Craig Daily Press

Craig — The following article was taken from the June 17, 1921, edition of the Routt County Sentinel. The story is below is Part 2 of the two-part story. The first part appeared in the May 31 Saturday Morning Press.)

The train, which came in Tuesday night from Denver, did not reach Steamboat until 4 a.m., but it got to Craig before the track had been seriously damaged. It was unable to return and still is held there, Steamboat having become the western terminal for railroad travel.

Passenger, mail and express are unloaded here, but passengers for points below have been able to reach their destination by making wide detours, using other forms of travel.

The northern approach to the County Bridge West of Mount Harris is washed out, as are both approaches to the bridge at Hayden. Automobiles are however able to get to Craig by remaining on the north side of the river and going west via Craig.

Parties wishing to get to Hayden have to travel by way of Twenty Mile Park or ford the high water on horseback at the Hayden Bridge.

At Mount Harris, the water has this week been 8 inches higher than ever known before since the camp was established, and a number of families have been flooded out, taking refuge in the schoolhouse. The new shaft being sunk by the Colorado Utah Coal Company, now 254 feet deep, is flooded.

Considerable debris collected at the railroad bridges between Steamboat and Brookston, and two engines, one on each side, were busy yesterday pulling out logs and trees. Two work crews have been engaged in making repairs in the Steamboat district.

The spillway at the flourmill was undermined Wednesday morning, and it became impossible to generate electricity for the town, the “load” being switched to the steam plant in town. Temporary repairs have now been made, and the mill was today again generating the current.

Division engineer B. P. Chase, who has records of the flow of water in the river for the past 16 years, reports that the Fifth St. Bridge again showed a depth of 6.65 feet at 11 p.m. Tuesday.

This indicated a flow of about 7,000 cubic feet of water a second, or 1,000 feet more than ever before.

Elk River brought in much more, and Soda Creek about 2,000 feet. With the discharge of Trout Creek, Elkhead Creek, Fortification Creek and Williams Fork, Mr. Chase estimates that the flow at Maybell must equal 20,000 cubic feet per second at least one third higher than ever recorded before.

Mount Harris experienced more than one flooding of the lower part of the town, and finally a dike was constructed on the north riverbank almost the entire length of the river running through the town. The mineshaft mentioned in this article actually would be a slope. Mount Harris was a slope mine and not a shaft mine; the portal or entrance to the mine going into the coal vein at a slope rather than straight down.