Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma Genealogy Trails

Storm of 1908

The worst storm recorded in Pottawatomie County prior to 1945 was on October 22, 1908 when flood waters inundated most of the northern counties leaving thousands of families homeless and costing millions of dollars of crop damage.  Floods, which were reported unprecdented in the extent of their damages, began raining with growing severity on the 22nd reaching their peak four days later.  Rain fell almost continuously for a 72 hour period, followed by a heavy snowfall and rapid temperature drop.  Dale, near Shawnee, was completely flooded, and shut out from the world without railroad, telephone and telegraph for several days.  Heaviest crop damage was sustained in Shawnee.

Publication:  The Oklahoman Date October 28, 1908 Page Number 14 RAILROAD'S LOSS IN FLOOD IS ENORMOUS SUPERINTENDENT McGEE TELLS OF THE ROCK ISLAND'S TRIBULATIONS "few realize the disastrous extent of the recent floods and the vast amount of damage railroad companies  and farmers sustained in the visited districts," said John McGee, general supertintendent of the Oklahoma divistion of the Rock Island, with headquarters in El Reno, yesterday.  Superintendent McGee passed through Oklahoma City in his private car from McCloud this afternoon.  "The Rock Island and the M., K. & T (Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad) probably sustained a greater loss than the other lines.  Between Shawnee and Dale a score of wash outs resulted.  One near Dale was 300 feet wide and 20 feet deep, and a track had to be constructed around the great hole and a temporary bridge constructed to permit transportation at all.  A similar wash out occured near McLoud.  "It is a low estimate to place the Rock Island's loss at $25,000.  Inhabitants of that vicitinity who have lived there for years, declare the rain to be historic in that it has never been duplicated in that period"  Mr. McGee stated a congestion of freight business was the inevitable result.  Three hundred cars, he said, were west, while eastern freight totaling not at Shawnee waiting for removal to the less that 400 cars were stacked in the El Reno yards.

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