve feet since the flood of 1907. In twenty-four hours, after the Yuba River had reached its peak at this D Street bridge and the river had dropped two feet, the surface of the water in the river was very placid, with very little perceptible current.

WHY did all these new conditions exist as compared with the vastly greater discharge in the 1907 flood?

We may be wrong, but our conclusions are as follows;--

FIRST: The construction of the Sutter By-pass on the “eastern location” is one of the contributing factors. Locating that by-pass on the “eastern location” in place of the original “Jackson plan” on the “central location” as recommended by the California Debris Commission, made the eastern by-pass about four miles longer, raised the theoretical water plane about four feet higher than it would have been on the “central location” and dumped the entire flow of the Sacramento River into the Feather River (which was unfair to the latter river) in place of having all these Sacramento River flood waters discharged directly into the Yolo Basin. Of course, the construction of the Sutter By-pass on this “eastern location” is now an accomplished fact; it can not now, unfortunately, be changed.

SECOND: The construction of the Fremont Weir, with its crest, three and a half feet higher than the floor of the Sutter By-pass, was also, in our opinion, an error. Its length, is certainly short enough, and consequently its crest should not exceed 30 foot altitude elevation so as to be no higher than the floor of the Sutter By-pass at least as much as possible of its height cut down to the thirty foot elevation. We believe that a reconstruction of this weir, by reducing its crest height is necessary so as to afford the least possible obstruction to the escape of flood waters into the Yolo By-pass, and particularly to shorten the period of subsidence of flood waters in the Feather and Sacramento Rivers, also the Sutter By-pass, the delay of which this winter season will, we believe develop the fact, in the next two months, that twenty-five per-cent of the acreage planted to fruit trees in Yuba, Sutter and Colusa Counties will have been killed by excess water conditions, principally because of seepage, caused by the long sustained high average water planes in those three waterways, after the peak of the floods have passed. We consider this imperative also for the future safety of all the reclamation districts on both the Feather and Sacramento Rivers which are north of this weir and, while we are on this subject, we believe that all those portions of the levees of the Sutter By-pass, which are exposed to the general prevailing southerly winds, at flood periods, should be protected against wave wash, which was very serious this last winter and certainly can not be permitted to continue. If we might be permitted to make a suggestion in this connection, we would recommend dredge material for this purpose, same as we placed on our Marysville levees thirty years ago and which, by experience, we have found to be wave proof, current proof and gopher proof.

Returning to the matter of the Fremont Weir, when this weir was constructed with its crest at elevation 33.5 feet, it was considered that it would still be low enough to afford safety to reclamation districts and at the same time, keep as much of the flow of the river, in the river as safely possible, to induce scour, in the interest of navigation. However, when the Shasta Dam is completed and some 6000 second feet or more of storage water is released every twenty-four hours in the Sacramento River, it is expected to give sufficient flow in the river during the summer months to give good navigation upstream on the Sacramento to at least Chico Landing and possibly to Red Bluff, so the reasons, which prompted the construction of this weir as it now is, will not apply when the Shasta Dam is completed, so we very respectfully urge that a reconstruction of this weir be given a careful study and hope that it will be finally decided that the major portion of this weir's length should be lowered as we realize that the extreme westerly and easterly ends of this weir are at about ground level, however, it might be advisable to even lower some portions of those ends, even though it may be necessary to do some excavating of the ground surface below such places to permit of fullest possible operation of the weir's capacity to discharge.

Respectfully submitted,
MARYSVILLE LEVEE COMMISSION.
By W. T. ELLIS, General Manager.

Later on, I addressed another letter to the General Manager of the State Reclamation Board, as follows:

June 11, 1938.
COLONEL A. M. BARTON, General Manager
State Reclamation Board, Sacramento, California.

