Wikipedia:

• Great Flood of 1862
• Wikiwand, Great Flood of 1862
• Floods in California
• Tulare Lake , "Following the floods of 1861-62 and 1867�68, the highest water on record reached between 216 and 220 ft above sea level.[6][7] At that elevation, the lake overtopped the natural "spillway" (located five miles west of the current community of Halls Corner on state route 41) and flowed northward into the sea via the Boggs and Fresno sloughs and the San Joaquin River."
• Agua Mansa, California

Wikipedia Cites:

• [excerpts from] Up and down California in 1860-1864; the journal of William H. Brewer
• The New York Times, "The Great Flood in California.; Great Destruction of Property Damage $10,000,000". January 21, 1862 ; 1,000 Chinese drowned at Long Bar on the Yuba
• Jan Null and Jelle Hulbert, "The Great Flood of 1862", in "Weatherwise", Jan/Feb. 2007, P. 27
• The Kings River Handbook, Tulare Lake, Old River, Cole Slough, Scottsburg. . . .
• The Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery "Agua Mansa flourished until January 1862, when a great flood filled the Santa Ana River from bluff to bluff and destroyed the west bank community, leaving only the cemetery, the chapel, and Cornelius Jensen's adjoining store, built in 1854. Most of the homes in La Placita were also damaged or destroyed."
• [more coming]

Other Sites:

• Overall:

  • Selected 1861-62 text from Attachment C: History of California Flooding, in California�s Flood Future: Recommendations for Managing the State�s Flood Risk, PUBLIC REVIEW DRAFT April 2013.
  • W. Leonard Taylor M.D. and Robert W. Taylor Ph.D., "The Great California Flood of 1862", redlandsfortnightly.org, including Bret Harte's first published story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp", a story of the flood but the year is wrong on purpose; substantial bibliography; "...as Ellis stated in 1920, this flood is not generally taken into account in flood planning simply because to have done so, the expense would have been prohibitive...."
  • Leon Hunsaker and Dr. Claude Curran:
    • Leon Hunsaker and Claude Curran, "Lake Sacramento - Can It Happen Again?" , November 2005 , although the narrative is a bit sloppy in places, overall it is authoritative and well-researched, but no bibliography; note newspaper quotes here and there, p. 59 mention by the Nevada Daily Transcript of an Old Indian recalling a much greater flood in his lifetime, possibly 1805 or 1827, paraphrased, "If you think this is bad, you should have seen the REALLY big flood."
    • "Dr. Snell's Precipitation Measurements of December 1861-January 1862 Are Valid!", June 23, 2010, by Leon Hunsaker
    • Leon Hunsaker and Claude Curran, "Step by Step Development of Peak Flow Estimate on the American River @ Folsom for Record Flood: 1/10/1862". June 10, 2011, Assertion of a 440,000 - 470,000 cfs American River flow on 01/10/1862; Again: "W.T. Ellis, longtime levee boss in Marysville, had this to say way back in 1920: ' This flood is not generally taken into account in flood planning simply because to have done so, the expense would of [sic] been prohibitive.'" ( Memories; my seventy-two years in the romantic county of Yuba, California, by W.T. Ellis; with an introduction by Richard Belcher , 1939 [Illustrations missing from this on-line version from the Library of Congress, and table of contents unformatted , I reformatted it ] ); The Wikipedia entry for the Tuolumne River, with a slightly smaller watershed than the American, lists a maximum runoff of 130,000 cfs - applying this American River analysis and understanding that the top elevations for the Tuolumne are higher than the American, it could be argued that the Tuolumne maximum in an 1862 event may be closer to 420,000 cfs. Compare this to the reputed Don Pedro Reservoir inflow peak of 130,000 - 140,000 in January 1997 with releases of 70,000 cfs that caused considerable damage downstream..
    • Leon Hunsaker and Claude Curran, "Final Report", April 10, 2013, placed upon this web site at Leon's request; 10 meg .pdf is scanned typewritten; here is an html conversion with .jpg charts & exhibits.
    • Leon Hunsaker and Claude Curran, "IS THERE AN ECHO? Dr. Snell's 1861-62 Sonora Rainfall Measurements ARE VALID!", June 1, 2014, May 28, 2015. ;
      Supplements:
      • "No. 1: Revising Jan. 9-11, 1862 Rainfall Estimate For Red Dog"
      • "No. 2: Correlation Between Red Dog and Sonora Rainfall, Jan. 9-11, 1862--Using February 1986 Storm Data"
      • "No. 3: Correlation Between Red Dog and Sonora Rainfall, Jan. 9-11, 1862--Using Estimated Jan. 1862 Data"
      • "No. 4: Evidence Supporting the Estimate 12.42 inches of Precipitation listed under Example No. 4 in Exhibit A"
      • "No. 5: Atmosperic Rivers Impact on Record Jan. 1862 Floods in No. California--LIKELY OVERBLOWN"
      • "No. 6: Almost Simultaneous Record Floods on Two Major California Rivers Approximately 500 Miles Apart"
    • Leon Hunsaker and Claude Curran, " A MIRACULOUS DISCOVERY ", September 10, 2018.
      
