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 long article, severely criticizing the Commission for proposing to pay the railroad company for raising the levee, when the levee had already been raised three feet, the argument being to wait till another flood arrived and then have the railroad company raise the levee, under the terms of their franchise and so save the taxpayers' money. Other criticism from other parties was because we had performed a lot of work on other portions of the levee, under agreements with the railroad company, without advertising.

My answer to that latter criticism was, that no one but the railroad company could have performed the kind of work it did for us, and that the price had been exceedingly reasonable, in fact, at cost. As for the former criticism, our answer was, suppose another and higher flood occurred (which it did the following year), would not the citizens feel much more secure and retain their confidence if the levee were higher. Further, that the proposed work was only going to cost $3,755.30 for the job and I for one, did not propose to let the “measly” sum of $3,755.30 stand in our way of having that section of levee as high as other portions of the levee; that the judgment of the Levee Commission was supreme in such a matter and that the work would go on, which it did. At about that same time, a second quiet attempt was made to have the Grand Jury bring in indictments against the Levee Commissioners for violating the laws. This was commented on in an article in the Appeal, but the Grand Jury declined to take any action. (This was the Grand Jury of 1908-09.)

AND THEN, a few months later came the still higher flood of January 16th, 1909, when the gauge touched the 24 foot mark. Three days later, on January 19th, the following article appeared in the Marysville Appeal:

“Through the energy and foresight of W. T. Ellis, Jr., what was supposed to be an enormous addition to the height and thickness of our levee system and was with such hustle, that some citizens have said it was not done according to the prescribed forms of law, Mr. Ellis has been severely criticized for the manner in which he had done some of the contracting for the work of raising and strengthening our levees. It would seem that after the experience of the last few days, that Mr. Ellis should receive a vote of thanks and confidence from the people of Marysville for the prompt and efficient manner in which he has protected the City and let the legal technicalities of the irregularity of his procedure (if any irregularities exist) take the usual course of being 'laid on the table'.”

Later on, I was presented with a solid silver service and on the large silver tray was inscribed the following:

Presented to W. T. Ellis, Jr.,
by
Friends who appreciate his untiring energy and zeal as President of the Board of Levee Commissioners
of the City of Marysville 1900 to 1912

CHAPTER LXXIII
Artificial Channel Alterations Near Marysville

THE original channel of the Yuba River, from a projected south line of H Street, ran westerly to the Feather River, a distance of about 2800 feet and the junction of the two rivers being practically at an obtuse angle, the result was that as the Yuba River was the smaller and shorter river, the apex of floods on the Yuba River reached here before the Feather River. The result was that the strong current discharged directly against the bank on the Yuba City side, gradually wearing away and undermining the bank, close to the levee and the heavily discolored water from the Yuba would be observed a quarter of a mile upstream on the Feather from the junction of the two rivers. Finally, an effort was made to obtain Federal Funds (as the Feather was an officially navigable stream) and the effort was successful for a “cut-off.” Yuba and Sutter Counties joined in furnishing funds for the necessary rights of way and the present channel was constructed on the east side of what is now the Marysville Sewer Farm. The work was performed with mules and scrapers under contract, the headquarters for management being in my office at D and First Streets. It took several months to complete the job, the work being finished on November 11th, 1893, when the upstream end of the cut-off was opened, the river immediately fell from a reading of 6 feet 3 inches on the D Street gauge to 4 feet 10 inches the following day; however, the main object to be secured was to divert the main channel to the south and protect the Sutter County side; the plan worked successfully as in the next few years, the old channel was all filled up with debris and this is where the “jungle camps and dumps” now are, immediately across the levee at the foot of Third Street.

While this “cut-off” had solved the problem of the threatened danger to the levees on the Feather River side at Yuba City, it did not solve the problem of the “backing up” of the river waters at flood times, caused by the two sharp bends, known as Shanghai and Eliza Bends, where the channel was narrow and made a regular letter “S” and all the low lands were covered with a dense mass of trees and underbrush. Therefore, in 1906 I suggested to District No. 1 of Sutter County, that they join with the Marysville Levee Commission to get another artificial cut-off constructed just south of Shanghai Bend and negotiations were entered into with the State Engineering Department to perform the work of excavating, if we furnished the right of way and did the necessary clearing, which was agreed upon. We then purchased all the necessary low land there consisting of about 275 acres for which we paid $3,000.00 to Mrs. Abbott and Ferd Hauss and the following year, the right of way for the proposed cut-off was cleared; but before any arrangements had been made for the work of excavating, the disastrous flood of 1907 arrived and I decided that some better and more effective plan should be adopted.

I then investigated to ascertain whether there was a possibility of “side-tracking” both Shanghai and Eliza Bends by a cut-off, from the south side of the D Street bridge straight south to Eliza Bend, a distance of about two miles. My trip of investigation was quite difficult as the bottom lands there were a tangled mass of trees and underbrush, but my trip disclosed that there was not only a good fall, but that the 1907 flood waters had torn through with great force and showed a very marked inclination to escape that way. I then put men to work, clearing out a space about 15 feet in width, which took a few weeks to perform and when completed, had the men commence to burn the piled up brush and trees. No one knew I had been having this work performed but when burning commenced, the owner of the land one day observed a lot of smoke, made an investigation and having ascertained what had been going on, called on me and threatened me with arrest for having trespassed upon his property without permission and having burned up, what he claimed was “several hundred dollars worth of valuable wood.” He was “mad as a hatter” and I had dreams of going to jail but knowing his fondness for imbibing in the cup that cheers, I suggested that we go up town and have a drink and talk it over; he agreed and when he ordered his whisky straight, I asked him if he had ever tasted champagne; he said he had not and I suggested a bottle; well we had several bottles and I saw that he got more than his share and he enjoyed it hugely; well I obtained his forgiveness and his written permission to finish the burning and also to have a survey made down the clearing. This survey when finished showed that in a distance of two and a half miles from the Southern Pacific Railroad bridge to Eliza Bend there was a fall of about seventeen feet.

