The Riverand the Road The compelling story of the Big Thompson River, US 34, and human resilience in the face of tragedy Published by the Colorado Department of Transportation Big Thompson River Waterbody Big Thompson US Highway/ Community Interstate Historical River & Road Other Road Other River/Creek Features City/Town N O M R I T H L B L L F E A O R NORTH R C F O K B K U B R C I K C E C G D K A F R K T O C K H E D X H R E RT H O R C O O F R R N N Y O O N E M S E K P R K K C B C E R E I G R E R Glen T E E E C H K Haven O M K N P S O N Horseshoe I A W D S O Curve N E S T K 43 P N I C R E E M Drake C Y O 43 O N N A H E R T V Stony The Waltonia I River Lodge The Dam R Store LOVELAND G Narrows Cedar 34 To 34 N Colorado Rocky I O Cove Cherry Loveland P S Mountain Heights H O M Company National T Cottages B Park G C I O B T T O N Glen W O K Comfort Pole E 34 O E Hill D R S C Whispering OL Pines Motel I T U Olympus D E ESTES Dam C Bald K N O R T H PARK F O Mtn R K L I T T L E T H 36 O M P S Fort L O Collins LAKE I ESTES T N Rattlesnake T CA Rocky L R Park E MUGGINS GULCH Mtn Greeley K I Estes R NP T V 34 E Park TER LAKE H E 34 E Loveland R O to C R E M 36 Wray, S H A Wiggins I S P Lyons I-25 F T S O N F R O I R V E 36 K R 7 F Boulder I S H C To Lyons K 021.25 .5 57.5 10 Miles Denver The Big Thompson River and US 34, Larimer County, Colorado The Riverand the Road This book is dedicated to the people who lost their lives in the Big Thompson Canyon floods of 1976 and 2013, and to Scott Ellis, late CDOT Region 4 Resident Engineer and first 2013 post-flood Project Manager. Created by for the October 2019 ii — The River and the Road Project Lead Colorado Department of Transportation Jason Marmor Historical Research & Writing Jacobs Engineering Group Patricia Steinholtz Historical Research and Contributors Centennial Archaeology Kristin A. Gensmer Eva M. Garner Document & Graphic Design Jacobs Engineering Group Patricia Steinholtz Proofreading Jacobs Engineering Group Misty Swan Printing Steuben Press, Longmont, CO Published by the Colorado Department of Transportation 2019 Front Cover Image: Colorado Department of Transportation, 2013 flood Back Cover Image: Colorado State University, 1976 flood The River and the Road — iii Table of Contents Foreword v Introduction vii Chapter 1: The River 1-1 Chapter 2: The Road 2-1 Chapter 3: The 1976 Flood 3-1 Chapter 4: The 2013 Flood 4-1 Chapter 5: The Future 5-1 Image source: CDOT iv — The River and the Road The River and the Road – v Foreword This is the story of the enduring struggle to forge and maintain a transportation connection through the Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park. Constructed more than 100 years ago, the first road established Image source: CDOT that connection and paved the way for recreation and settlement in the canyon. Since then, major flooding of the Big Thompson River has claimed lives and caused catastrophic damage to property, infrastructure, and natural habitats. Throughout both the 1976 and 2013 floods, the human spirit was tested, but not broken. Meet the people who barely survived these disasters, those who tragically did not, as well as those who tended to the injured, picked up the pieces, and did the seemingly impossible. As a member of the Colorado Department of Transportation team who Johnny Olson has been part of this story, I encourage you to learn more about the river, the road, CDOT Deputy Director and most importantly, the power of human persistence. June 28, 2019 Image source: CDOT vi — The River and the Road Foreword The River and the Road – vii Introduction This is the story of the Big Thompson River, its namesake canyon, and United States Highway (US) 34 ...which hugs the river’s Despite its alluring natural meandering curves. beauty, the Big Thompson It is the story of the river River, which is confined by and the road. high walls of the surrounding canyon, is prone to dramatic Image source: CDOT flood events. This story speaks of awe-inspiring plains, each influencing the other ever the first natural beauty, human determination, since travelers began venturing through mountain exceptional feats of engineering, and the canyon. range west of the Great Plains. The tragically, staggering devastation and precipitous roads from the flatlands to poignant acts of heroism — all of which Lauded as “the very gem of beauty,”1 