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Wow Photo Wednesday ~ A Flood of Biblical Proportions

This gallery shows a selection of the 285 photos from the Arkansas River Flood Album, documenting the flood of June 3, 1921, that devastated Pueblo, Colorado, and it's surrounding communities.

[Gallery Tip: Click the gray area to the sides of the image to make the navigation panes disappear, then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to advance the slides.]

natural disasters

Special Collections

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.

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.

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.

Aerial view of a flooded Arkansas River, damaged buildings and rail yards in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows the Pueblo Smelter, the Nuckolls Packing Company building, standing water identified as "Death Lake", a flooded Missouri Pacific Railway Company rail yard, Denver and Rio Grande Western and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad bridges, and City Hall with a domed cupola.

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.

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.

View of the flooded Arkansas River in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. People stand and look at the destruction from railroad tracks in Goat Hill (Tenderfoot Hill) in northeast Pueblo. Shows a railroad bridge, buildings submerged in water, probably the Nuckolls Packing Company building, and smokestacks in the distance.

View of the 8th (Eighth) Street Depot beside Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows mud covered tracks and debris from flooded Fountain Creek washed up beside the covered passenger platform. The frame depot building has a hipped roof, half-timbered dormer windows and a sign that reads: "Eighth Street Pueblo."

The intersection of B Street and Victoria Avenue is under flood water from the Arkansas River in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows water in the entrance to the stone Union Depot building, submerged telephone poles and a "St. Louis Refrigerator Car" washed against a drug store building.

View of metal and wood debris, mud and silt from flooded Fountain Creek washed over Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks near the 8th (Eighth) Street depot in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado.

View of flood water and submerged commercial buildings at the intersection of Main Street and Union Avenue in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows debris on a fallen telephone wire, and signs on businesses that read: "Stark Clothing Co.," "The Wonder Men's Store," "United Shoe Stores Co.," "Central Studio," and "Central Market."

A man in overalls and a fedora stands beside a debris covered Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad bridge and a mud covered Denver and Rio Grande Western bridge in probably Pueblo County, Colorado. Tree branches and mud are washed up against the bridge and over the sets of railroad tracks after a flood. Shows an eroded river bed of probably the Arkansas River.

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 work to clear debris from a flood under washed out Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad bridge number "126-B" in probably Pueblo County, Colorado. Shows tree branches and mud in an eroded creek bed, and unsupported tracks over the creek.

View of flooded buildings, debris and flood water from the Arkansas River in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows submerged commercial buildings, houses and telephone poles in Goat Hill (Tenderfoot Hill) in northeast Pueblo.

View of Arkansas River flood water at the intersection of Main Street and Union Avenue in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Flood water is half way up the first story of stone commercial buildings with arched doorways and windows, and flat roofs. Flood debris is on power lines in the street.

View of buildings and shacks moved and destroyed by the flood waters of the Arkansas River in Pueblo, Colorado. Debris, a boxcar, lumber, and utility poles are scattered among the buildings. Smoke stacks and steeples are in the distance.

Men stand outside the Union Depot in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. One man wears a badge. Shows water, mud and debris on the ground, and a flood damaged passenger car wrecked beside the stone depot. Probably a cleaning crew works on mud covered tracks nearby.

View of a small house that was carried by the flood waters of the Arkansas River and came to rest against the side of a brick garage in Pueblo, Colorado. The garage has damaged walls. Two men pose beside the garage. Ruts in the deep mud are near the buildings.

Piles of debris from the Arkansas River flood are in the streets around the stone Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad depot in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Lumber, metal, mud and silt cover the streets near brick commercial buildings.

The trunk of a cottonwood tree and debris are pushed through the display window of the Pierce Seed Company at 216 W 4th (Fourth) Street after an Arkansas River flood in Pueblo, Colorado. Part of the wall and the window frame have collapsed.

View of standing water piles of lumber and debris on Main Street and Hobson Street after the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows the collapsed wall of the Ford Exchange building.

Cast iron cooking stoves are piled up against the side of the brick Holmes Hardware Store at 400 S. Union Avenue near railroad tracks after the Arkansas River flood, in Pueblo, Colorado. Wreckage and debris are piled up near a viaduct. Wooden framing braced up with boards is beside the track. Railroad boxcars are in the distance.

View of overturned freight cars and wreckage from the Arkansas River flood on Union Avenue in front of the stone Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad depot in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows standing water around trees and piles of debris.

Flood debris in Pueblo, Colorado, includes carved wood molding, stamped ceiling metal, door, crates, wheels, lumber, and mud. A frame building has roof damage and a sign: "Mammoth Corral." A shed lays sideways in front of a four-story brick warehouse with arched windows and signs: "The Colorado Bedding Co. Established 1894." White residue covers the first floor, showing the peak of the high water.

Wrecked buildings and overturned Denver and Rio Grande Western freight cars are in the Walker rail yard after the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows smokestacks and the Nuckolls Packing Company buildings in the distance.

Water, mud and debris fill Union Avenue in Pueblo, Colorado. Brick storefronts show signs: "Klein & Leiser," "Colonial Jewelry," "Exchange Rooming House," "Weisel Seed," "Star House," and "Economy Clothing." Cast iron street lamps with milk glass globes line the thoroughfare. The Board of Trade Building, City Hall, and the turret of the Riverside Block show above other structures. The steel arch of the Arkansas River bridge is past wrecked automobiles and piled lumber.

View of wrecked Denver and Rio Grande Western freight cars and frame buildings after the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Piles of lumber and debris, mud and silt are in the Walker rail yard. A smokestack is beside a building that reads: "This Property for Sale or Rent, apply to H.C. Borndruck, Phone 120."

View of a shingle-sided house covered with a tree trunk, mud, and debris after a flood on the Arkansas River in Pueblo, Colorado. Multi-story brick buildings are in the distance.

View of a two-story brick building with a flat roof and cloth awnings identified as the "Old White Triangle Block" on Union Avenue and Main Street in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Flood water from the Arkansas River surrounds commercial businesses. Shows submerged doorways, windows, street lights, telephone poles, and piles of debris.

Men work to clear rubble piled along the flooded Arkansas River in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Freight cars, a locomotive, hay bales, tracks and lumber are scattered near Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe and Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad bridges.

View of a dynamite explosion to dislodge a Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad bridge from flood debris in the Arkansas River in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows mud and sand in the air, part of a D. & R.G. bridge submerged in the river and an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad bridge nearby.

Men in overalls or work clothes and hats stand on washed out railroad tracks beside piles of rubble from the Arkansas River flood in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe and Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad bridges are in the distance. Shows wrecked and overturned locomotives and railroad cars.