I then took this survey to San Francisco and called on William Hood, Chief Engineer of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, which had its offices at that time in the Flood Building on Powell Street. I had met Mr. Hood once before and knew that he was very sharp spoken and very gruff in his ways so was forewarned as to what kind of a reception I might have. When I called, I was told he was busy and would see me “before long,” which resulted in my “cooling my heels” in an ante-room for about an hour. I finally was admitted to his office and introduced myself as President of the Marysville Levee Commission and reminded him of the flood we had recently experienced, that his Company's bridge across the Yuba River had had about five feet of steel super-structure submerged; that their rails, where they crossed over our levee, were about four feet below the levee surface; that we had been compelled to sack the levee at that point during the last flood, that it had been done hastily and had almost failed and that for the protection of the City's levee and of his Company's bridge, a new channel should be constructed to connect with Eliza Bend, so as to relieve the “choke” there and expedite the flood flow and lower the flood plane against our levees and his bridge. I then showed him our surveys which I believed demonstrated that the plan was practical and could be expected to have the desired results; when I had finished my explanation he asked what the project would cost and I told him, about $50,000 to which he replied, “And I suppose you want our Company to put up the $50,000 and do this work for you; now let me tell you Mr. Ellis, I am a railroad construction and maintenance engineer and I am not in the business of building new channels for the Yuba River; you take care of your levees and I will take care of my bridges; I am very busy Mr. Ellis and you will have to excuse me and I wish you good day.”

Well, he was “tough” as I had expected but I decided to be “tough” also so I replied, “Mr. Hood, I will go at once but before I go, permit me to tell you that I did not come here with any intention of asking you to put up the money for this project, I hoped to get the money elsewhere and if I fail to get it and not have this plan put through, I am quite sure that your franchise does not permit your to maintain your rails where they cross over the crown of our levee, in such a position that the safety of the City is endangered, so if I fail to get this plan carried out, I feel quite sure that the Levee Commission have the right and power to order you to raise your tracks to the crown of our levee and that would mean the raising of your bridge and your embankment on A Street and that might cost your Company about $250,000.”

This statement very evidently had the desired effect, he saw the point as quickly as some California Legislators see the viewpoint of a lobbyist representing a utility corporation; he immediately asked, in a much better tone of voice, “Where do you expect to get the $50,000?” to which I replied, “From the State Legislature”; to this he retorted, “Well the Legislature is now in session, why not go there; why come to me?” “Well, Mr. Hood, “I replied, “I thought we might have a mutual interest in this matter, so came to you first with the idea you would be interested and be of some assistance in getting an appropriation of $50,000 from the Legislature.” Mr. Hood thought for a minute or so and then said, “Well possibly we could be of some help; now I tell you what to do, you go to Sacramento tomorrow and call on Mr. Jerry Burke at this address (which he gave me) and introduce yourself and tell him what you are after”; I suggested that he give me a letter of introduction to Mr. Burke, but he said “That will not be necessary, just call on Mr. Burke and introduce yourself, that will be all that is necessary.” I thanked him and took my departure.

Now in those days, the Southern Pacific Company, it was often said, “owned the State of California and its legislature”; in self protection, I guess that they just had to mix in State politics or be “held up” with “cinch bills.” It was a well known fact that they interested themselves in getting the “right” candidates for Governor nominated, they also “financially assisted” candidates for membership in the Legislature, often giving “financial assistance” to opposing candidates for offices of Assemblymen or Senators, so no matter which one was elected, the successful one would be under obligations to the Company. The Company also maintained a “lobby” at Sacramento (to keep the boys in line) and the directing head of this lobby was Jerry Burke. The railroad company did not care what the Legislature did, provided it did not take any action which was against the interests of the railroad company, so Mr. Jerry Burke was a “power” in Sacramento.

The following day, I went to Sacramento and called at Mr. Burke's office. There were a lot of men present and one of them, I asked to tell Mr. Burke that Mr. Ellis of Marysville was there to see him; he took the message to an inner office and almost immediately I was ushered into the presence of Mr. Burke, who came forward with outstretched hand and said, “Well, Mr. Ellis, I am glad to meet you; I understand that you have a very fine plan for river work to protect the City of Marysville, which we are very much interested in and that it will be necessary to get an appropriation of $50,000. Now let me ask you, have you seen any of the members of the Legislature or have you seen the Governor about this?” and when I had assured him that I had not, he called to a rather tough looking individual to come over and to whom he introduced me as being a Senator from San Francisco and said, “Now Senator, I wish you would take Mr. Ellis over to meet the Governor and see that there is no delay in doing so.” With that, accompanied by my Senator escort, we walked over to the Capitol, went into the large waiting room, where about fifty other people were standing about, apparently waiting their turn to see the Governor. We, however, did not wait, for my Senator escort walked over to the door-keeper to the Governor's private room, whispered to the door-keeper and we were immediately ushered into the Governor's presence. The Governor was having a conversation with several men near the window, my Senator immediately went over and whispered to the Governor; the Governor immediately left the others and I was introduced and he asked me what he could do for me; I told him I had a plan for river correction which I would like to explain and he gave me permission. I spread out my survey sheets, etc., and started to explain; now to be as brief as possible and still make some reasonable explanation would have taken me at least half an hour and I commenced to talk as fast as possible; the Governor seemed to me to be paying but little attention to what I was saying; after I had been talking about ten minutes, the Governor interrupted me, saying, “Mr. Ellis, that is a very fine plan, you have made it very clear that this work should be done, I will promise you right now that you will get the $50,000.” Well I certainly was surprised; I had hardly got started explaining the plan, neither had I said a word about $50,000; well, I was “stumped” for a moment and then it dawned on me that Mr. Hood in San Francisco “was a fast worker” and that both Mr. Jerry Burke and the Governor had been “wised up” in advance of my reaching Sacramento, so I thanked the Governor for his promise but asked if it would be necessary for me to have some Legislator introduce an Appropriation Bill, to which the Governor replied, “No, that will not be necessary, we will attend to that; you just go home and we will see that the matter is taken care of.”