Dear Colonel Barton:

The experiences which the land owners have had during this last winter on the Sacramento River make it quite apparent that something will have to be done (if possible) to relieve the flood situation on that River not only to relieve the situation at peak flows but also to relieve the long sustained high water level in the river, which has caused so much damage from seepage, as has been experienced during this last winter there. In the letter which I addressed to the State Reclamation Board under date of May 2nd I suggested the lowering of the Fremont Weir but even this would not entirely take care of the situation as occurred for several months during last winter when such a long sustained high flow was maintained in the river and the by-pass.

I have a suggestion to make which might possibly be of interest or in any event I am offering it for “whatever it may be worth” and you may possibly see fit to look into it and the suggestion is this; --

The construction of a weir to be of the same type as the Sacramento By-pass Weir at Bryte's Bend, that is, a structure with gates which can be opened and closed. This structure would be built on the west side of the Sacramento River somewhere between Princeton and Butte City possibly a short distance above Princeton at about Packer Slough. This structure would be used only in case of extreme emergencies when there is a heavy discharge down the Sacramento River or in case of long continued high water planes in the river, same as last winter. The opening of these gates in this structure would be entirely in the charge of the Reclamation Board they to be sole judges as to when the gates should be opened.

Now as to the flood waters which would be discharged through this structure they would flow in a southwesterly direction along the natural drainage there (where drainage canals are already in existence) on the west side of Levee District No. 2, thence following the natural drainage on the west side of the Princeton Levee District into say Cheney Slough, thence to its connection with Hopkins Slough, thence into Powell Slough, thence into old Sycamore Slough, following along the west side of the west levee of the “Sacramento River West Side Levee District,” discharging into the Knights Landing Ridge Cut, thence into the Yolo Basin. This would be a distance of approximately 50 miles and, if I am not mistaken, where this structure would be built on the north would be at elevation of about 75 and the discharge end at the Knights Landing Ridge Cut would be at elevation 25; in other words, in the 50 miles of length there would be a fall of about one foot to the mile.

I have not been over this territory on this upper end for a number of years but if my memory serves me right, the greater portion of this area over which this water would be discharged is very poor land and damage to it would be practically nothing, in fact there might be some deposit of silt on the land surface which would be beneficial and off-set any possible damage or occasional inconvenience when the gates should ever be opened. I have talked with some of the people over there and they are all of course at present “flood minded” and I am under the impression that there is a good possibility that flowage rights could be obtained from the land owners who would be mostly interested in this project at a comparatively little or possibly no expense. I do not know what such a structure as mentioned above would cost but of course it would be considerable and it might be possible that on each side of the structure, leading westerly, side levees would have to be constructed, with good widths between them so as to guide the water flow in the proper direction and by having such proper widths and so reducing the depth of the water the possibility of any scour or cutting of the channels would be eliminated.

If a good portion of the river could be discharged in this way at peak periods, it would undoubtedly make the levees downstream from that point much safer and if no material damage or inconvenience is suffered by such overflow being permitted to continue, during periods of long sustained high flow in the river, it would undoubtedly assist greatly in reducing the seepage troubles.

Now this is only a thought which I have in mind and I believe from talks which I have had with some of those people in the interested area they might be very favorable, towards such a plan if it is feasible and as stated above I am offering it to you “for what it is worth” in view of the fact that the Federal Government has made available large sums of money for flood control, apparently monies would be available if such a plan was found feasible.

Very truly yours,
W. T. ELLIS.

