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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for Fall 2010 "IF THE LORD'S WILLING AND THE CREEK DON'T RISE" FLOOD CONTROL AND THE DISPLACED RURAL OMMUNITIESC OF IRVING AND BROUGHTON, KANSAS Robin A. Hanson Jefferson College Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the American Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, and the United States History Commons Hanson, Robin A., ""IF THE LORD'S WILLING AND THE CREEK DON'T RISE" FLOOD CONTROL AND THE DISPLACED RURAL COMMUNITIES OF IRVING AND BROUGHTON, KANSAS" (2010). Great Plains Quarterly. 2624. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2624 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. "IF THE LORD'S WILLING AND THE CREEK DON'T RISE" FLOOD CONTROL AND THE DISPLACED RURAL COMMUNITIES OF IRVING AND BROUGHTON, KANSAS ROBIN A. HANSON We should not be surprised if sinners sometimes sin and floodplains sometimes flood. -Walter M. Kollmorgen In this case study, I examine how the resi­ continuing expression of community solidarity dents of two displaced rural Kansas towns, and by the individuals associated with them, I pro­ their descendants, exhibit a sense of identity pose that the individuals living within these common to small farm communities through­ communities created a transcendental identity out the Great Plains, and how tenacious these similar to that of Benedict Anderson's Imagined ties are even after the physical reminder of their Communities. This communal identity remains communal bonds no longer exists. By examin­ a unifying bond without the need for an endur­ ing the struggles to survive faced by these two ing physical signifier. towns, Irving and Broughton, the resiliency Benedict Anderson identifies the nation as of the people who called them home, and the "imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of Key Words: cultural identity, Milford Lake, Tuttle them, yet in the minds of each lives the image Creek, rural studies of their communion."l Although Anderson is discussing the concept of nation, this sense of Dr. Robin Hanson teaches History and Anthropology imagining is also employed in these small rural at Jefferson College and Saint Louis Community communities because they share a common College in the St. Louis Metro Area. Growing up, her grandparents, one from Irving and one from Broughton, bond, a sense of belonging that transcends shared many stories about the communitites they called personal interaction. This camaraderie, built home. She holds a PhD from Saint Louis University in on shared experience, provides the foundation American Studies, and she is the 2005 recipient of the for a reciprocal existence fading quickly in the Kansas State Historical Society's Alfred M. Landon face of rapid growth and market expansion. Historical Research Grant. Experience throughout time has shown that shared tragedy and adversity build strong ties [GPQ 30 (Fall 2010): 251-69] between people who might otherwise have 251 252 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2010 little in common. The environmental tragedies Broughton, Kansas, just north of the Republican shared by the people living in these small com­ River in Clay County, serve as poignant repre­ munities create a certain sense of community sentatives of the numerous farm communities that connects the people to the land and to lost to the pressure of commercial enterprise. their ancestors who persevered through similar Unfortunately, these towns did not die a natural misfortune. The remarkable bonding between death through neglect or disinterest. Instead, seemingly unrelated farmers scattered through these towns were dismantled, displaced, or more the country who band together and help aptly put, destroyed to make way for what some each other in the face of adversity is so well people called progress. documented that it is often referred to as the Living in Kansas, a part of what was once "Kansas spirit."2 defined as the Great American Desert, requires This sense of belonging that emerged during a particular type of person. Farmers who are the expansion phase of American westward making a living from land considered marginal migration remains today and is unique to these by many still manage to bring in bountiful farm communities. The numerous small towns crops year after year. Human tenacity, coupled that rose up around railroad stops and mines with the unpredictability of nature, resulted had a sense of impermanence because they in the development of a special bond between were often settled to fulfill a business need these intrepid individuals. Persevering through without the accompanying expectation of the staggering array of nature's fury, including creating a permanent settlement. On the other drought, flood, tornado, blizzard, grasshopper, hand, people who settled in farm communities and fire, these pioneers and their descendants expected to remain on the land, but the dif­ created homes and businesses that endured ficulties of living in the Great Plains required through the generations. But nature was not an interdependency between people who would their greatest threat-the interests of big busi­ normally remain strangers. Even though the ness and imprudent urban planning resulted towns finally succumbed to federally mandated in legislation ensuring the end to their bucolic flood-control projects, the camaraderie shared way of life. Farmers living in the Flint Hills rec­ by the townfolk refused to concede defeat.3 ognized the power of nature and lived in con­ Rural communities are a distinctive remind­ junction with the ebb and flow of the rivers, yet er of the earlier growth and settlement of the economic concerns downstream proved more United States. At the formation of our coun­ devastating than the fury of nature itself. try only 3 percent of the population lived in cities; that number is now 80 percent.4 With FLOOD HISTORY IN KANSAS this urban shift, understanding of and respect for rural communities has shifted as well. The volatile force of nature is nothing new Food products in the local stores, packaged to the residents of northern Kansas. The win­ in appealing containers, maintain a distance ters are often harsh, filled with blinding snow­ from the farms and ranches and the people storms that bury the Great Plains under several responsible for supplying them. With the close feet of snow and with wind-chill temperatures of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier and far below zero. In the spring, the threat of flash the push of modern technology, the physical floods, damaging hail, and killer tornadoes distance between the coasts shrank to a mere mingle with the promise of growth and pros­ five hours by plane, but the sociological dis­ perity. Summer brings temperatures over one tance between urban and rural communities hundred degrees, the threat of drought, and the continues to grow to the detriment of the rural continuation of dangerous storms producing lifestyle. wind, hail, and torrential downpours. The fall Irving, Kansas, located on the banks of serves as a brief respite as the people prepare for the Big Blue River in Marshall County, and next cycle of seasons. Even though situated at IF THE LORD'S WILLING AND THE CREEK DON'T RISE 253 I 150 300 KILOMETERS FIG. 1. The Missouri River basin covers an area of roughly 338.5 million hectares and drains nearly one-sixth of the North American continent. Courtesy of US Geological Survey, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Columbia, MO. the edge of the Great Plains, the river valleys Farmers living throughout the Missouri provided a ready and constant source of water River basin recognized that the floods provided and, because of the natural flooding patterns, a continuous supply of rich topsoil, and they nutrient-rich soil. viewed the flooding as a dangerous but neces­ References to massive flooding in this area sary part of the natural cycle. One season of go back as far as 1542 when Hernando de Soto's loss due to flooding often resulted in a reward expedition documented flooding in Kansas in of high-yield bumper crops the following years. his expedition notes. The rivers in the north­ However, with a growing population along the ern portion of Kansas are part of the Missouri rivers farther east, the flooding gained greater River basin (see Fig. 1). significance. Starting with the devastating With continued European colonization, 1903 flood, public outrage and demands for references and detailed accounts identify major government assistance shifted the popular view floods within this basin during the years of of nature as provider to nature as a destructive 1827, 1844, 1903, 1908, 1935, 1951, and 1993.5 force that must be controlled (see Fig. 2). The social and economic impact of these The population growth in the Kansas floods increases dramatically with the growth City and Topeka metropolitan areas led to of settlement and industry in the affected area, ill-advised construction in the floodplains, especially the floodplains. thus resulting in greater loss of property and 254 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2010 FIG. 2. 1903 Flood in Kansas City. Photographic print on stereo card (stereograph). U.S. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. economic hardship as a result of the massive accepted routine of crop rotation in order to flooding. Immediately following the 1903 and take advantage of high prices for their prod­ subsequent 1908 floods, local businessmen ucts. This dangerous practice, coupled with a began talk of trying to limit the impact of severe drought that lasted several years, turned future flooding, but interest in flood-control the surface soil of the Great Plains into dust.

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