      Some Spillway Design Capacities:
      There has been some criticism of the studies of Hunsaker and Curran. The following may tend to support their conclusions although it's a bit of apples vs. oranges as in planned-for vs. historical.
      
      
      • Tuolumne River/New Don Pedro Dam
        For the Tuolumne River, from The Greening of Paradise Valley, The First 100 Years of the Modesto Irrigation District, Chapter 17, in seven paragraphs about halfway down, the MID History describes the New Don Pedro bypass capacity:

        
        300,000 cfs emergency spillway
        172,000 cfs service spillway
          7,370 cfs diversion tunnel internal gates
          4,100 cfs max thru turbines
          3,100 cfs hollow jet valve
        -------
        486,570 total cfs
        =======
        

        The Tuolumne is a bit longer and with a bit smaller overall basin than the American but that makes this total even more impressive. 50,000 cfs of spill in January 1997 produced flooding in West Modesto and contributed to flooding on the lower San Joaquin. For several years I have asked MID for the calculations behind these totals and so far they have avoided answering. Tiring of that, I asked TID and their retiring General Manager stated that the total cfs design was based on a hydrologist projection of the maximum basin rainfall.
      • American River/Folsom Dam
        Folsom Dam on the American, a larger watershed than the Tuolumne and further north, with a shorter line from crest of the watershed to the dam site. - per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folsom_Dam

          115,000 Outlet works
          567,999 Spillway
          320,000 New Auxilliary Spillway, http://ussdams.com/proceedings/2010Proc/1389-1402.pdf p. 1390
        ---------
        1,002,999 Total Folsom Dam Bypass (looking for other confirmation of this)
        =========
        

        [in the wiki, the footnoted reference [4] is a busted link - wiki numbers don't seem to include the new spillway works. In various discussions of the new Auxilliary Spillway, it is apparently intended for earlier release, not additional release which would mean intended maximum bypass is 682,999 cfs.]
        
        
        There seems to be an inconsistency between the thinking of the engineers designing these dams and those responsible for statewide flood planning, with the statewide planners far behind the thinking of the design engineers. On the other hand, these two dams seem to be the exception - most, like New Melones or Oroville, seem to be undersized in comparison.
        
