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The Pueblo Flood of 1921

by James Rogers on May 24, 2021

Images from the Denver Public Library Digital Collections of the Pueblo, Colorado Flood of June 3, 1921.

natural disasters

Interior view of White and Davis clothing store at 301 N. Main Street after the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows wrecked furniture, crates, mud and debris in the aisle. Signs for "Boys Dept." and "Collars" are posted on pipe columns with Corinthian capitals. The store has a pressed metal ceiling and overhead lamps with glass globes.

People walk on 2nd (Second) Street in front of damaged commercial buildings and piles of debris from the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Men pose on wreckage from a collapsed roof beside a damaged brick building with a decorative parapet. Shows cars, water and mud in the street.

View of Union Depot in the aftermath of the 1921 flood in Pueblo, Colorado, shows debris and destruction. Piles of timber and beams are stacked against overturned railroad passenger cars. Mud and debris from the receded flood waters extends to the railroad station platform of Union Depot. Empty and loaded railroad baggage carts are next to a group of men.

View of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Walker freight yards after the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo, Colorado. Shows twisted and damaged railroad tracks and overturned railroad freight cars. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe bridge, the collapsed D. &.R.G.W. bridge, and the Nuckolls Packing plant are in the distance.

View of flood damaged storefronts on Union Avenue after the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo, Colorado. Men work with shovels to remove deep mud that washed against the buildings. Shows a utility pole and a lamp post in the street. Hats, clothing and furniture are piled up outside the buildings. Signs on the buildings read: "The Wonder Mens Store," "United Shoes," "Stark Clot[hing Co.]," and "409 M. Braun Dry Goods, Juvenile Clothing."

Aerial view of Fountain Creek, a damaged 4th (Fourth) Street bridge, a flooded and destroyed Colorado and Southern Railway bridge in the creek bed, and Denver and Rio Grande Western tracks beside the creek in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado.

Panoramic view of flood damage from the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows washed out Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks and the rail yard near the Union Depot, mud and debris on the ground and smokestacks in the distance. Men stand near a car on the West 4th (Fourth) Street bridge.

View of lumber and debris near the intersection of B Street and Victoria Avenue in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows water in the entrance to the stone Union Depot building and submerged telephone poles and trees.

View of flood waters and railroad tracks in Pueblo, Colorado. A woman walks on a railroad embankment; houses, garages, out buildings and tracks are washed up against the embankment. Shows damaged houses and buildings, factories, and a bridge in the flood water and in the distance across the Arkansas River. The Nuckolls Packing Plant is in the distance.

View of an over-turned railroad passenger car, box car and debris after a flood in Pueblo, Colorado. A man picks through the rubble. An intact Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe bridge, a damaged Denver & Rio Grande Western Bridge, the Arkansas River, and the American Smelting and Refining Company smelter are in the distance.

People pose on a freight car and on a pile of debris beside flood water from the Arkansas River on 1st (First) Street in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows a pile of lumber, a wagon wheel, and flood water on First Street. Brick buildings read: "Haver's Land Office," "T.G. McCarthy and Co. Undertakers," and "Auto Parts & Rubber House, United States Tires, Sales & Service Depot."

Men remove mud, the result of a flood, from railroad tracks at the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad roundhouse in Pueblo, Colorado. Shows a locomotive, an overturned railroad car, freight cars, stock cars, passenger cars, baggage carts, and debris. Dead cows are in the stock car doorways and on the ground. Signs on the stock cars read: "Missouri Pacific," "12396," and "51492." Shows footprints in the mud.

People walk through the debris outside stores destroyed by the Arkansas River flood, on Union Street in Pueblo, Colorado. Signs on commercial buildings read: "Weston's Cafe," "Cut Price Market," "Clothing" and "T. Flynn, Saddles and Harn[esses.]"

View of an Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad bridge and a wrecked Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad bridge with piles of wreckage from the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Men stand and pose on piles of debris and rubble from flooded buildings and rail yards.

Aerial view of the flooded Arkansas River in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows freight cars at the washed out Missouri Pacific Railway Company yard, railroad bridges over the river and the Nuckolls Packing Company building beside standing water.

Debris from the Arkansas River flood at 2nd (Second) Street and Grand Avenue in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows mud, timber, portions of ceiling molding, and a door near the wrecked, frame "Mammoth Corral" building. The three story brick "Colorado Bedding Co." building shows paint chipped off at the high water mark above first story windows.

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