| Summary: | water to rise at an alarming rate. The women rushed to the basement to save the canned goods, but the water level forced them to leave a good deal of it. By the time they got to the kitchen, water was already covering the floor. They spent the rest of that day and all night upstairs, as the entire farmyard was under water two to four feet deep. Many times Spring Creek and Beaver Creek have overflowed their banks and the "old town" section of Linton has suffered considerable damage. A few of the worst floods occured in 1917, 1922 and 1925, but the most often discussed was that in 1943. Joe Bosch, working at the Linton Hatchery, was the first to notice the high water, so sounded the alarm. The siren wailed until all available help arrived to assist with the evacuation of stranded residents. Ralph Schmaltz came with his boat and rescued John Bartu and the George Reiger family. Art Schott was busy towing vehicles across the washout in Highway 83 with his tractor. At one point the bus almost went over on its side and you should have heard the passengers scream! Henry Schultz was marooned for 12 hours on his house top. Joe Wenda, Seeman Park caretaker, his wife and 5 children, rushed to the dance pavillion to escape the rising water, and spent the next 3 days there. Mr. Wenda waded to the house for a supply of groceries, but walking became too difficult in the swirling water, so he improvised a boat out of the galvanized pop cooking tank. Using clothes line wire, he strung a line from the house across to a tree by the pavillion, and with the tank as a boat he pulled himself across, hand-over-hand. He made the trip many times to save their personal belongings. The heating system at the Hatchery was out, so Chuck Lang installed electric heaters. Deliveries were made by boat to customers who could pick them up, but the rest (15,000 chicks) were kept in the brooder room awaiting delivery. Many basements were flooded, sewers backed up and heating systems did not function. Much property damage resulted, especially in the extreme west side of town. Many farms in the low places along the creek lost hay, poultry and some livestock. The winter of 1951-52 was severe, with an unusually large amount of snow. In April, 1952, Beaver Creek, Spring Creek and the Missouri River combined to give Emmons County the worst flood within recorded history. Beginning in the northwest portion, extending along the river bottom southward to Beaver Creek, then eastward along the course of the creek to where it leaves the county, the flood caused much property damage, marooned farmers and their livestock and forced about 15 Linton families from their homes. In addition, water covered Highway 83 four miles south of Moffit, six miles south of Linton and ten miles south of Strasburg; Highway 13 in at least three places east of Linton and Highway 11, a mile west of Hague. Railroad traffic was brought to a complete standstill because of washed-out bridges northwest of Hazelton and 400 feet of washed-out track just north of the Milwaukee bridge over Beaver Creek south of Linton. In short, Linton was almost completely isolated from through traffic on highway and railroad. Among those who moved their belongings to higher ground were Theoph Balliet, Ben Meier, Hilda Schnaible, Rosina Balliet, Robert Chesrown, N. S. Sheffield, George Chapman, Robert Traver, Rosina Bibel- heimer, Jacob Bauman, George Reiger, John Bartu, Herman Backhaus and Pat Malone. Russell Lawler, Leonard Naumann and Herb Wallender were using their planes for observation work along the course of Beaver Creek. They reported that among the farmers in the lowlands, the houses and barns were in much deeper water than the houses in Linton. Ed Englerth said he had never before been able to step out of his house into Beaver Creek. Link Krick boasted that no more water would run into his basement— it was full! Hip boots were at a premium. It wasn't long before local stores were depleted of their stock so Russell Lawler flew to Bismarck to replenish the supply. Several pair of these boots went out to the Winona country when Steve Volk, Andrew Feist, Frank F. Jahner and Peter Paul came to town asking for boots to get around their farms. They were promised delivery and started for home. The boots were at the Volk farm before they arrived, and another pair dropped to Ferdinand Maier who sent word in with the Winona quartet. The KEM Co-op's workmen had a busy night when many of their poles started to float down and across highway 83. It was a hazard to highway traffic, but soon under control. John Backhaus had a truckload of flax at his home. It took workmen with two tractors, winches and finally a big caterpillar to pull the load to dry ground. Firemen, men with tractors, trucks, wheelbarrows and shovels helped with sand hauling, furniture moving and general evacuation work. The sheriff and patrolman directed traffic, made emergency trips, and reported conditions on their car radios. A little adversity soon brings out what everyone knows: that people in Emmons County are just plain good neighbors. SEEMAN PARK FROM TOP OF SLIDE ^ I t ART SCHOTT TOWING BUS i LINTON HATCHERY, 1943 -43- Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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