        
    • 1861-62 Sacramento floods provide insight into current risk June 25, 2012, "Sac History Happenings", Sacramento Bee
    • By:Cosmo Gavin/Sacramento News and Review, "The Great Flood of 1862 of Sacramento and why Meteorologist Leon Hunsaker says it could happen again.", Jul 2, 2012
    • Deluge in the Sierra, foothills turned Valley into a lake in winter of 1861-62, experts confirm By Jeff Jardine, February 3, 2014
    • Jeff Jardine: Further evidence of wild weather of 1862 By Jeff Jardine, June 16, 2014 ;
  • February 23, 1999 DWR report "Analysis of 1862 Precipitation and Runoff" [not yet found on-line - ref'd in Hunsaker reports]
  • David C. Curtis, Bryan Martinez, Gary Estes, "Great Flood of 1862 - A Modern Perspective" "Thomas Rowlandson, Meteorology of the United States and Territories of the Pacific. . . Speaking of a larger storm previous to 1862 said the following -�'marks exist on trees, growing in the San Joaquin Valley, showing that a former flood had been fully six feet higher.' He was told by Indians that it had occurred 40 years previous to 1862."
  • Thomas Rowlandson, F.G.S.L., "Notabilia of the Floods of 1861-'62", pp. 27-33, in ed. William H. Knight, "Hand-Book Almanac for the Pacific States", [the 50,000,000 square mile number impairs the credibility of this account.]
  • Scientific American,
    • "Megastorms Could Drown Massive Portions of California [Preview]", Michael D. Dettinger & B. Lynn Ingram, December 18, 2012 and
    • "California Megaflood: Lessons from a Forgotten Catastrophe", B. Lynn Ingram, January 19, 2013
  • "California�s Other Storm of the Century", Jay Kimball at 8020 Vision, 22 December 2010
  • Larry Schick, "Warning from the Past: The message, meteorology and myths from the Great West Coast flooding of 1861- 1862", U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Seattle District, presentation slides full of facts: myths pp. 9 - 15; Los Angeles area inundation maps p. 65 ; sudden huge Southern California inland lakes map [??] p. 67 ; other areas pp. 68 - 69; ( Major eruption, Dubbi volcano, North Africa, May 1861 - Largest historic volcanic eruption in Africa ?) from 2012 California Extreme Precipitation Symposium, The 1861-1862 Floods: Informing Decisions 150 Years Later
    
    

• ARkStorms:

  • Winter Storm: Multi-Hazard West Coast Winter Storm Project - ARkStorm (Atmospheric River Storm) studies, "The geologic record shows 6 megastorms more severe than 1861-1862 in California in the last 1800 years, and there is no reason to believe similar events won�t occur again."
  • This is ARkStorm, USGS Animation Video on the risk to California [ 7 ARkStorms from the geologic record of the past 1800 years, list modified to match the 9.8 meg report below: 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, 1605, 1862 - www.arkstorm.com is actually a link to the caltech website above]
  • Atmospheric River Information Page, including links.
  • Atmospheric River Q & A "A major flood in California, known as the 'New years Day Flood' in 1997 cause [sic] over $1 Billion in damages and had a well-defined AR."
  • Overview of the ARkStorm Scenario, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010-1312, cover page, link to the 9.8 meg report plus two appendices, on the right side of that page; Report is a detailed description of a possible storm event similar to 1861-62 producing $725 billion in damages; includes some comment and discussion here and there on the actual 1861-62 event; Fig. 8, map of projected valley floor inundation, omits stream flooding? Fig. 20, SR-120 flooded to South Main? p. 50, 10 counties most severe CV flooding including San Joaquin; p. 92 Fig. 51 & p. 109 Fig. 59 show projected inundation of all of Stockton; for San Joaquin County, some 480,000 people (2009) live in inundation areas, Stanislaus, only 1488; p. 164, projected interruption of at least 3 months of water deliveries to South of the Delta; p. 171, 1861-62 was the least severe of the 7 events;
  • [USGS sent me this kmz file in response to my request for a better resolution copy of Fig. 8 on p. 11 of Report 2010-1312. Note that the inundation overlay for Stockton & Sacramento is considerably different from those on pp. 92 & 109, and that the flooding footprint shown for Sacramento, Knight's Ferry, Stockton, the Stanislaus and Tuolumne substantially understates (by half?) the actual inundation described in anecdotal news reports in mjbarkl.com/union.htm and the comments from the County Surveyors to the State Surveyor General at mjbarkl.com/surveyor.htm .
    If clicking on the kmz link doesn't work for you, try calling up kmlviewer.nsspot.net and entering http://mjbarkl.com/fld_California_all.kmz in the URL window, click on "View on the map", and click on full-screen symbol to use the + or - controls.]
  • Michael D. Dettinger, et al., "Design and quantification of an extreme winter storm scenario for emergency preparedness and planning exercises in California", 2011
  • Michael D. Dettinger, "Climate Change, Atmospheric Rivers, and Floods in California - A Multimodel Analysis of Storm Frequency and Magnitude Changes"; 2011, you know, as in global warming?
  • Posted by: Christopher C. Burt, California's Superstorm: The USGS ARkstorm Report and the Great Flood of 1862 , 8:54 PM GMT on January 26, 2011 - summary of ARk articles
  • "XINGYING HUANG AND DANIEL L. SWAIN, Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood", 12 Aug 2022 report on ScienceAdvances web page
    
