July 20, 1902 The First Big Flood

As we look at history and events, occasionally the only hint we have is a picture. This picture from the Interlaken Historical Society collection shows a flooded Main street in July 1902. We don’t have a letter telling of the details of the flood as we did for the 1935 flood earlier this month.

 

Goodman Hotel, 1902 Flood. Note the open space on the right;
in the future the Interlaken Sales company building would be located there.
Interlaken Historical Society photo collection #142

Having a date, a newspaper search becomes necessary to get additional details.

The July 25, 1902, the Farmer Review carried a front-page article on the flood of the previous weekend, and then a few tidbit items on a later page.

Under the headline Record Breaking Rain the article goes on to describe the rain and its effects on a number of locations.

“Friday and Saturday were disagreeable, rainy days, filling the earth with moisture. Sunday opened with a drizzling rain … and from two until three o’clock it fairly poured, at least an inch of water falling…the streets became creeks and the creeks roaring rivers, carrying everything floatable—trees, stumps, fences, etc.”

“These streams poured a vast amount of water into Cayuga lake, raising that body of water over six inches between 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon and 9 o’clock Monday morning.”

For those staying lakeside, “the water came quickly and quietly, so the occupants of two cottages there had to move in a hurry, the ladies being carried on the backs…to higher ground…Comparatively little damage was done to lakeside property, however, and repairs have now all been made.”

A few bridges survived with just the gravel underneath carried away; other bridges were washed out making travel much more difficult. “Several rods of the railroad track were washed out just south of the canning factory. A work gang had it in order soon, delaying travel only an hour or so.”

The flood “ruined most of the wheat in shock, but fortunately, only a small part had been cut. That standing on the stalk is reported as growing.”

The article concluded, “It was the greatest flood ever known in this section.”

As a follow-up item, “Cayuga Lake is about two feet higher than it was July 4^th. It will probably remain at its present level all summer.”

One mill owner was reported as “tickled by Sunday’s freshet.” “Chas. Saylor, owner of the Ovid Centre mill…has been bothered to get a good dam, one that would hold any amount of water. Charley has the old dam plowed and loosened way back, and the water made a clean sweep of it. Now he will put up the boards and have a pond that will keep the wheels going a long time.”

Dewitt’s Diary Sunday, July 20, 1969

Stones wet early, temperature 65.

Picked raspberries and mowed lawn.

Everything is the flight of Apollo 11. They landed on the moon at 4:17 this afternoon. Later they walked on moon for almost 2 hours and 40 minutes. They took samples of the surface. Mounted the flag.

We went to bed when they went back into the space craft at 1:30 tonight or Monday morning.

The space craft (Eagle) will leave the moon around mid-day tomorrow after they, the crew, rest for several hours. They will join the mother ship which is circling the moon with one of the Apollo crew on board.