Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1917 — Tells of Bursting Of Large Dam. [ARTICLE]

Tells of Bursting Of Large Dam.

Ernest L. Clark, a son of Mrs. E. L. Clark, of this city, and a brother of Leslie Clark, of the Republican, in a letter to the former, tells of the bursting of a large dam near Helper .recently. Mr. Clark is a dispatcher fbr the Denver & Rio Grande railroad Company at Helper. It had been his intention to return to Rensselaer in July, but since the bursting of the dam it is not certain when he will be able to return to Indiana. The letter describing the situation in Utah, follows: Helper, Utah, June 27, 1917. Dear Mother: Well, it is very uncertain now when I will get home. Gooseberry Dam, which held the water in Mammoth Reservoir, which supplied all this country with water, gave way Sunday night and flooded everything. The reservoir was fifteen miles iong and contained enough water to cover four square miles forty feet deep. We got word Sunday afternoon that the dam was expected to go out and to notify everyone to be prepared to take to the hills. When I came to work at midnight Sunday it was still holding, 'but everyone >vas instructed to go to the hills when the fire whistle blew. At 12:30 a. m. I got word from the dam that they could not hold it and in an hour the whistle blew, myself and the operators and four or five men who stayed in the office with me were the only people left in Helper. Everyone else was up on the hills, where they stayed until daylight. I had my grip packed and was ready to go when the water showed at Colton, but luckily for Helper, only the top portion of the dam gave away, the balance holding until about 7:30 a. m., letting the water come down gradually. If the. entire dam had given away, .there would have been a wall of water 7<5 feet high come through here. The water reached here about 2 . p. m. Monday afternoon and it is still running high this morning at 3 a. m., Wednesday. It did not reach our house, but was up to the street we live on. It washed out several houses between the river and Main street rnd we thought for a time yesterday that it would take out two jig brick stores, as it cut in under the rear of them, but believe they will manage to save them, as they blasted out another > channel and turned part of the water. It washed out all the bridges between here and Colton, 20 miles up the canyon, and a great deal of the track, and washed away about half the town of Castle Gate. It will be at least a month before we have a train to Salt Lake, but our track held east of here, so we can still operate trains between here and Denver. I don’t know how we will be fixed for water this summer, as every town between Scofield and Woodsifle, Over 100 miles, depended on the reservoir for their summer water. Everyone has been notified not to use any water for sprinkling lawns or watering their gardens, so I see where my garden burns up, as there is no rain here in the summer. If there should be a few rains up in the mountains this summer, it may keep us in drinking water from Green River. All the mines have closed down and will be closed for at least a month. One of the other dispatchers went to Salt Lake Sunday morning, expecting to be back today and let me go, but have no idea when he will get bp ck now, as we have no wires to Salt Lake and can get no word from there. He will either have to go around by Denver over the Union Pacific, making a trip of about 1,500 miles, or walk 20 miles over the mountains, to get back to Helper.