    

• Volcanos? Did they have anything to do with this?

  • Dubbi Volcano, Eritrea, May 1861 - Pierre Wiart and Clive Oppenheimer, "Largest Known Historical Eruption in Africa: Dubbi Volcano, Eritrea, May 1861," Geology, Vol. 28 (April, 2000), pp. 291-294, Abstract - or full text from EBSCO via your local library - from the Abstract: "An anomalously cold Northern Hemisphere summer in 1862, recorded in tree-ring records, could be the result of Dubbi's sulfate aerosol veil."
  • Makian volcano, Indonesia, late December 1861 - "The largest volcanic eruption anywhere in the world during 1861-1865 was possibly Makian volcano, Indonesia, which [erupted] from 28 Dec 1861 to October 1862." wiki article;
  • What would the influence be of both combined?
    
    
  • Unless playing havoc with the earth's magnetic field could affect volcanos and thus weather, presumably the Solar storm of 1859 is irrelevant.
    
    

• Ohio, Danube, Moisy, Palestine, Mecca, Hawaii?

  • Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 22, Number 3408, 1 March 1862, p. 2
    NEWS OF THE MORNING.
    By Overland Telegraph . . . .
    Verily, this has been a Winter of inundations. We have suffered heavily on the Pacific coast from the superabundance of the aqueous element. The valley of the Ohio has also experienced the disastrous effects of an overflow. And next, we hear from the distant Danube--the greatest of European rivers--of a most destructive flood, consequent upon a rain of four days duration. In one district alone it is reported that 80,000 persons need relief. Pesth and Presburg, in Hungary, had been inundated, and bridges, viaducts and other valuable property destroyed. The railroad property reported to be damaged is probably that of the line running from Pesth to Vienna via Presburg--which is within the reach of an inundation. . . .
  • [For more on the Ohio floods see 4 March p.4 & 5 March p. 1 in the massive Sacramento Daily Union archive also linked at the bottom of this page. - How unusual is it to have the Santa Ana at peak flood on 01/22/1862 the same day the Ohio is in full flood and rising?]
  • Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 22, Number 3420, 15 March 1862, p. 2
    New York, March 7th.,
    Intelligence from Bremen, January 15th, states there has been a great flood in the Moisy. Three cities were destroyed, and thirty lives lost. . . .
  • Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 22, Number 3409, 3 March 1862, p. 3
    THE FLOOD IN PALESTINE.--Late advices state that immense quantities of rain have recently fallen in the Holy Land. The cisterns at Jerusalem have been filled as they have not been for the last two hundred years. The flood appears to have visited the entire world, with the exception of Eastern Asia, and further advices may take away this exception. . . .
  • New York Times: Mecca
  • [For Hawaii see 19 March p.3 in the massive Sacramento Daily Union archive also linked at the bottom of this page.]
  