Well I was as happy as a mosquito in a nudist colony and returned home and for the next few weeks, I kept tab on all appropriation bills which were introduced and when the Legislature shortly adjourned and quite apparently no appropriation for my project had been made, I came to the conclusion that I had been “double crossed.” I not only felt “peeved,” I was mad and took the train to Sacramento, called on the Governor and reminded him of his promise and told him I understood that no necessary appropriation had been made and “how about it?” The Governor said, “Oh, that's all right, Mr. Ellis, we have an appropriation for some $150,000 for river improvement and protection work for the Sacramento and Feather rivers and that's where the money is coming from and about next week, the State Engineer Nat Ellery will be up to see you.” Next week Mr. Ellery did come up, I showed him where the proposed work was to be done; in about another week, a survey crew came up to check up on my surveys and some time afterwards, a large dredger was towed up the river to Eliza Bend and the work of excavating the cut-off commenced. When the dredge had nearly reached the Sacramento Northern's trestle, I went to Sacramento and saw the State Engineer and suggested that the cut which had been made was not very large and while the dredge was on the job, would it not be a good idea, on its return trip to Eliza Bend, to make another parallel cut, about forty feet distant from the first one, and leave a “core,” which future floods would wash out and, in that way, have a real channel of good capacity which would cost about half as much as the first cut had cost; he approved of the idea and said he would see if it could be arranged; it was arranged and the dredge was about finishing this new job when the 1909 flood occurred and the rush of the current of water down the new channel was so swift, that the dredge would have been lost, had it not been well equipped with several cable lines which were made secure to several large trees nearby.

Succeeding smaller freshets have further cleared out this channel way and it has proved a great success in permitting the Yuba River to escape by this “back door” during flood periods and when the apex of the Feather River flood, backs up the Yuba River to the D Street Bridge.

The above is an example of how “business” was conducted in the Legislature those days; later on, this was all changed when Hiram W. Johnson was elected Governor with his slogan of “kick the Southern Pacific Railroad out of politics” and after he was elected, the State Railroad Commission was formed to represent the interests of both the railroad and the public.

Previous to the flood of 1907, the overflow area between Marysville and Yuba City was very largely grown up with a large number of trees and underbrush which greatly retarded the current flow; in place of the present subway on 5th Street, there was an earth grade or embankment for street purposes which extended to the old wooden covered bridge crossing the main Feather River channel reaching Yuba City, this grade used to overflow at flood periods, the gravel surface often being washed off or damaged. The present Southern Pacific trestle, to the north, also had at that time a considerable length of earth embankment, midway of their trestle bridge. The old wooden bridge was being replaced at the time the 1907 flood occurred and there was a mass of “false work,” which added to the brush and trees and the earth embankments mentioned above, causing a serious obstruction to the flood waters. To remove this menace in the future, and as there was a community of interests in this matter, I raised $2,000.00 for clearing out all trees and brush, and obtained $400.00 each from the Western Pacific Railroad, the Southern Pacific Railroad, the Northern Electric Railroad, Levee District No. 1 of Sutter County and the Marysville Levee Commission; we let a contract to P. L. Tyhurst for clearing 29.08 acres at $40 per acre amounting to $1163.20, we paid $800 for rights of way to Swain & Hudson, Charles Young, M. C. Dufficy and Mrs. Bilhartz, the balance for surveying and incidentals. All this work was completed in April 1908.

I then approached the Southern Pacific Company to remove four hundred feet of earth embankment in the center of the overflow area and replace same with trestle, but they declined to do so. I then drew up a petition, addressed to the Company, signed by a very large number of citizens, making this request and presented this to the railroad officials on September 8th, 1908, but this petition was also denied. I must have had a “hunch” that there might possibly be another big flood the following year (which there was), for I determined to place that earth embankment in such a condition, that if another flood did occur the following winter, that the flood itself would remove the embankment. We had cleared all the trees and underbrush, just upstream from this embankment and which had in the past given it some protection; I followed this up, by having our levee men cut down the edge of the embankment, where it joined the old excavation which had been made when material was excavated for the embankment, making a perpendicular and “raw edge” to the face of this borrow pit, for the full distance of 400 feet, in the hope, that a flood water would have an opportunity to undermine and destroy the embankment. The following winter, came the flood of 1909, and the plan worked perfectly, the entire embankment was washed out and was replaced with a wooden trestle bridge by the railroad company.

Ever since these two floods, the Marysville Levee Commission, has each fall of the year, had men employed to cut down the summer season growth of small brush, vines, etc., the annual expense being about $300.00 each year and it is an important practice which should always be done annually in the future.

CHAPTER LXXIV
Monies Raised by Taxation for Marysville Levee System

COST CITY LEVEE PROPER FROM 1861 TO 1882

1861     $ 84.00                                 1875 97,860.66
1864      500.00                                 1876   8,981.83
1865   1,563.75                                 1877   7,725.06
1868  18,274.32                                1878   6,874.26
1869    8,823.40                                1879 43,479.20
1870    2,150.74                                1880 10,799.07
1871           6.00                                1881 35,952.24
1872    2,300.92                                1882 43,925.47
1873    4,347.20                    Right of way    3,000.00
1874    2,788.43                                    $ 299,416.55

COST BROWNS VALLEY GRADE FROM 1868 TO 1881

1868 right of way $ 5,649.00              1877 1,000.00
1868-69               18,449.66              1878 1,223.87
1870                       1,353.25              1879 3,282.10
1872                         450.00 State Drainage Commission 26,000.00
1874                         272.00                1881 1,801.85
1875                    10,361.25                    $ 69,842.98

COST CITIZEN'S LEVEE FROM 1868 TO 1881

Private Sub         $ 10,000.00                 1875      280.00
1868-69                  1,600.00                 1881 13,000.00
1869-70                  2,400.00                       $ 27,280.00

