Today is the 116th anniversary of a monster Huron River flood that almost obliterated Ypsi's string of bridges, and swept an entire Frog Island business away (but only slightly delayed a grocery order). Here's the tale.
The thing that struck me the most about this story is the idea of huge ice floes in the Huron River. I've seen it freeze, and I've seen it flood, but I haven't seen both. This story suggests to me that the river was deeper in winter then than it is in winter now, and that it stayed frozen later then than it does now.
I was struck by that too, especially in light of how nice it is outside right now. But sure enough, the paper had several mentions of it...some other dams were blown out as well.
In early U-M anthropology professor Hinsdale's study of Native Americans published around 1920? he states that the river "used to be" about 5 feet higher than it is now. I don't know how he determined this or how long ago "used to be" was.
I think part of the reason that jumped out at me is that, growing up in Kentucky, I recall reading quite a bit about slaves escaping across the Ohio River when it froze (perhaps most famously portrayed in Uncle Tom's Cabin), and noticing that the Ohio River has never even come close to freezing in my lifetime. Of course, I'm sure part of that is due to its use in shipping; sections of it originally were only 3 feet deep (in the middle -- obviously the banks are still shallow!), but it's one more example of strong anecdotal evididence that, at least in this part of the country, winters were once a lot colder than they are now.
cmadler: I agree, anecdotal evidence does suggest that. I was just typing up Allie's journal for future posts and she was discussing "quite a bit" of snow in mid-April--levels that sounded like what you and I might expect for January.
The thing that struck me the most about this story is the idea of huge ice floes in the Huron River. I've seen it freeze, and I've seen it flood, but I haven't seen both. This story suggests to me that the river was deeper in winter then than it is in winter now, and that it stayed frozen later then than it does now.
ReplyDeleteI was struck by that too, especially in light of how nice it is outside right now. But sure enough, the paper had several mentions of it...some other dams were blown out as well.
ReplyDeleteIn early U-M anthropology professor Hinsdale's study of Native Americans published around 1920? he states that the river "used to be" about 5 feet higher than it is now. I don't know how he determined this or how long ago "used to be" was.
I think part of the reason that jumped out at me is that, growing up in Kentucky, I recall reading quite a bit about slaves escaping across the Ohio River when it froze (perhaps most famously portrayed in Uncle Tom's Cabin), and noticing that the Ohio River has never even come close to freezing in my lifetime. Of course, I'm sure part of that is due to its use in shipping; sections of it originally were only 3 feet deep (in the middle -- obviously the banks are still shallow!), but it's one more example of strong anecdotal evididence that, at least in this part of the country, winters were once a lot colder than they are now.
ReplyDeletecmadler: I agree, anecdotal evidence does suggest that. I was just typing up Allie's journal for future posts and she was discussing "quite a bit" of snow in mid-April--levels that sounded like what you and I might expect for January.
ReplyDelete