  

• Local/Regional:

  • From "History.Link , The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History" 1861-62, first wet, then bitter cold, worst Washington Territory Winter so far; mentions Dubbi eruption, Eritrea 1861
  • Edward Lansing Wells "Notes on the Winter of 1861-2 in the Pacific Northwest". Northwest Science 21: 76-83 (1947); Oregon
  • John Carr, "Pioneer Days in California", 1891, pp. 291-295, Trinity River during the December 1861 floods
  • Justus H. Rogers, "Colusa County Its History Traced from a State of Nature through the Early Period of Settlement and Development, to the Present Day with A Description of its Resources, Statistical Tables, Etc. Also Biographical Sketches of Pioneers and Prominent Residents", 1892; a searchable copy and a plain text alternative is on Google among other places; 1861-62 floods at pp. 90-91
  • W.T. Ellis, 72 Years in Yuba County, California, Chapter LXII, The Great Floods of the Winter of 1861-62, pp. 190 - 196 [BUSTED LINK]; ( see also Library of Congress copy at Memories; my seventy-two years in the romantic county of Yuba, California, by W.T. Ellis; with an introduction by Richard Belcher , 1939 [Illustrations missing from this on-line version from the Library of Congress, and table of contents unformatted , I reformatted it ] );
  • A few paragraphs from Robert Kelley, Battling the Inland Sea, American Political Culture, Public Policy, & the Sacramento Valley, 1850 - 1986
  • Capitol Museum web site: State Capitol construction problems. "Work on the Capitol began again in August 1862. Construction crews hauled wheelbarrows of dirt to raise the building's ground line by six feet to protect against future flooding problems." Six feet? The hill looks higher than that.
  • Appendix to Journals of the Senate and Assembly of the Seventeenth Session of the Legislature of the State of California, Volume 1, 1868, Containing:
    Report 11, Report of the Joint Committee on Public Buildings in Relation to the Construction of the State Capitol, 96 pages. Includes considerable testimony relating to the problems with the American River and Sacramento River channels and levees;
    Resolution related to suitability of Sacramento for the Capitol, etc.
    • p. 1, Engineering assessment of the building, foundation, site, subsidence, cracks, fissures, materials, etc.;
    • pp. 12 - 13, 14, levee defences, shoaling, etc.
    • pp. 26 - 28, disagreements with the Capitol foundation contractor.
    • p. 43 - 45, W. F. Knox, former Levee Commissioner; raising the grade; pp. 44 - 45, the levees.
    • p. 68 - 70, Leonard Goss, Levees
    • p. 70, C. H. Ross, Levee Commissioner
    • p. 71 - 72, Charles H. Swift, President of City Board of Trustees, formerly of Levee Commission;
    • p. 72 - 78, Lewis B. Harris, Levee Commissioner
    • p. 78 - 84, A. P. Smith (of Smith's Garden) Smith's Garden, once the agricultural showpiece of Sacramento, Smith financially ruined by various levee and channel decisions of the State snd City
    • p. 84 - 87, M. S. Hurd, Levee Commissioner, defends leaving Smith outside the levee
    • p. 87 - 88, B. R. Crocker, Levee Commissioner,
    • p. 88 - 90, John Doherty, Civil Engineer for Levee Commissioners, levee planning
    • p. 90 - 92, W. C. Hopping, Levee Commissioner, defending against Mr. Smith's concerns
    • p. 92 - 93, I. M. Hubbard, Contractor, workings of the American river bars
    • p. 93 - 94, Alfred Redington recalled, stream velocities
    • p. 94 - 95, E. A. Poole, captain steamboat Capital, shoals
    • p. 95, E. Fouratt, river pilot,
  • Excerpts on flood damage from Smiths Gardens, Sacramento Showplace of a Century Ago, Sacramento Historical Society, Golden Notes, Vol. 5, No. 1, October 1958: and The Saga of Burns Slough, By Stewart Mitchell, Sacramento Historical Society, Golden Notes, Vol. 7, No. 4, June 1961:
  • Alice Madeley Matthews, The Great Flood of 1861, Sacramento County Historical Society, Golden Notes, Summer, 1982, v. 28, No. 2; Presley & Sarah Dunlap, John & Hattie Hunt, et al., in the floods of 1861-62; p. 10 is a contemporary map of Sacramento which will help in reading the large Sacramento Union page below.