CHAPTER LXXII
Criticisms of My Management

AFTER the flood of March 19th, 1907, and the narrow escape the City had from inundation, it was very apparent that the greater portion of the seven miles of levee system surrounding the town would have to be raised and strengthened and that it was going to entail a heavy expense. We immediately commenced to make plans, having surveys made and estimates prepared, all of which took time. Bids were advertised for raising and widening all the north levee first, then other jobs were advertised and let, and I also entered into negotiations with the Western Pacific Railroad Co. for some work on the levee. The first contract on the north levee was let on April 23d, to Edward Malley of San Francisco, which meant that we had about five months left to complete all the projected work before the rainy season commenced. Of course, in those days heavy equipment and machinery were not used, levee work being done with horses or mules, scrapers, etc., and there were no local contractors with sufficient equipment to handle large jobs; in fact, no local contractors submitted bids on all the work. The work, not progressing as fast as was desired, to give some small local contractors an opportunity to obtain some work, some additional portions of the work were let out at agreed prices, without advertising, to save time. I wanted action and was also determined that the job should be completed before winter set in and to get results, I cut “red tape” and before long, had various jobs going at different places with scores of men and horses at work. It soon dawned on various citizens that a lot of money was being expended and that it was going to mean a heavy tax burden; and then some of these parties, a number of them large taxpayers, called on me and wanted to know what the bill was going to be. I told them. They wanted to know why a bond issue had not been arranged for so as to spread out the cost burden for several years. I told them we could not afford the loss of time for a bond issue. They wanted to know if we were letting some contracts without advertising. I told them we were, so as to get every mule and man on the job we could, and so have the job completed before winter; also that I had a job to do and proposed to do it; that if they had any complaints to make, to make them to the other two Levee Commissioners, which they did, but they got nowhere with them. We expended $79,248.43 that season which required a tax rate of $3.25 for levee purposes, the total tax rate in the City that year being $7.05 on every $100.00 of assessed valuation. We also secured a donation of $5000.00 from the County Board of Supervisors for the protection being given to county roads. The following winter we had no high waters; and the following season, not being entirely satisfied with what we had done and learning that the Western Pacific Railroad Co. was planning to level off a lot of dredge tailings at Oroville to make some freight yards, I went to San Francisco to see Mr. Bogue, who was in charge of the construction of that railroad. Mr. Bogue admitted that they were planning to move a large quantity of dredge tailings to make space for freight yards and that this material would be loaded on long trains of flat cars by steam shovels and would be taken up the canyon and disposed of at some convenient places.

I asked him, and he also admitted, that they had no particular use for this material in the canyon, it was planned to dispose of it there, where it would be convenient to get rid of it. I then asked him, why not haul it down hill to Marysville and place same on our north levee and, while the haul might be a little longer, at the same time we would expect to pay him for the material, in view of the fact that his company had no franchise on that portion of the levee where we would like to have it, same being easterly of the Jewish cemetery, so that he would have to lay temporary tracks on the levee to enable the work to be performed. I explained that in the previous year, we had raised that section of levee four feet, with a three to one slope and all we wanted was to have the material dumped on the side of the levee and make its own slope, which would probably be one and a half to one. Mr. Bogue informed me that he would look into the matter and a few days later, his Division Engineer, Mr. Emery Oliver, came down from Oroville and we went over the levee section. Mr. Oliver was not impressed with the idea until he discovered that, if they did the work, their tracks could be extended a few hundred feet into the Yuba River bottom lands and they could obtain a large quantity of sand and gravel off a river bar, same to be used for temporary ballasting of their tracks up the canyon. Mr. Oliver made a favorable recommendation, a conference was had with Mr. Bogue, a price agreed upon at forty cents per cubic yard for material in place, the levee to be raised an additional two feet. I had estimates made of the required yardage and a contract was made for a lump sum of $5600 for the job. This was on March 15th, 1908. This appeared to be an advantageous arrangement to the City, as the price of forty cents was claimed to be the estimated actual cost, and the year previous the City of Sacramento had contracted with the Southern Pacific Co. to raise their north B Street levee in a similar manner, the price paid being one dollar per cubic yard.

While this work was being performed, I went out almost every day and met some of these work trains, always taking with me a box of cigars to distribute to the train crews, and occasionally “kidded” them about the “skimpy” amount of material they were placing on the levee, which generally resulted in an additional train load of material at these “skimpy” places. When the job was completed, I estimated that we had obtained about ten per cent more material placed on the levee than we had paid for. In 1907, when Edward Malley had a contract for raising all the north levee, he also had a section which ran around the County Hospital buildings easterly to the Jewish cemetery. This job was contracted for $14,000, but we induced Mr. Malley to relinquish the contract and we then had the Western Pacific Railroad Co. do this work for us for $8,000, thereby saving the City $6,000.

