Destroyed by Floods

Destroyed by Floods. . Each year, summer monsoons bless the arid Southwest with rain , sometimes violently so., This valley drains the Pinos Altos Mountains to the north and the Continental Divide to the west. Unfortunately, town founders , unfamiliar with local conditions , placed Main Street right in the path of the watershed's natural drainage route. The results were disastrous., Floods have always had the power to attract, astound and fascinate onlookers., "...an immense wave twelve feet in height and three hundred feet in width, carrying with it everything movable in its path..." , , Silver City Enterprise, July 22, 1895, ”A raging torrent came boiling through the deep ditch which used to be Main Street. The angry waters cut under the bank and undermined six or seven of the big trees. The front wall [of the Enterprise building] fell and later a considerable part of the side wall fell…”, Silver City Enterprise, July 22, 1895, Scouring away Main Street… one flood at a time , Each year, rainstorms caused damage to the main thoroughfare; each year, residents made repairs to the unpaved street. No one realized that the problem lay not in the rainfall, but in uncontrolled wood cutting and grazing of the surrounding watershed. Soil collection for adobe bricks made matters even worse. Floods became increasingly regular and more severe., With each passing storm, Main Street wore deeper. It became an arroyo, a gully, and eventually a gorge. Residents expended huge effort and vast sums to construct and repair breakwaters and other flood control structures in an ongoing attempt to keep Main Street alive., Devastation , After the major flood of 1895, the town gave up on Main Street and built a pedestrian footbridge over what is today San Vicente Creek. In 1902 another devastating flood carved the deep gulch that locals now call the "Big Ditch."