Downpour01

Waupaca County Post

Prime Time

March 23, 2006

When Waupaca Was Young

By Dan Nerhaugen

March 1906 Downpour Filled Cellars, Threatened Dams

Two days of steady rain dropped a total of 3 inches on Waupaca 100 years ago this week, creating quite a commotion in the city and its newspapers.

The front page of the Waupaca Post reported, ”The river on Saturday [March 24, 1906] was normal. On Sunday, about noon, a heavy rain set in, which continued with but little let up, until Monday night, turning to snow early Tuesday morning.

“Sunday night the water in the river commenced to rise, and on Monday morning, it was up to the crest of both the electric light dam and the city dam near the stone bridge. Monday afternoon, it commenced to run over both dams, and by the next morning, a steady stream was going over the roadway just west of the power house, four inches deep.

“The water broke over the west wing of the city dam, north of the excavation made some years ago for a waterworks reservoir, and also over the east wing of the electric dam. As a result, many cellars along the bank of the river, between the city dam and the central lumber companies dam, were flooded.

“If the electric light dam had not held, it is probable that every dam on the Waupaca river would have been carried away. The fact that there was a thick coating of ice on top of the dam and that the ground was frozen, is the reason the water did not cut through and carry part of it away.

“All the low paces in the city were flooded, and many cellars had water in them on Monday, but no great amounted of damage was done. Part of the flume of the dam at the granite quarry went out on Monday morning, creating a loss of about $150.”

Two days later, the Waupaca Republican’s front page added the intelligence that “[t]he government water gauge showed that on Monday night nearly 3 inches of water had fallen. … All over this section … the fields and streets are covered with sheets of ice …

“For a time there was a miniature Niagara flowing over the southwest side of the stone bridge. While in the back water did not interfere materially in the electric-generating station of the city water plant the A.G. Nelson Lumber Co.’s feed mill was obliged to stop Monday owing to the excessive volume of water on both sides of the dam. …

“Word came Monday afternoon that the dams at Amherst and Sheridan had gone out. … [Many Waupacans] feared the worst but it proved to be an unfounded rumor and everything had quieted down by Tuesday evening.