RECAPITULATION

City Levee         $ 299,416.55                 1885 19,825.26
Browns Valley Grade 69,842.98              1886   8,367.79
Citizen's Levee        27,280.00                 1887 10,847.54
Total to 1881     $ 396,539.53                 1888 10,471.50
1881                       35,952.24                 1889   5,767.95
1882                       38,292.37                 1890 16,215.54
1883                       22,845.67                 1891 12,912.23
1884                       33,031.80                 1892   6,329.56

1893                       12,417.30                 1915            .00
1894                         5,339.07                 1916   3,625.03
1895                         5,088.45                 1917   1,851.19
1896                         8,962.99                 1918            .00
1897                         9,527.40                 1919    2,070.79
1898                         6,873.98                 1920    1,659.90
1899                       12,794.07                 1921    3,450.76
1900                         9,478.74                1922     2,548.77
1901                          9,175.39               1923     2,679.84
1902                          4,773.99               1924     1,803.96
1903                          4,192.93               1925     2,587.94
1904                        21,170.72               1926     2,707.29
1904 (County Tax)     5,000.00               1927     2,745.70
1905                        12,395.29               1928   10,666.34
1906                          6,195.78               1929   14,497.16
1907                        79,248.43               1930     4,385.21
1908 (County Tax)     5,000.00               1931     4,226.21
1908                        13,798.93               1932     4,049.00
1909                        37,572.65               1933     4,071.17
1910                        22,852.60               1934     7,260.54
1912                          1,793.27               1935     7,260.54
1912                          3,644.40               1936     6,225.71
1913                          3,543.39               1937     4,778.77
1914                          3,563.50               1938   20,188.04
        Total                           $1,037,132.14

The Marysville levee system consists of thirteen miles of levee, seven miles of which surrounds the City proper and encircles an area of 1418 acres of land; the remaining six miles of levee extends easterly, on the north side of the Yuba River and ends at the Kupser Ranch, and was constructed to prevent the Yuba River overflowing at flood periods and joining with the Feather River on the north side of the City, which it used to do in early days. At one time, in 1876, an attempt was made to shut off this overflow by the construction of a short levee, extending from the present Cordua District's school house in the Hallwood District on the Tahoe Ukiah Highway to the present Old Seven Mile House but as the river bed continued to raise with accumulating hydraulic mining debris, it proved ineffective and the present six miles of levee were constructed, to protect the City's safety.

It will be seen therefore, that the protection of the 1418 acres of the City of Marysville by the levee system, which cost $1,037,132.14, was at the rate of $731.40 per acre; incidentally, the entire levee system was built and paid for in cash, out of tax levies, AS THERE NEVER WAS A BOND EVER ISSUED FOR LEVEE PURPOSES.

I first became a member and President of the Levee Commission, in 1900 and since that time, to date, I have had the responsibility and the supervision of the expenditure of $352,544.05. I never employed any engineers to make plans, in fact my engineer was always the river itself, as with each occurring flood, which might happen to break previous records, I always had ready survey stakes, painted white, and as soon as the flood crest was reached, the levee foreman would immediately start out and drive these pegs at various places to establish the high water mark reached; then later on, I would employ a surveyor to ascertain what the height of the top of the levee was above this new flood height and I would formulate plans to raise the levee at such places as it was considered necessary so to do. I always found that the river itself was my best “engineer,” it always told me exactly WHAT it could do and then I laid my plans to “outsmart it” by raising the levee to such a point which would be safe to anticipate what IT MIGHT AT SOME FUTURE TIME, show me what ADDITIONAL it could do. I will frankly admit, however, that on the night of March 19, 1907, the Feather River came uncomfortably close to “turning the tables” and “out-smarting” me but I managed that night to “beat it at its own game” and prevented a catastrophe, but it was a mighty “close shave” that night, standing on the north levee, with the water pouring over its top from two to five inches deep at places, and about five hundred men, working like mad with sand bags and boards to prevent a break.

The floods of 1904, 1907 and 1909, all came close together, and it was during that period that the heaviest expenditures occurred during my administration as the total expenditure during that time was $203,234.40. But this is not all that was expended on the levees during that period because it was at that time, when the Western Pacific and the Sacramento Northern Railroads were being constructed, and by giving these two railroads easements and franchises on portions of our levees, they in return raised and strengthened those portions of the levees and thereby saved the City at least $100,000. Since 1910, expenditures on the levee have been mainly for maintenance with some betterments. The annual cost now for maintenance and administration averages about $3800 per year which should be considered a very reasonable figure, when we stop to consider that the levee system, which had cost to date a little over one million dollars, is the most costly and THE MOST VITAL AND IMPORTANT THING which the City owns today; upon its watchful care and supervision are dependent millions of dollars worth of property and the lives of our people and eternal vigilance has been and always will be, “the price of safety.”

CHAPTER LXXV
Outside Monies Which Have Been Raised by the Levee Commission for the Benefit of the City's Levees

                                                          Cost to the
Outside                                               Levee
Contributions                                      Commission

After the 1904 flood, practically the entire Yuba River was diverted to the Kupser channel at the base of the easterly end of the City levee. We interested Major W. H. Harts, of the California Debris Commission to construct an earth barrier across this channel $ 2,562.95                 $ .00

We then protected this embankment with a brush mattress for the California Debris Commission 473.32                       .00

In 1904, we were raising most of the Yuba River levee and obtained from the Board of Supervisors, for protection of County roads 5,000.00              .00

At that same time, we arranged for clearing brush for a channel at Shanghai Bend and obtained from the State of California 5,500.00                 1,125.00

After the failure of the Munson sand training wall on the Yuba River's north bank, Mr. Munson was awarded a contract by the Federal Engineers for $50,000.00 for repairs. We then, with the consent of the Engineers, induced W.P. Hammon of the dredging company, to purchase this contract from Mr. Munson for $15,000 and build a new dredge (No.12) and for the remaining $35,000.00 replace the sand training wall with a cobble embankment 50,000.00                .00

When the job was about complete, we endeavored to induce Mr. Hammon to continue to the foothill and replace the balance of this sand embankment with a dredge embankment. It was with considerable difficulty, but finally the California Debris Commission contributed $45,000.00 and I “passed the hat” and raised $15,000 for right of way through James o'Brien's land and the work was performed. 60,000.00                       .00

After the 1907 flood, we planned the clearing of all trees and brush between Marysville and Yuba City. Contributions were obtained from the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific, Sacramento Northern and District No. 1 and the work performed 2,078.00                    420.00

This was followed by clearing of trees and brush on south banks of Yuba River 1,100.00                      .00

This was followed by more clearing, south of D Street bridge, State contributed $450.00 and Levee Commission and District No. 1, costing 1,150.00            350.00

After the 1907 flood, we arranged with the State to dredge a new channel on south end of D Street bridge to Eliza Bend. Again we “passed the hat” for rights of way required.

