History: The Christmas Flood of 1964.

Come Hell or High Water

The Christmas Flood of 1964. I was four years old. But, my fleeting glimpses of memory are still very vivid today.

As I understand it, we had a pretty good snowfall up in the higher elevations followed by something they called the "Pineapple Express", a tropical weather situation that brought a lot of warm rains. It rained and rained and rained and rained. The warm rains melted the snows and it all came flooding down. Every river, every creek, every stream, every mountain spring was running at full volume.

My dad, at the time, was working at the Carolina-Cal plywood mill at the confluence of the main fork and the south fork of the Trinity in Salyer. We had an irrigation pump in the river that we used for watering the garden and orchard. My mom called up to the mill and had the supervisor pass a note to my dad that the river was rising very fast and that we might lose our pump. At the same time, most families were calling the mill to get the men to come home. They let everyone go home and shut down the shift.

We lived about two miles down river from the mill. Driving home, my dad had to ford several new creeks that had formed. State Route 299 was in danger of washing out. He found out later that he got out of the mill site just in time and other men didn't and were trapped. The road had completely washed away.

My dad made it home and attempted to climb down the bank to rescue the pump, but it was too late. The river was rising before his very eyes. Later, he told me it was one of the scariest situations he had ever witnessed. And this was coming from a wildland firefighter.

He came up the hill and gathered us up with blankets, clothing, any food we could grab and put us into the two cars we owned. We drove up onto a higher flat and spent a couple of nights in the cars. Two parents, four boys and the dog.

During the day we would watch entire log decks, houses, house trailers, propane tanks and all manner of debris flow past our house. We were lucky, it only came to within 50 feet of our house. But, remember, it had risen some 150 feet up the bank before it crested.

Most roads were washed out. That was where most of the damage occured. The river pretty much stayed within the banks. The Trinity River canyons, as you know, are pretty steep and not until some of the flats around Hoopa does it start running into fields. But, the water streaming from the hills washed out roads all over the place. One section washed out into the Trinity River and dammed it up for about 1/2 hour and everyone thought that would cause great damage, but it cleared itself.

In the following days, we walked over muddy roads into town, a trip of about two miles up over the washouts. Getting to Willow Creek , we found out that half of the town had been demolished by a huge mudslide. Now cristened "Mount Slipmore" the hill above town rumbled down and pushed through one side of the town. Most of the bridges had washed out. The airport was destroyed. There was no coming or going. No electricity. No running water.....nothing. In the dead of winter.

My dad went exploring east on Highway 299 up until the first washout and that was where he spotted an older couple from Santa Barbara who were traveling through the area and had become stranded. We took them into our house and let them stay in a little cabin on the property. They were there for about a month. No one could get in or out of the Klamath-Trinity region. Helicopters and planes were flying in relief supplies to all of the areas.

Let me tell you, the towns pulled together. Neighbor helped neighbor. All of the loggers with Cats (bulldozers) were working feverishly to get a road open to get supplies in. The entire north state was a disaster area.

In our area, only two or three people died. One man in a truck that was caught in a landslide and a boat had capsized trying to get people across the river.

I know this sounds macabre, but I've always said, what we need to pull this county together is a good flood. You oldtimers know exactly what I mean. All squabbling is set aside. Every able person works together. But, I would be curious to see how the environmentalist professionals would handle such a situation today. Would they treat it like a forest fire and say, let it burn, that's natures way.....or would they forego that thought and allow heavy equipment in to divert creeks and establish temporary bridges and what not to protect and rebuild the community. It would be interesting to see that play out.

An interesting side note. Retirees into the Trinity Valley area have built these georgeous retirement homes and summer homes along the flats of the Trinity River. When you see where they have built them, you notice just up the bank some 50 feet above their homes is the 1964 high water mark. "We must build with river frontage" Fools.

We had a good high water in 1973 and again in 1981 or 1982, but we haven't seen anything like the 1964 flood in a long time. It's was called the Thousand Year Flood for a reason.

More information on the Great flood of 1964 which affected Northern California , Oregon, Southern Washington, most of Idaho, and Northern California.

Oregon State.edu - Destruction in Oregon due to weather was greater in this December than in any previous month or storm in the State's recorded history

Humguide senior news - Jessie Wheeler grew up in Bridgeville on the Van Duzen River. She was living in Ferndale at the time of the '64 flood, Firsthand account and more

Salem History net - Christmas Week Flood Brings Major Flooding in Salem Oregon
December, 1964

Virtual Guidebook - Picture of the 1964 Flood Marker 35' at the former city of Weott
South Fork of the Eel River, Humboldt County, California -

In December of 1964 several days of very heavy rain, on top of an early snowpack in the higher mountains, created the greatest flood in the history of the north coast. The Russian, Eel, Klamath, and Rogue Rivers all rose to unprecedented heights. Dozens of small towns were inundated, and several were completely swept away. One of these was Weott, halfway down the Avenue of the Giants on the South Fork of the Eel River.

The old town of Weott consisted of a dozen commercial buildings and twice as many houses along a three block stretch of the old highway. The flood marker here (the top of the pole) shows how high the waters rose on Christmas Eve, 1964, some 35 feet above the downtown sidewalks. Only one house has been rebuilt on the old site -- the town moved uphill far enough to be above any possible flood waters. The '64 flood is referred to as a "thousand year flood", meaning that an event of that magnitude is only expected to occur once in a thousand years.