  • Sutter Township:Connections Through Time pp. 19-20 "The Great Flood of 1861-62"
  • Mark Twain's Interior Notes, Correspondence of the San Francisco Bulletin November 30, 1866, Raising the street grades in Sacramento.
  • [Excerpts from:] Walker R. Young., "Report on salt water barrier below confluence of Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, California" 1929
  • [Excerpts from:] 1863 CA Legislature. Appendix to Journals of Senate and Assembly, 14th Session.pdf , supplementing portions included in the "barrier" report above
  • Ralph Lea and Christi Kennedy, Floods of mid-1800s turned Central Valley into vast inland sea, Lodi News-Sentinel , Jan 20, 2006, p. 6 Mokelumne City & region,
  • Robert E. Bonta, Great Flood of 1861-62, San Joaquin Historian, Vol VIII, No. 4, 1973 Stockton in the floods ; and a poor OCR scan ;
  • John D. Newbold, The Great California Flood of 1861-1862, San Joaquin Historian, Vol V New Series, #4, 1991 a regional survey, 80 footnotes.
  • Excerpts from Frank T. Gilbert, History of San Joaquin County, California: with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and manufactories, from original sketches by artists of the highest ability.
  • Excerpts from George Henry Tinkham, "History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present" (1923)
  • Excerpts from George H. Tinkham, History of Stanislaus County California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present (1921) [from a different online source]
  • Compiled by Robert LeRoy Santos, "Chronology of Stanislaus County History Through 1912 With Bibliography" "1849. . . The town of Knights Ferry was founded by trapper and hunter William Knight. Knight had been with Fremont�s expedition and felt the site perfect for a ferry crossing. The first county bridge was located at Knights Ferry, which washed away during 1862 flood, but later rebuilt.
    "Winter 1861-1862. The rivers swelled in a horrific flood that inundated many river settlements."
  • Stanislaus Stepping Stones, vol. 36, No. 4, "A Quarterly Journal of the McHenry Museum & Historical Society", Fall 2012, "California Under Water", "The Great Flood of 1861-1862", relevant contents:
    • p. 1997 - The Great California Flood of 1861 - 1862, from Taylor brothers, above.
    • p. 1998 - L.C. Branch's personal experiences, from L. C. Branch , History of Stanislaus County, Elliott & Moore, 1881
    • p. 2000 - Charles Dallas bio, John Dallas bio, from Branch, above.
    • p. 2001 - Robert L. Dallas bio, from G.H. Tinkham, Stanislaus, above
    • p. 2004 - I.N. "Jack" Brotherton about Knight's Ferry, from Brotherton, Annals of Stanislaus County, Rivers & Ferries, 1982, p. 93
    • p. 2004 - L.C. Branch about Knight's Ferry, from Branch, above.
  • HISTORY OF SNELLING. San Joaquin Valley Argus June 18, 1870 Contributed by Thomas Hilk: "In the winter of 1861-62 the old Snelling hotel, Judge Fitzhugh's residence and orchard, and some other buildings were destroyed by the memorable flood of that time which, together, with the instability of the titles to lots, and the land surrounding the town, checked the growth of the place for several months. "
  • The Call of Gold (1936) by Newell D. Chamberlain, CHAPTER XXV, GAZETTE NEWS, 1862 TO 1870; ". . . breaking up of the hotel at Snelling, caused by a flood from the Merced River, when part of a mountain slid into the river, temporarily damming it and when it broke a torrent thirty feet high went down the river, carrying away Benton mills and a part of Snelling. . . . ."; ". . . the mail contractors, Fisher & Company, it should be said that they have had their principal stations swept away. They were without hay and barley to a great extent. Horses were lost and their whole line damaged and in a measure broken up. . . . ."; provisions got scarce & expensive.
  • Mark Reisner, Cadillac Desert, Penguin paperback, 1993, p. 44: "During the winter of 1861 and 1862, most of California got three times its normal precipitation, and the usually semiarid Central Valley became a shallow sea the size of Lake Ontario."
  • Los Angeles & the rest of the state, The 'nightmare' California flood more dangerous than a huge earthquake , By RONG-GONG LIN II, MAR 25, 2018
  • [more coming]