Yuba River right of way channel cost 4,610.75                             512.55

Feather River right of way channel cost 3,560.00                        600.00

State's contribution for dredging 75,000.00                                     .00

In 1909, permission was granted A. L. Brownlee to operate a sand plant, upstream from the D Street bridge, in return for widening the levee crown, from 16 feet to 32 feet 4,900.00              .00

After the south subway wall on 5th Street was completed by the Railroad Company, we were not satisfied with the height. We induced the railroad company to place additional height and install concrete walls and gates on west end of the subway, cost 4,100.00              .00

When franchise was granted Western Pacific on K Street levee, they contemplated a branch road to Colusa, so franchise included north subway wall. They afterwards purchased the electric road, so never placed rails on north subway wall and to do so, made necessary a large fill where a curved track would be at northwest corner of 5th and K Streets. We were not satisfied with the width of the subway wall at that corner so asked Mr. Levey, President of the Western Pacific to make this fill and place tracks on the north subway wall; he wrote and refused to do so. I called on him in San Francisco and pointed out that this was a violation of the terms of his franchise on other portions of the levee. Very reluctantly he complied and did the work 3,750.00                .00

The trade of the Covillaud land to the Western Pacific saved us $6,000.00 for razing the old Third Street levee and enabled us to obtain more additional work on the levee costing $12,750.00, total 18,750.00               .00

After the 1928 flood, the public not being satisfied with the low levee for two blocks on each side of the D Street bridge, we erected concrete walls about 980 feet in length costing $5,250.01. Later, I got a bill through the Legislature and obtained a return of $1604.49 from the State 1,604.49             3,645.00

We followed this up, with a request to the Western Pacific Company to continue the raise of their tracks, from the foot of E Street to the foot of I Street, by ballasting as their tracks were just three feet above high water mark. This they did 5,854.02               .00

Not being satisfied with the dredge material used in raising our K Street levee, in 1934, we asked for and obtained an earth slab, placed on the west side of our K Street levee, from 9th Street to 11th Street, the expense being borne by State and Federal funds, we paying for removing and replacing telegraph poles, etc. 3,254.60               234.06

When the above was finished, two years later, we obtained similar work performed, from 11th Street, to the Jewish cemetery, we again paying for removal and replacing of telegraph poles, etc. 16,058.47               1,427.80

In 1937, we again obtained State and Federal funds to do similar work on K Street, from 9th Street, to 6th Street. When completed, costs were 3,750.00         400.00

In 1938, as a result of the December flood of 1937, with State and Federal funds, a heavy slab levee was decided upon, from D Street bridge to the K Street levee, thence to the Binney Junction. This work is now about 50% completed; costs estimated as follows 80,000.00           9,975.00

Totals $353,057.20               $18,689.93

(When this latter job is completed, we are planning for next year, some additional work, at a comparatively small cost to the City, and when this programme is completed next year, it will give the City one of the best, if not the finest levee system in the State. In the lower delta regions of the Valley, there are some larger levees, made necessary because of poorer foundations and also because of prolonged high water stages in winter months which does not apply in our levee system.)

In other words, to obtain $353,057.20 of “outside” monies for the direct benefits of the Marysville Levee system, the Levee Commission contributed an additional sum of only $18,689.93.

The above does not include, possibly a total of an additional $100,000 of State and Federal funds, expended for retards, channel correction, brush clearing, etc., to which the Levee Commission contributed nothing although these works were of very considerable but indirect benefits to our levees, and for which we always rendered cooperation in obtaining donations from the State.

The above does not include also, approximately one million dollars which has been expended by the State and Federal Governments on other levee systems on the Feather River, while I have been a member of “The Committee of Five” under the Curry Act and representing all the Reclamation Districts on the Feather River.

The above does not include the construction of the two parallel channels, which made the river scour about 20 feet and so made obsolete, about five miles of our east levee which extends to the Kupser ranch at the foothills. It took a dredge, specially equipped with a side stacker about eight years to complete this work. Aside from the actual dredging operations, necessary to construct these two 750 foot parallel channels, I raised funds to obtain the necessary rights of way required, about $40,000 and cost the City of Marysville nothing, the dredge company making no charge of course for their eight years' service of their work, they presumably and undoubtedly making a profit on the dredge operations.

EMOLUMENTS

As a member of “The Committee of Five,” I had been promised $125 per month; I actually received for my five years of service, an average of $31 per month which did not cover actual expenses.

As a member of the State Reclamation Board for ten years, I received only expenses but no salary.

As President of the Marysville Levee Commission for many years, I received no salary and paid my own expenses. Since June 4, 1929, when I have been General Manager of the Marysville Levee Commission, I have received a salary (which I have voluntarily been reducing from time to time). The total amount so received, if spread over the forty-two years I have been interested in the City's levees, and as Mayor for four years, would average $20.42 per month for that period of years, which has not covered actual expenses, during that period of years.

This reminds me of an occurrence when we had a hot contest for control of the Levee Commission in 1908. There was a colored man named Churchill, who had been born in Marysville and had always been very friendly to me. The day after the election, when we had won our contest at the polls, I happened to meet this man Churchill, who by the way, stammered badly. Churchill remarked, “Well, well, well Bill, we we beat them, didn't we,” to which I replied, “We surely did.” Churchill then said, “Guess this this Levee Commission, pretty good job, huh huh Bill.” I told him I took a lot of fun out of it but we got no salary, to which Churchill replied, “You you mean Bill, you you get no salary and do all all this work on the levee for for nothing?” I told him that was a fact. Churchill, with an incredulous look on his face replied, “Oh oh oh Bill, you you can't make me believe that, no sah, you you can't make me believe that.”

