Postcards: Pain and Perseverance

The portrait of early Fallon (1900-1910) features many of the stereotypes found in a western movie: dusty, unpaved streets, a shooting here and there, a surplus of saloons, busy country doctors, eager politicians, up and coming businessmen, patient women, and everyday struggles for health, wealth and happiness. All of this, however, was punctuated by intermittent calamity. Two major disasters arrived in the first decade of the 20th century—flood, then fire.

The flood of 1907 was not caused simply by an overflowing river, but by a confluence of other singular events. The winter of 1906-07 saw heavy snowfall. The spring of 1907 began with an early warm spell. During February, the papers were full of reports of carriage outings and picnics, early plantings and high hopes for a bountiful harvest. The February 23 issue of the Churchill County Standard waxed poetic: 

The Churchill County weather for three weeks past is calculated to make all other climates under the sun pale in comparison. Sunny Italy, balmy southern California, and the never changing skies of tropical Mexico sink in significance when compared with the glorious sunshine enjoyed in Churchill County. To live for a brief time in this section is to live your existence here, because its equal cannot be found.

But then came the rains. Lots of them. The mountain snow melted in a flash, releasing a torrent of water into the Carson River, where, upstream near Dayton, boulders, trees, and brush were swept along, taking out bridges and structures. Remember that, at the time, there was no Lahontan Dam to help capture and control the resulting mess.

On the morning of March 20, the waters breached Diversion Dam and rushed downriver. In an oral history given by Roy Williams (b. 1900), he recalled that earlier on, someone had constructed a dam on the Carson River (pre-Lahontan Dam; many private dams were erected along the river), forcing the stream into a relatively narrow channel that ran close to the heart of Fallon. The river had since changed course, flowing more to the northwest (where it still flows). In 1907, the Southern Pacific Railroad had just completed a spur connecting Hazen to Fallon. According to Williams, when the huge volume of water from the spring runoff arrived, brush and trees were caught on the railroad bridge near present Highway 50, forcing water back into the older narrow channel. The water engulfed much of Maine Street, lapping at the foundation of the courthouse and damaging the first floor of the Fallon Hotel across the street from the courthouse. North Maine Street, then known as “Lover’s Lane,” looked like a swamp. 

At the Fenner Poultry Farm, location not known, the water flooded a standing chicken coop, drowning the feathered friends inside. At the Mills District School (in Old River, close to the present Sagouspe Dam), students and teachers were marooned in the schoolhouse for five days. Apparently, the school was reached via a swinging bridge over the Carson River, and that bridge had fallen victim to the flood. In addition, the previously mentioned Southern Pacific Railroad bridge was washed out, leaving “several hundred feet of track lay dangling in mid-air” (Rossman, Andrea. “Rain-on-Snow.” In Focus, Volume 20, p. 36). 

No lives were lost, but breathless tales of the flood were passed down for years. Harry Huff Pierce, working for the Bureau of Reclamation, added this one:

One of our mules for the Reclamation Project was swept away and started swimming the flood. This mule was caught on an island about 3:30 a.m. and took this trip about 9:00 a.m. He was picked up eight miles from where he started (Rossman).

The mule survived; the railroad survived; and the town survived.

The fire of 1910, however, almost took us down. More next week.

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