Great Flood of 1862 in Western US States

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The Great Flood of 1862 or Noachian Deluge was the largest flood in California's recorded history, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains (or snows in the high elevations) that began in Oregon in November 1861 and continued into January 1862. This was followed by record quantitative precipitation in Jan. 9-12th, which contributed to a flood which extended from the Columbia River southward in western Oregon and through California to San Diego, and extended as far inland as Nevada in Utah Territory and Arizona in western New Mexico Territory.

It was climaxed by a warmer, more intense storm with much more rain that was made more serious by the earlier large accumulation of snow, now melted by the rain in the lower elevations of the mountains. Throughout the affected area, all the streams and rivers rose to great heights, flooded the valleys, inundated or swept away towns, mills, dams, flumes, houses, fences, and domestic animals, and ruined fields. Early estimates of property damage was at $10,000,000.^[1] However, later it was estimated that approximately one-quarter of the taxable real estate in the state was destroyed in the flood. Dependant on property taxes the State of California went bankrupt. The governor, state legislature, and state employees were not paid for a year and a half.<sup>[2]  
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The following is an eyewitness account of riding in a steamboat to Red Bluff up the Sacramento River at this time.


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The entire Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys were inundated for an extent of 300 miles (480 km), averaging 20 miles (32 km) in breadth.^[9] John Carr wrote of his riverboat trip up the Sacramento River when it was at one of its highest stages of flood:

… I was a passenger on the old steamer "Gem", from Sacramento to Red Bluff. The only way the pilot could tell where the channel of the river was, was by the cottonwood trees on each side of the river. The boat had to stop several times and take men out of the tops of trees and off the roofs of houses. In our trip up the river we met property of every description floating down—dead horses and cattle, sheep, hogs, houses, haystacks, household furniture, and everything imaginable was on its way for the ocean. Arriving at Red Bluff, there was water everywhere as far as the eye could reach, and what few bridges there had been in the country were all swept away. I managed to get to Cottonwood, and had to lay over for a week before any of the streams between there and Hay Fork Valley were fordable. ^[7]

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^{As you can see normal did not exist from Red Bluff South past Sacramento on further south down the flood plain.}

^{In regard to southern California please see the following quote:}

In Southern California, beginning on December 24, 1861, it rained for almost four weeks for a total of 35 inches at Los Angeles. The flooding drowned thousands of cattle and washed away fruit trees and vineyards that grew along the Los Angeles River. No mail was received at Los Angeles for five weeks. The Los Angeles Star reported that:

The road from Tejon, we hear, has been almost washed away. The San Fernando mountain cannot be crossed except by the old trail ... over the top of the mountain. The plain has been cut up into gulches and arroyos, and streams are rushing down every declivity. ^[12]

The plains of Los Angeles County, at the time a marshy area with many small lakes and several meandering streams from the mountains, were extensively flooded, and much of the agricultural development which lay along the rivers was ruined. In most of the lower areas small settlements were submerged. These flooded areas formed into a large lake system with many small streams and a few more powerful currents cut channels across the plain and carried the runoff to the sea. At Santa Barbara the narrow coastal plains were flooded by the rivers coming out of the mountains, and the town of Ventura was abandoned. In San Bernardino County, all the fertile riverside fields and all but the church and one house of the New Mexican colony of Agua Mansa, were swept away by the Santa Ana River, which overflowed its banks. The ringing church bell on the night of January 22, 1862 alerted the inhabitants to the approach of the flood, and all escaped.^[13] Downriver in Los Angeles County, (includng what is now Orange County) the flooding Santa Ana River created an inland sea lasting about three weeks with water standing 4 feet (1.2 m) deep up to 4 miles (6 km) from the river.^[9] In February 1862, the Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and Santa Ana Rivers merged. Government surveys at the time indicated that a solid expanse of water covered the area from Signal Hill to Huntington Beach, a distance of approximately eighteen miles. In San Diego a storm at sea, backed up the flood water running into the bay from the San Diego River, resulting in a new river channel cut into San Diego Harbor. The continuous heavy downpour also changed the look of the land, the previously rounded hills were extensively cut by gulleys and canyons.^[14] To the north, in the Owens Valley, similar snow and flooding conditions as those to the east in Aurora, lead to the local Paiute suffering the loss of much of the game they depended on and cattle newly driven into the valley to feed the miners, competed with the native grazers and ate the native wild plant crops the Paiute depended on to survive. Starving they began to kill the cattle and conflict with the cattlemen began, leading to the subsequent Owens Valley Indian War. End quote. All the above quotes are on the page heading "Great Flood of 1862" in the English version of Wikipedia.