Archdeacon Stuck's Flood

Early journals sometimes recorded weather information, and particularly information on extreme weather events, that escaped official records. This week's column describes an early Fairbanks flood as seen by Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, who was not only a prominent Episcopal missionary, but also the first official weather observer in Fairbanks. It seems possible that the flood interfered with regular weather observations, as rainfall measurements for June and July of 1905 have not survived. The journal entries on the flood start with observations made as the Archdeacon and some friends returned from a day's walking trip to Ester:

Friday, June 30, 1905 ... The main city bridge was in the greatest peril, with a jam of acres of drift and logs up against it. The upper bridge was already gone out, and even as we reached the bank a large section of it came whirling down the current and added itself to the jam. A number of men were tearing the planks from the bridge, to save them from the destruction that was impending and we crossed with difficulty... It became necessary to destroy the bridge and relieve the jam at any cost, and dynamite was sent for and the piers were blown up.

July 1, 1905 ...But while these operations [dynamiting the bridge and breaking up the jam] were in progress the damage to the bank had greatly increased and Front Street was cut away right to the sidewalk. Every effort was now bent to saving the building at the corner of Cushman and Front Street... The damage on Front St. is checked tonight, but the water is still rising...

July 2 ... We can now estimate our losses, as there seems no danger of further destruction. Both the bridges are gone -- built no longer than a month or six weeks ago at a cost of not less than $10,000. All the railroad bridges are gone, the cost being at least as much. The N.C. wharf is gone and all the other wharves are much injured. It is estimated that it will take from ten to fifteen thousand dollars to drive piles for a permanent bulkhead and fill in behind them to replace the 100 ft of Front St. that has been washed away.

July 3 ... It still rains and the river still rises.

July 4 ... the calamity of the town, and the constant rain, and the destruction of the railroad...[forced the abandonment of the 4th of July celebration]

July 5 ... It is impossible to get anywhere near the cabin we bought... We could see it with its stove-pipe set at a rakish angle indicating that the air-tight stove inside was afloat, but we could not approach within 100 yds... And it is still raining and the river still rises.

July 6. Today and tonight have brought the climax of the flood. When I got up this morning I found that the river had overflowed the bank within a block of the hospital, and all below that block was inundated, despite an attempt at a dyke... there is now a line of levies for 300 yds along the waterfront. about 3 A.M. [July 7] when the Tanana Chief came upstream and though I shouted and waved she did not keep off as far as she might have done and the waves from her wheel washed over our levy in several places... the levy broke in front of the Kellums' house. Before we could reach it the breach had widened so greatly that it was beyond our power to repair it... We roused the folks on 2nd Avenue, where the main stream was flowing and stood looking at the destruction, helpless. Just then there came along a miner who said he could stop the gap if he had some poles and some moss... inch by inch, the miner prevailed over the waters... By 5:30 the breach was healed.

July 7. Today the waters began to recede. It is estimated that 400 people are homeless, though with most of them this is only a temporary inconvenience... More than half the town was under water. Cushman as far back as 4th is flooded, and the back water, working round by the sloughs, will take a long time to disappear.

Archdeacon Stuck's Journal is preserved in the Episcopal Church Collection, Alaska and Polar Regions Dept., University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the excerpts here are reprinted with their permission. Records of similar events all over Alaska undoubtedly exist, but they are hard to find. What kind of weather records do you have in your attic?