When this job was completed, the Railroad Company, for some months after, were hauling sand and gravel from the Yuba River bottom lands for ballast. We were so pleased with the work which had been done that we decided to endeavor to have similar work performed on the Yuba River levee, westerly to Yuba Square. Accordingly, we made such a request of Mr. Bogue, who referred the matter to Mr. Oliver, who came to Marysville and looked over the situation and told me he would have to make an adverse report, because there were no similar advantages to be obtained from this proposed work as were obtainable under the first job.

However, on September 1st, I received a letter from Mr. Oliver calling attention to the fact that the railroad franchise required that a steel bridge be constructed soon across 5th Street at the subway and asked if I thought it would be possible to arrange with the Levee Commission and City Council for an extension of time of eight years in which to build this steel bridge, as their plans for a freight and also passenger depot had not yet been decided upon and they would prefer to maintain the temporary wooden trestle until those plans were perfected. I replied to Mr. Oliver that he could expect to hear from me shortly in reply.

I at once took the matter up with the Mayor and Council, told them of the refusal of the railroad company, a few months previous, to improve our Yuba River levee with dredge tailings to be brought from Oroville, and recommended that the City authorities grant the requested extension of eight years in which to construct the new steel bridge, PROVIDED, that the railroad company do the work which had been asked for by the Levee Commission. The Council authorized me to send this message to the Western Pacific; and, on September 8th, 1908, I received a letter, addressed to the Levee Commission, in which Mr. Oliver stated “that he had to take his hat off to the Levee Commission in usually obtaining what they went after,” and that the suggested arrangement was satisfactory. The Levee Commission then entered into a contract with the railroad company on October 23d, to raise and widen a little over two miles of this levee for the sum of $6000, same being based on a price of forty cents per cubic yard in place, and the Council granted the eight year extension of time for the steel structure. A right of way for curved track, to reach the crown of the levee alignment was donated by Mr. Martin Sullivan, tracks were laid and this new work commenced; and again I made judicious use of a few boxes of cigars for the train crews. When this work was completed, of the seven miles of levee surrounding the City, all had been so raised and “rip-rapped” with dredge material brought from Oroville, except three thousand feet on the A Street and Yuba Street levee and where the levee was too crooked to permit the laying of a railroad track.

When all this work was completed by the railroad company and their tracks had all been removed, the Commission employed teams and raised all this stretch of levee about another foot, by placing earth on all the crown of the levee, eight feet in width. We did this because the crown was very rough, as it consisted only of rough dredge material. This made all our levee system, easterly from the Jewish cemetery to the Yuba River levee, then westerly to Yuba Square, a full seven feet above high water and it was a fine job, done at a minimum of expense and there was not another levee in the State as well constructed. As a result, the other portion of the levee, westerly from the Jewish cemetery, around the Hospital, thence down K Street to the 5th Street subway suffered in comparison. This latter stretch had been raised by the Western Pacific, under the terms of their franchise, three feet above high water mark; they had complied with the terms of their contract, which also provided that, in case still higher water marks were made by the river, they would be compelled again to raise the levee, always keeping it at three feet above high water mark. We had made this agreement with them BEFORE the 1907 flood; had we known what the river could discharge, like it did in 1907, we would have insisted upon MORE than three feet. Having, however, experienced this 1907 flood, having since then raised all other portions of the levee where there was no railroad franchise, seven feet above high water mark, we were dissatisfied with the three feet above high water mark, which the railroad company had raised the levee in conformity with their contract. If we wanted a further raise, we would have to pay for it. We wanted a further raise and we announced that we were going to pay for it. The work which we had been doing in the past year had caused “whisperings” and “quiet criticisms” but our announcement, that we proposed to raise this levee and pay the railroad for doing it, caused the “lid to be blown off” with loud criticism from several parties, particularly from a small newspaper, published in town at that time, called “The People's Cause,” owned and edited by the then Mayor of Marysville. This paper printed a