S.D. hasn't seen a flood like 1881

Vermillion moved to higher ground after the deluge

Originally published on March 22, 2011 in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader
Click here for original link.
by Jill Callison

Blogmaster's note: This article published on the 130th anniversary of this massive ice gorge flood of Vermillion and Yankton. It doesn't note that the reason such a flood is unlikely these days (other than the fact people moved out of the floodplain) is that the Gavin's Point Dam was built not far upstream, completed in 1957. The resilience of these communities is inspiring.

In its March 24, 1881, edition, the Dakota Republican noted that the Missouri River had risen 6 feet during the week but had not flooded.

A few days later, the newspaper's office in Vermillion was gone, swept away by a flood. The Dakota Republican would not print again until July 1, 1881.

That came after Vermillion residents had voted to move the town of more than 600 residents to higher ground, Vermillion historian Tom Thaden says.

"The original site was right next to the Missouri," he says. "Now we're pretty much in the same area, just on the bluff rather than below it."



Vermillion was established in 1859, and the Dakota Territory community had seen small floods before 1881. Fires had been a bigger threat to survival.

That changed in 1881 after a winter that began with a foot of snow in mid-October 1880.

More blizzards and frigid weather followed, and by March the ice on the rivers was 2 to 3 feet thick.

"The prospect for a flood of major proportions was just right," A.H. Lathrop wrote in a booklet for the Clay County Historical Society. "Melting weather arrived in March and on the last Sunday in the month the break-up came."

Since earlier floods had caused little damage, most Vermillion residents thought this flood would be much the same.

They were wrong.

It was almost midnight on March 27, 1881, when the tolling of the Baptist church bell awoke residents. An ice gorge had formed below a Missouri River island south of Vermillion, and water had begun to flood the streets.

And the Missouri was not the only river that was causing concern given that the town also was located near the Vermillion River.

Some people evacuated after that first alert, but others stayed in their homes.

By March 29, the water was subsiding.

On March 30, though, it became clear as the water rose that the danger was not over.

According to an account by Judson Graves, editor of the Vermillion Standard, on March 31 "about nine in the morning the buildings commenced moving. Butler's photograph gallery moving first and going to pieces in the rapids."


Other buildings followed, until 40 of them had been moved off their foundations and smashed against the ice, all in one day's time.

Making the day worse was a blizzard that made it "almost impossible to row a boat against the fierce northwest wind."

For a week, the floodwaters tugged at the buildings of Vermillion. Wood or brick, they tumbled down.

"Seventy-five percent of all buildings were swept away," Thaden says.

"When the water was at the highest at least 20 buildings were floating off at the same time," Lathrop's account says.

Finally, on April 5, the Vermillion River cut a channel through the gorged ice to the Missouri River's center. A strong current carried away the backwater, which had run up to Vermillion.

On April 14, the ice weakened enough so the Vermillion broke through the ice to a narrow open channel. The water drained off, leaving ice from 1 to 6 feet deep in the streets.

But on April 16 and 17, the Vermillion River entered the town, taking away houses that had survived earlier flooding.

When the flood ended, 132 buildings were totally destroyed with many others badly damaged.

Not only that, but the landscape had changed.

"The flood actually took the river about 3 miles south of town," Thaden says.

Today, railroad tracks and grain elevators mark the original site of Vermillion.

Vermillion residents voted on May 2, 1881, to move the town to atop the bluffs. The vote took place in the Methodist Church, one of the few buildings that had chosen a higher location.

"They were really resilient after what happened there," Thaden says. "They salvaged what they could of the buildings that were left and moved it up to the bluff. For example, there was a large brick building and they salvaged the bricks."

A few buildings were undamaged, and they were moved on rollers up to the bluffs.