Scenes During the Potomac Flood – Great Trees, Debris, Pumpkins

1878

Scenes During the Potomac Flood

The Washington Star has this account of the recent rise in the Potomac at the National Capital:

From the Virginia side to look up the Potomac was like looking up the rapids at Niagara Falls, except that here the water was almost solid with mud, and was loaded with timber hewn and rough, and pumpkins and other farm products. Wrecks of bridges and houses were rapidly driven on the boiling flood.

As the angry waters struck the piers of the bridge they were forced up almost to the quivering timbers, and then started again on their rapid race for the sea. Looking down the river the water was dashed and tossed into the shape of ocean breakers. Behind the piers it boiled and bubbled like the contents of some infernal cauldron, with a roar equal to that of a tornado. Great trees and hewn timbers coming down stream would sometimes strike the piers and be whirled into the air against the bridge. In one case a tree trunk about sixty feet long and almost two feet in diameter was swept crosswise against the pier, and in an instant was broken into three parts and swept away in the mighty current.

Among the debris were hundreds of yellow pumpkins sweet from off the cornfields on the bottom lands many miles above, and the scramble for them was lively, some of the skiffs coming in loaded with them. Men, women and boys could be seen going home a large pumpkin under each arm, and rows of them lined the bridge and shore.

The damage to crops on the river farms must have been considerable, judging from the vast quantities of hay, corn and fodder that were afloat. During the night several canal boats came down, it is thought, from Georgetown, and went to pieces against the Long Bridge. A small dwelling house came down about two o'clock, and striking near the north draw shattered and went to pieces. Another large one with a roof newly shingled came down the south channe1, and striking a pier went to pieces and floated away in fragments below.


That Colorado Stone Man

A Denver assayer gives this account of the origin of the Colorado stone man with a tail:

In August, 1875, five of us were prospecting in the vicinity of Pueblo. In coming upon a sandstone quarry, one of the party observed a sort of likeness of a man drawn upon the rock. The incident occasioned a deal of talk about ancient creations, and the idea of getting up a second Cardiff giant was then favorably discussed.

The party agreed to undertake the task and a stonecutter named Saunders, who had been working in the vicinity and known to be a clever hand at modeling, was at once sought out and an agreement made for the figure. While the plan was in progress one of the party in a joking way, said the thing ought to have a tail, as in ancient times men had tails six or seven inches long. It was decided amongst the party that the figure should be known as a petrified Aztec Indian, and they would resurrect him after six months and impose him on the public as such.

The stonecutter, not seeing the joke, set to work, and made the figure, with tail appended. The price paid the artisan was $135, and after he had completed the figure it was buried. The "Muldoon" was made out of sandstone and dried by the cabin fire, which partly accounts for the little moles on the surface. After the burial — two feet from the surface of the ground — the party went on their way to await the resurrection.

A few of the prospectors had got wind of the proceedings and were keeping an eye on the party, and so they dispersed in different directions. Finally they became scattered, some in New York and the remainder in different portions of the country. I had forgotten nearly about the matter when the discovery was chronicled in the papers.