CHAPTER LXXVI
Manner in Which the Marysville Levee was Raised and Strengthened after the 1907 Flood

THE Marysville levees have been pronounced by State Engineers also Federal Engineers as among the best constructed levees in the State.

In the first place, the foundation ground upon which the levees rest is first class material, almost all being a few feet of heavy clay material, resting on hard pan. The old original 1907 levee was constructed of this heavy clay material, practically impervious to seepage. After the 1907 flood, the levees were raised and widened with various additions of clay, sand and dredge material brought from Oroville, practically making all our levee system wave proof, current proof, gopher proof and seepage proof. The following pages show some typical cross-sections of our present levee at various places, showing the various layers of material of different kinds which have been added to the old levee of 1907. A study of these cross-section diagrams will be self explanatory.

We discovered, during the 1928 flood, that this dredge material, placed on top of the levees was not impervious to seepage as we had expected it to be. In the 1928 flood, seepage through the top dredge material occurred at the foot of First Street, near the Arnoldy wood yard. As a result, we have since then been obtaining State and Federal funds with which to “slab” the levee on the water side to prevent this seepage. This has now been performed from the Jewish cemetery, westerly to 9th and K Streets and we are planning for more of this character of work, from the latter point, to the westerly end of the north subway wall, also along the Yuba River levee, from about H Street, easterly to the D Street bridge, which, when completed, will care for this situation. This seepage through this top coat of dredge material and over the old inside crown of the levee is not dangerous, because of the extreme width of the levee crown at those places, but it alarms the citizens and “does not look so good.” Only the north subway wall on Fifth Street and a short distance between D and H Streets remain to be completed in this way and at the same time, these stretches of levees are also being raised to bring them all up to a uniform height.

CHAPTER LXXVII
A $200 Investment Which Paid The City Big Dividends

IN FEBRUARY 1895, as Mayor I made a report to the Council on the probable cost for a system of drainage sewers for the City and also for the cost of filling all the streets and alleys in the slough area between 2nd and 9th Streets and recommended the work be done and that the necessary monies be raised by means of a bond issue, also that a new pumping plant be erected at 15th and E Streets, to replace the old one at 2nd and F Streets. This at first raised a storm of protest, particularly the proposed removal of the pumping plant from 2nd Street to 15th Street, many claiming that the natural fall of the land was “to the south” and that I was proposing to “run the water up-hill.” The Council, however, backed my plan, an engineer, George A. Atherton, City Engineer of Stockton was employed; he made a detailed report with estimates on April 2nd to the Council and on April 9th, the report was adopted and on June 4th, an Ordinance was adopted calling an election for the issue of bonds to the extent of $40,000 to carry out the plan. I got out a circular, giving a detailed statement of what was intended, estimates of all costs, the necessity of the improvement, with the result the bonds were carried with a favorable vote of 692 “for” and only 94 “against.”

Before I had ever made public my plan and realizing that the only place to obtain material for filling the slough was a large area, on the south side of the City levee, then on Third Street (where the ball park is now situated), I confidentially took the matter up with the owner, Mr. Charles Covillaud (son of one of the founders of Marysville) and asked him for an option on his holdings. Mr. Covillaud was very public spirited and cooperative; said that he had invested about $600 in this tract as a speculation but that he was very much in accord with the proposed public improvement and gave me an option on his entire holding for only $200. After the bond election, I purchased the land from Covillaud in my own name, paid him the $200 and then in turn, deeded the land to the City for $200 but put in the deed a reservation, that it must be used only for furnishing earth material, free of charge to the citizens of Marysville, otherwise, the property would revert back to me. The day after the election, John Stevenson approached Covillaud for an option on the property; Covillaud referred him to me as holding an option. Stevenson then called on me and offered me $1000 for my option; I asked him what he wanted the land for, to which he replied, “Oh I will put a man on the levee and charge 10 cents for every load taken away”; I then told him that this was what I proposed to prevent by a restriction I proposed to put in the deed, when I sold it to the City.

There was ample material there and the result was that the entire slough area was finally filled, including, not only the City's streets and alleys but the privately owned property as well.

Then in 1910, I approached the Western Pacific Railroad Company for some additional work on our levees, suggesting that in payment of these improvements I would endeavor to get the City to give them, free of charge, all the land which the City had acquired from Covillaud five years previous; this area had served its purpose and this large area should be valuable to the railroad for possible freight yards, industrial sites and for the new embankment, which they would have to build for their railroad, which at that time planned that the main line cross the north end of the D Street bridge. The Railroad Company finally agreed to the plan, I took the matter up with the City Council and they agreed to give the railroad company the Covillaud property. Full details of this agreement were published in the Appeal under date of September 23, 1910. When the deed was ordered drawn up by the City for the Covillaud property, it was then discovered, that the City could not dispose of the property because of the restrictions I had placed in the deed myself. This difficulty was adjusted by the City deeding back the property to me, and I then in turn, deeded the property to the railroad company, in both cases, the consideration being only nominal.

As a result of this trade, we obtained $12,750.00 work of improvement on the City levee, which, added to material which the City and the private owners had been able to obtain to fill up all the slough from 2nd to 9th streets, made the original investment of $200.00 for this area result in good dividends. In addition to this, when the railroad company had built a new embankment, on a long curve, from 5th Street to the D Street bridge, this new embankment made a new levee for the City and made the old levee on 3rd Street obsolete. This levee, being on a City street, was then torn down and the material used in further raising the fill, which had previously been made on Napoleon Square and the block of land, on which the Grammar Schools are now located. Had not the Railroad Company constructed a new levee for us about one thousand feet further to the south, we would have been compelled to raise the old Third Street levee, at an expense of $6000. That $200 investment for the Covillaud property paid the City about $20,000 in “dividends.”