More Other:

• Wagon Wheels, Journal of the Colusi County Historical Society
  Vol. 4, #2, Nov. 1954 , p. 3, Eagle Peak, 04/1962, Ford first man buried at Newville Cemetery (North Fork Stony Creek, Western Glenn County);
  "A woman and a girl, drowned while crossing the creek at Newville during high water [January, 1862?], had been buried there before." by Mabel Bofinger; visited Ford's grave 05/04/1953 "Some one had kindly cleaned the marble, so that it was easy to read the inscription, Ford 'died May 4th, 1862, aged 24'
• Manteca soils maps, such as Click on START WSS (This is tricky to use. Try entering an address such as "Manteca, CA" in the address block, shrinking it down to cover the region, draw a rectangle using the "Define AOI by rectangle", then click on "SOIL MAP" on the 2nd line at the top which should paint the soil type lines on your image; it used to be much easier, just call up the soil maps one at a time for an area and click from one to the next) clearly shows a pattern of swales and lenses. Note how the direction of the trend changes at approximately French Camp Road. For areas south of that road the message is clear: historical floods from the Stanislaus River laid down the soils in the Manteca area in a southeast-northwest pattern, although not necessarily in recent times.
• Our third river, "Alive in all seasons, the Yolo Bypass is a mystery to most area residents. But make no mistake: Without it, Sacramento would have gone underwater years ago."; Bypass capacity 500,000 cfs, main Sacramento capacity 100,000 cfs - is this 500,000 an increase or a decrease from the "over-land" capacity in 1861-62?

Contemporary Newspaper Articles:

[Caveat: Newspapers are not always precisely accurate.]


• Red Bluff Independent
• Colusa Sun
• Marysville Appeal
• Sacramento Union - 4,505,157 bytes so far, guessing more than 5 meg total (or larger than "War and Peace" or "Atlas Shrugged" at 2.8 meg); although the Union apparently held back a bit on some of the Sacramento flood stories in light of the campaign to strip the Capital from Sacramento; to understand Sacramento locations described, see map at p. 10 of Alice Madeley Matthews, The Great Flood of 1861, ; breaking the text up in terms of Sacramento inundations but each period includes dispatches from throughout the West Coast:
  • Prelude - heavy fall snows, text in progress, 12,036 bytes
  • First Sacramento inundation 12/10/1861 [press date] following torrential warm rains, 552,853 bytes
  • Second Sacramento inundation 12/24/1862 [press date], period ending with heavy snow down to the valley floor and frozen ground at higher elevations, 349,816 bytes
  • Third Sacramento inundation 01/10/1862 [press date] again following torrential warm rains followed by heavy snows, 625,890 bytes - note how the early December storm did so much damage to communications that it was a long time before it was realized that the early January storm was much worse.
  • Fourth & Fifth Sacramento inundations 01/20/1862 [press date] torrential warm rains 1756194 bytes, 01/27/1862, p. 2 and 01/29/1862 p. 2 are comments about modifying requirements for tending stock because of the widespread loss of fencing - The first patent for barbed wire was issued in 1867 so presumably the huge quantity of fencing washed away in these accounts was labor-intensive wood rail, a disaster for the farmers and ranchers.
  • Sixth Sacramento inundation, 1,142,244 bytes 02/25/2014 [press date]
  • Seventh Sacramento inundation, 05/01/2014 [press date], snow melt and new levee breach.
  • Aftermath & analysis
• The Daily Bee
• California Farmer
• Alta California
• Amador Ledger
• Mariposa Gazette
• Stockton Independent
• Visalia Delta
• Los Angeles Star
• [more]

Storm & Flooding Timeline