Estes Park presented a multi-day trial coalesce around one thing — the Big the high alpine valley that would become even for those who came prepared.2 Thompson River. The river and the the Town of Estes Park lured explorers road are inextricably bound together, and travelers from afar. However, The Big Thompson Canyon beckoned. journeying side-by-side from lofty visitors faced a formidable obstacle The river had already cleaved a twisted mountain valleys to expansive, sweeping upon reaching Colorado’s Front Range, path through a high-walled chasm viii — The River and the Road “No motorist can really claim to have seen Colorado scenery at its zenith who has not driven the Big Thompson canon [sic],”4 proclaimed a journalist in 1920. Introduction The canyon’s natural beauty also lured settlers to put down roots along the river’s banks. People built summer cabins and permanent residences, and established businesses catering to Image source: Collection of P. Steinholtz Image source: Collection of P. an ever-increasing number of visitors and recreationists. Small residential communities sprang The canyon’s natural beauty up, some of which remain in the Big lured settlers to put down Thompson Canyon roots along the river’s banks. today.5 Yet few people knew Image source: P. Steinholtz the canyon held a devastating secret only those keen It wasn’t just the destination, but the journey through the Big to its clues could decipher. Stranded trees lodged uncharacteristically high Thompson Canyon that made the drive to Estes Park so extraordinary. above the stream bank, deeply incised canyon walls soaring up to 3,000 feet between the mountain town of Estes proved it could be done — barely.3 high, and sharply curving hairpin turns Park and the City of Loveland, situated Despite the road’s precarious condition, attest to millennia of violent scouring.6 prominently at the river’s mouth its use exploded, and with it, years of The beckoning beauty of the river and approximately 20 miles downstream. So challenging upgrades and modifications. canyon belied their potential peril — why not build a road along the river’s Word soon spread that it wasn’t just the flash floods. A 1971 study prepared edge? In 1903, construction of the destination, but the journey through by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “rough and bad” Riley’s Road through Big Thompson Canyon that made the determined that the Big Thompson River the canyon (the precursor to US 34) drive to Estes Park so extraordinary. flooded an average of once every six The River and the Road — ix years, the worst of which killed seven Yet just 37 years later, a Towering thunderheads in July 1976 people in 1951.7 But these floods were devastating flood struck just a precursor of the devastation that Colorado’s northern Front unleashed a year’s worth of rain. would soon come. Range in September 2013, once again hitting the Big Thompson On July 31, 1976, the Big Thompson particularly hard. While the 1976 Canyon was the site of one of the storm was over within hours, the rain most catastrophic natural disasters that began September 9, 2013, didn’t in Colorado history. The canyon was end until six days later. During that alive with activity, as thousands of time, “biblical” record-breaking rainfall people celebrated the state’s 100-year dropped the equivalent of one year’s birthday. Towering thunderheads worth of precipitation yet again.12 Ten unleashed a year’s worth of rain in people died in the 2013 flood throughout just over one hour. The river exploded the state, including two women who from an average depth of 18 inches lived in Big Thompson Canyon.13 to a 20-foot wall of water. By the time it was finished, Colorado’s deadliest The 2013 flood completely washed out or recorded flood had killed 144 people and significantly damaged nearly nine miles injured 250 more, destroyed 418 houses of US 34.14 The Colorado Department and 52 businesses, damaged 138 of Transportation (CDOT) immediately houses, washed away much of US 34, mobilized for emergency repairs, demolished the Big Thompson Siphon, reopening US 34 and caused more than $35 million in in November 2013. On July 31, 1976, the Big damages.8 Permanent repairs Thompson Canyon was alive were undertaken People wanted US 34 to be replaced later, with CDOT with activity, soon to become the 9 precisely where it had been.