Flood Marker

July 6, 1869. The dams and Town Lake did not exist at this time, so the Colorado River was normally small as it ran through Austin and was commonly called a "stream". The month of July started with rains at short intervals causing the Colorado River to rise gradually. On the 6th, a flood came down the river in walls causing it to overflow at an alarming rate. According to Brown's Annals in the Austin History Center, "the mass of waters rushed down from the narrow and confined channel between the mountains above, to the wider one below, with such fearful velocity that the middle of the stream was higher than the sides, and the aspect it presented was appalling."

The flood of 1935 was one of three major floods to hit the area in the 1930's. Austin was hit with 22 inches of rain in three hours. Between 2,500 and 3,000 residents in East Austin (near present-day IH-35 and the river bank) were left virtually homeless after the waters receded. A Statesman article described the situation: "Sloppy silt was deposited to a depth of from six to 18 inches on the floors, over furniture, bed clothing and in fact everything that the glue-like mud could fasten itself upon, and only the most rugged articles of furniture could be salvaged."

"South Congress Avenue between Barton Springs Road and the Texas School for the Deaf was a crumpled mass of ruins, the street being littered with broken sewer lines torn from business buildings that once stood in the area, broken concrete, twisted water pipes, signs, trees, timbers, structural steel, a number of the new concrete lamp posts erected a month ago by the city and other debris. The street, the pride of Austin and of the state highway department presented a wretched scene." The Montopolis and Marble Falls bridges were also both destroyed.

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This flood marker is next to Buford Tower on Town Lake. The 1869 flood was recorded at a high water level of 43 feet.

From Arguendo & Dixi's Daily Austin Photo

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