The Flood

November and December of 1973 had a lot of snow.   All Forest Service survey crews had been laid off the end of October.  Those of us who weren’t in college stayed in Bonners Ferry drawing $69 a week unemployment.  Over the winter, we normally stayed busy ice fishing at Herman Lake or helping get firewood for those who owned wood heaters. 

January 1974 brought a big dump of snow the first 2 weeks followed by a Chinook wind.  All the snow melted in town, and up into the Selkirks.  The next thing we knew, Ranger Graham put out the word that some of the roads on the West Side were badly damaged.  He needed crews to go up and survey the damage.   I reported in, along with 5 or 6 others who were living in Bonners Ferry.  Four or five bridges on the West Side had washed out.   Many places along Forest Service  roads and the West Side Road were unusable. The Forest Service was required to keep the roads open to fulfill logging contracts.  An accurate estimate of the damage was necessary.

I was on a 4-man crew assigned to go up Smith Ck Rd.  We were told to drive as far as we could, then proceed on foot.  The crew consisted of Rocky Cartwright, Jess Galloway, Roy Knecht, and me.  We drove out to the West Side; the road was muddy and the creeks were all up to and over the bridges.  We got about a mile up Smith Ck Rd, came around a bend and the road was gone.  We parked the truck and started out on foot.  Even at 300 yds above the creek we could see the high-water level.  We walked until lunchtime, recording the milage and damage to the road along the way.  As we stopped to eat, chatting and wondering how long we would be working, suddenly, we all stopped talking.  There was a sound that was startling.  It got louder and louder.  It sounded like a jet flying down the canyon.  We looked towards the roar and saw a 30 ft high shelf of glacial debris, carrying timbers and chunks of ice as big as a school bus.   On both sides of the creek logs and ice dug great holes in the banks.  Trees as tall as 100 ft smashed along with the flood leveling anything they hit.  Rocks as big as a car were tossed into the air, trees were torn out by their roots.  Rocky said, “An ice dam upriver must have broken. The water it backed up is coming down!”  We could count about 10 of the big trees ripping across the sides of Smith Ck.  Rocky then turned to us and said, “A flood that big might take out the Smith Ck. bridge.  If we don’t want to spend the night up here we better get back right now.”

We hotfooted it down the road, hopped in the truck, and raced to Smith Ck. bridge.  The bridge was intact but there was debris, logs, and ice everywhere.  The water was flowing over the bridge and we were unsure if we should try to cross it.  With a big grin, Roy jumped out and ran across the bridge, yelling, “Drive across! If you get swept away, I’ll lead the search party.” Jess was driving and said, “Hang on!” and off we went.  The bridge held and there was no need for a search party. 

We worked for the next couple months doing damage surveys and estimates on what it would take to repair the roads.  After our experience on Smith Ck., the Forest Service decided to send us out by helicopter and drop us at the end of the roads and then we would hike down, to be picked up at the bottom.  We did this on all the Forest Service roads on the West Side.

The Chinook stopped blowing and the snow came back. The crew spent the rest of the winter working in the office.  It took 2 or 3 years to repair all the damage to the roads and bridges.  I remember Rocky saying he had never seen anything like that flood in all his years working in the woods.