CHAPTER LXXVIII
River Gauges at Different Places

PREVIOUS to the 1907 flood, I had maintained for several years a gauge at Alabama Bar on the Yuba River, in the canyon below Clipper Mills. An old man named Peterson lived there and I had a private telephone line reaching from his cabin to the W. J. Schultz store at Clipper, and every hour Mr. Schultz would relay me the hourly reading of the river. Later on I also obtained readings on the river gauge at the Colgate Power House. On the Feather River, I had a gauge in the back yard of the Rideout Bank at Oroville, there being no levee there at that time and L. L. Green, Cashier of the Bank used to phone me hourly the flood reading on the gauge.

After the flood of 1907, I established a more elaborate system of gauges about the City and other distant points, so that now, in addition to my book records, I maintain a large chart, to be used at flood periods, and with different colored pins, follow up on the chart the hourly advances of the water on each gauge so that at a glance, the situation everywhere is apparent.

GAUGES ABOUT MARYSVILLE LEVEE
(Zero on each gauge is same altitude)
Ft. In.
Gauge No. 34 (Old Slaughter House)
Top of levee 34 0
Base of levee 23 0
Flood of 1907 read 27 0
Flood of 1909 read 27 9
Flood of 1928 read 25 3
Gauge No. 37 (Lone Tree Cabin)
Top of levee 34 0
Base of levee 19 0
Flood of 1907 read 27 3
Flood of 1909 read 27 9
Flood of 1928 read 25 3
Gauge No. 36 (Kimball Lane)
Top of levee 34 0
Base of levee 19 0
Flood of 1907 read 27 4
Flood of 1909 read 27 10
Flood of 1928 read 25 3
Gauge No. 35 (Oroville Railroad)
Top of levee 34 0
Base of levee 19 0
Flood of 1907 read 27 3
Flood of 1909 read 27 8
Flood of 1928 read 25 3
Gauge No. 33 (Catholic Cemetery)
Top of levee 32 6
Base of levee 19 0
Flood of 1907 read 26 6
Flood of 1909 read 27 6
Flood of 1928 read 25 3
Gauge No. 32 (E & 15th Streets)
Top of levee 34 2
Base of levee 14 0
Flood of 1907 read 26 1
Flood of 1909 read 27 4
Flood of 1928 read 25 1
Gauge No. 29 (County Hospital)
Top of levee 36 8
Base of levee 14 0
Flood of 1907 read 26 1
Flood of 1909 read 27 2
Flood of 1928 read 25 1
Gauge No. 27 (K and 9th Streets)
Top of levee 36 6
Base of levee 12 0
Flood of 1907 read 24 5
Flood of 1909 read 26 2
Flood of 1928 read 24 7
Gauge No. 23 (West end Subway) South Side
Top of levee 36 0
Base of levee 10 0
Flood of 1907 read 23 9
Flood of 1909 read 24 6
Flood of 1928 read 24 3
Gauge No. 21 (D Street Bridge)
Top of levee, east side 31 6
Top of levee, west side 34 0
Flood of 1907 read 23 4
Flood of 1909 read 24 0
Flood of 1928 read 24 0
Gauge No. 17 (Yuba & 4th Streets)
Top of levee 32 0
Base of levee 20 0
Flood of 1907 read 25 4
Flood of 1909 read 26 2
Flood of 1928 read 25 9
Gauge No. 15 (12th Street pipe)
Top of levee 31 6
Base of levee 21 0
Flood of 1907 read 26 9
Flood of 1909 read 27 2
Flood of 1928 read 26 10
Gauge No. 13 (Airport)
Top of levee 35 6
Base of levee 25 6
Flood of 1907 read 30 4
Flood of 1909 read 30 0
Flood of 1928 read 28 0
Gauge No. 11 (Old Citizen's levee)
Top of levee 39 6
Base of levee 29 6
Flood of 1907 read 35 4
Flood of 1909 read 33 5
Flood of 1928 read 34 2
GAUGES AT DISTANT LOCATIONS
Daguerre Point concrete lip
Top of concrete side walls 11 0
Surface of concrete floor zero
Flood of 1913 read 8 3
Flood of 1915 read 8 5
Flood of 1928 read 10 6
Colgate Power House Gauge
Floor of power house is altitude 534
Floor of power house on gauge 16 0
Low water reading is 2 ft. below zero
Flood of Nov. 19th, 1920 read 14 2
Flood of Feb. 6th, 1925 read 17 10
Flood of Feb. 21st, 1927 read 14 5
Flood of Mch. 26th, 1928 read 19 5
Goodyear's Bar Gauge
River's bed reads zero
Low water reads usually 2 9
Flood of 1907 read 15 0
Flood of 1928 read 17 0
Oroville, foot of Meyers Street
Top of levee reads 19 0
Flood of 1907 read (produced) 15 0
Flood of 1909 read 13 7
Flood of 1928 read 13 2
Oroville, USWB Gauge, bridge (most reliable)
Flood of 1907 read 28 2
Flood of 1909 read 26 0
Flood of 1928 read 27 0
Los Plumas Power House gauge
Low water usually 455
Flood of 1907 read 493
Flood of 1909 read 489
Flood of 1913 read 480
Flood of 1928 read 481.6

Have also records of gauges at Nicolaus, Knight's Landing, Red Bluff, Colusa, Sacramento, Folsom, etc. For the last 43 years, I have kept records of the DAILY reading of the Yuba River at the D Street Bridge; (this data is too voluminous to publish here).

(High water readings of flood of Dec. 1937, see pages 206 and 207.)

CHAPTER LXXIX
High Water Readings of the Yuba River at the “D” Street Bridge, Marysville

THE first high water record kept of the Yuba River was in the great flood of the winter of 1861-2. Near where is now the D Street bridge, was growing at that time a large oak tree, and the highest water reached at the time of that flood was established by a large railroad spike driven in the trunk of this tree and remained there until the D Street bridge was constructed when my brother-in-law, A. C. Bingham, had a survey made to determine what the altitude of this spike registered on the newly established gauge and ascertained that the flood height of the 1861-2 flood was 11 feet 6 inches.

(This reading was 18 inches lower than “D” Street; there was no levee on the river bank at that time and the level of “D” Street those days was the same as it is today.
Ft. In.

January 11, 1862 11 6
December 25, 1867 13 6
January 19, 1875 15 2
March 6, 1879 15 11
April 22, 1880 16 2
February 4, 1881 18 2
April 6, 1882 11 2
March 29, 1883 12 9
December 23, 1884 17 1
December 25, 1885 14 8
January 24, 1886 15 3
February 13, 1887 11 0
January 3, 1888 10 11
December 11, 1889 15 4
March 8, 1890 16 8
February 24, 1891 13 0
December 28, 1892 17 0
May 14, 1893 15 1
January 15, 1894 15 0
May 27, 1895 15 10
January 18, 1896 18 5
February 6, 1897 16 3
February 7, 1898 12 1
March 25, 1899 18 5
January 3, 1900 18 0
February 21, 1901 19 0
February 26, 1902 16 11
March 31, 1903 19 4
February 25, 1904 20 0
January 23, 1905 16 3
January 19, 1906 21 8
March 19, 1907 23 4
January 22, 1908 13 5
January 16, 1909 24 0
March 21, 1910 13 11
January 31, 1911 20 0
March 5, 1912 6 10
May 19, 1913 10 10
January 1, 1914 21 6
May 12, 1915 20 8
March 21, 1916 14 1
February 27, 1917 17 2
March 27, 1918 10 6
February 11, 1919 15 11
December 18, 1920 10 4
January 30, 1921 10 4
December 13, 1922 13 6
April 6, 1923 10 5
February 9, 1924 9 9
February 6, 1925 17 10
March 9, 1926 14 7
February 22, 1927 19 7
March 27, 1928 24 0
December 16, 1929 15 7
March 4, 1930 5 10
March 19, 1931 4 4
May 18, 1932 6 4
June 1, 1933 4 6
February 27, 1934 4 0
April 9, 1935 16 0
February 23, 1936 17 6

Since the above was written a new flood has arrived with the following reading:

Ft. In.
December 11, 1937 25 8
 

CHAPTER LXXX
Record of Low Water Readings of the Yuba River at the “D” Street Bridge at Marysville

IN THE year 1873, a wooden bridge was constructed across the Yuba River at the foot of D Street and when the bridge was erected, a gauge was established and ZERO on this gauge, was the reading of the river water surface of that date, which was March 22, 1873. (Zero on this gauge equals 50.43 California Debris Commission data; in other words, Zero on this gauge is 50.43 feet above mean sea tide.) Many persons have the mistaken idea, that the bed of the Yuba River, is higher than the level of D Street, but such has never been the case. For example, when the flood waters of the Yuba River reach thirteen feet on the D Street gauge, then the river water is just level with the surface of D Street. In the following figures, it will be seen that the “highest low water” reading was on October 28th, 1905, when the gauge read 9 feet 1 inch, or 3 feet 11 inches below the level of D Street; the following figures demonstrate that previous to that date, the river was gradually filling and the low water plane was gradually raising but after that date, and ever since then, the river bed has been scouring and the low water reading has been lowering.

Ft. In.

March 22, 1873 zero
January 18, 1874 1 0
September 9, 1876 3 6
July 22, 1880 6 0
June 19, 1883 6 4
June 27, 1883 6 0
December 1, 1883 5 3
December 21, 1883 5 3
September 6, 1884 6 0
December 30, 1884 6 0
January 30, 1885 5 10
September 17, 1885 4 4
October 30, 1885 4 6
September 20, 1886 5 10
June 29, 1887 6 3
July 7, 1887 5 11
September 30, 1887 4 6
September 4, 1888 5 3
September 11, 1889 5 6
August 29, 1890 5 10
November 8, 1890 5 7
October 1, 1891 5 11
August 25, 1892 6 10
November 5, 1893 6 1
November 11, 1893 6 3
November 18, 1893 4 10
September 12, 1894 6 2
October 13, 1894 6 2
October 18, 1895 6 4
December 14, 1895 6 3
October 11, 1896 6 7
October 20, 1896 6 9
September 27, 1897 7 8
September 29, 1897 7 8
August 9, 1898 7 3
August 14, 1898 7 2
September 1, 1899 7 1
September 30, 1899 7 0
August 10, 1900 7 5
September 28, 1900 7 4
August 13, 1901 7 8
September 1, 1902 8 2
August 31, 1903 8 6
September 17, 1904 9 0
October 28, 1905 9 1
October 30, 1906 8 11
November 30, 1907 8 6
September 6, 1908 8 4
October 2, 1909 6 2
October 30, 1910 5 9
December 1, 1911 6 1
September 28, 1912 5 5
September 21, 1913 5 5
October 1, 1914 5 6
December 31, 1915 5 6
September 16, 1916 4 11
September 20, 1917 3 10
December 31, 1918 3 8
September 29, 1919 2 2
September 24, 1920 2 7
November 28, 1922 3 0
September 6, 1923 1 6
August 12, 1924 1 2

The following readings are BELOW ZERO.

Ft. In.

October 28, 1925 0 10
September 1, 1926 0 3
July 7, 1927 0 6
August 27, 1928 0 8
July 16, 1929 0 6
November 17, 1930 2 0
August 23, 1931 3 3
September 2, 1932 1 10
September 24, 1933 1 6
August 24, 1934 2 0
October 17, 1935 1 8
September 27, 1936 2 0

It will be noticed that between November 11th and 18th of 1893 there was a drop from 6 feet 3 inches to 4 feet 10 inches in seven days and this is accounted for by the fact that that summer a “cut-off” was constructed where it now is at practically the foot of H Street and when the cut-off was open, the water in the river immediately dropped but in a few days it equalized itself again. This cut-off was put in to deflect the Yuba River from hitting the bank at Yuba City at the junction of the two rivers which at that time made an obtuse angle and the old channel leading to Yuba City gradually filled up and is now where the “jungle camps” are on the north edge of the Sewer Farm.

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