2
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533
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550a8e1163715bfabf5974703998cc3a
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
RCPL Oral History Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Members of the Rapid City community share their memories of the flood in interviews conducted by the Rapid City Public Library.
Creator
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Rapid City Public Library
Subject
The topic of the resource
The Rapid City Public Library has recorded on film individuals who tell about their personal experiences of the events of June 9, 1972. If you would like to be interviewed, please see the <a href="http://1972flood.omeka.net/contact">Contact Us</a> page for more information.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Location
The location of the interview
Rapid City Public Library
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Adrian Ludens
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Philip Wendling
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Philip Wendling
Description
An account of the resource
Philip Wendling's recollection of the 1972 flood. Recorded during the 50th Anniversary event at Rapid City Public Library.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
June 8, 2022
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rapid City Public Library
-
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6eb8e84a57463d68f1c5ef319bc1d675
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
RCPL Oral History Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Members of the Rapid City community share their memories of the flood in interviews conducted by the Rapid City Public Library.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rapid City Public Library
Subject
The topic of the resource
The Rapid City Public Library has recorded on film individuals who tell about their personal experiences of the events of June 9, 1972. If you would like to be interviewed, please see the <a href="http://1972flood.omeka.net/contact">Contact Us</a> page for more information.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Location
The location of the interview
Rapid City Public Library
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Adrian Ludens
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Tom Raba
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tom Raba
Description
An account of the resource
Tom Raba's recollection of the 1972 flood. Recorded during the 50th Anniversary event at Rapid City Public Library.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
June 8, 2022
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rapid City Public Library
-
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7f43c4353b29607da4bbf468c0070803
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
RCPL Oral History Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Members of the Rapid City community share their memories of the flood in interviews conducted by the Rapid City Public Library.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rapid City Public Library
Subject
The topic of the resource
The Rapid City Public Library has recorded on film individuals who tell about their personal experiences of the events of June 9, 1972. If you would like to be interviewed, please see the <a href="http://1972flood.omeka.net/contact">Contact Us</a> page for more information.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Location
The location of the interview
Rapid City Public Library
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Adrian Ludens
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Ronald Kuecker
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Ronald Kuecker
Description
An account of the resource
Ronald Kuecker's recollection of the 1972 flood. Recorded during the 50th Anniversary event at Rapid City Public Library.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
June 8, 2022
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rapid City Public Library
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
In June, 1972, after graduating from South Dakota State University in Brookings, my three female college friends and I decided to go on a trip before our jobs started. We headed to the Black Hills in my car with only sleeping bags. I had relatives in the Rapid City area and also friends after working a summer during college years at the Powder House Lodge near Keystone.
When we got to Rapid City on June 9, we had to spend a half day there getting the car ignition fixed. But then we headed to Keystone where we spent the afternoon visiting some friends and hanging out in the town. We had decided earlier to stay at a campground. We had only sleeping bags, no tent. It was raining hard as I was talking to my Mom on a pay phone by the Conoco gas station on the main street. Because mud was sliding down the hill across the street, I jokingly said, “We will be home sometime….if we don’t drown out here because it’s raining so hard.”
We then drove east on Hwy 40 to the Harney Peak Campground east of Keystone that was on the Battle Creek side with an old schoolhouse on the property. We tried to spread out in a picnic shelter but, because it was raining so hard, the owners said we could take our sleeping bags and sleep in their camper. It was usually on a pickup but was being stored on the ground next to their trailer house by the stream. It was dark and raining hard.
All we could hear in the camper was the rain beating down. We had just gotten into the sleeping bags when the campground owner knocked and said we should get out because the creek was rapidly rising. We did and jumped in the car to start driving out of the campground. (It was a good thing we had gotten the ignition problem repaired earlier that day!)
When we got to the approach going out of the campground, the water was rapidly rising and we couldn’t get the car up out of the mud. We were seeing trash cans and debris floating away. The other girls got out into the water and pushed the car up onto the road as I spun the wheels. We saw other campers trying to get out of the campground in their cars. We went down to help push a Georgia man & his family out as they left their campers. As we got them up onto the road, we saw the camper topper we had been in go downstream and then the trailer home of the campground owners floated away in the quickly flooding area.
Those of us in cars on the hill soon realized that we were surrounded by flood waters and could go no further. In the dark, we had no idea what was beyond us or how much the water might continue to rise. We four girls sat in the car in our wet clothes, turning it on periodically and opening the door to check the water level. By then, the radio had gone to emergency services transmission. In the middle of the night when we heard our names listed as missing, we put our driver’s licenses in our jean’s pockets in case we were swept away. It continued to be a fearful night, but so far we were alive.
2
When daylight came along with a cloudy hazy day, we saw the flood waters with debris floating by. I remember feeling so nauseated because I was afraid I would see someone I knew from Keystone float by along with the cars and debris.
During that day, the father/grandfather of the Georgia camping group, walked among the dozen or so of us on the highway rise carrying a gun as he drank from a bottle of liquor. He verbally threatened that he would do whatever he needed to so his family would have food and be the first in line if we were rescued.
Later in the day, a National Guard helicopter hovered over and asked if we needed anything. They could not rescue us at the time since we were all right and they needed to help others. They did bring back heart medication for the Georgia man.
Also later that day, we saw people on the other side of the raging flood waters. We decided to yell across spelling one of our names (the easiest one) with her mother’s phone number and asked them to call to tell her we were alive and all right. We knew she would then call the other parents.
That night, as we tried to sleep off and on in the car, we locked the doors because of the Georgia man’s threats.
On the third day, the National Guard came through the waters with a very high truck. They had been searching for survivors and bodies east of Keystone. We said we needed to contact our parents. They said we could return to Keystone with them where there was a National Guard rescue center that had been established. We left the car and our belongings and rode in the back of the truck. The others in the group chose to stay with their cars in hopes of being able to leave when the water receded.
As we rode in the truck going in and out of the water down the washed out highway, we saw the destruction of east Keystone, old Keystone and the main area. We were immediately given tetanus and typhoid shots, along with something to eat. Though because we were so emotionally distressed, we weren’t very hungry. We wanted to try to reach our parents but there were, of course, no phone connections in the Keystone area.
Fortunately, a highway patrolman said he could take us into his home about 20 miles away on the eastern side of Rapid City where they had phone service. We were exhausted and thankful for his help. He, his wife, and the neighbors let us each go to a home and call our parents. We were so happy to be able to connect with them and they were so thankful we were alive.
Later that day, we went to the Rapid City High School to help with the rescue efforts. I remember sitting with a man who was trying to find dry clothing and a pair of shoes. He was so distraught because he didn’t know if his wife and son made it through the flood or if they were swept away. We both cried when they walked in the door!
3
I don’t remember the highway patrolman’s name, but wish I could thank him again. We did keep in touch with the owners of the campground for a while. They saved our lives since we would not have heard or seen the Battle Creek rising outside the camper.
Eleven people died in the Keystone area, all campers caught in sites along creeks. Seventy structures were damaged or lost. I will always remember and often revisit the memories of that experience. The scenes of devastation, the bodies in a row by makeshift morgues, the sadness in the eyes of those who lost one or more of the 238 lost friends and family, are not things you forget. I know I am lucky to be one of the survivors. We four girls went on to careers in helping professions.
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Title
A name given to the resource
Rebecca Gottschalk
-
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e460394cef56c5c41078c5ccbbd34998
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
The day after the flood I volunteered to help. Being a member of the Rapid City Scuba Diving Club, I offered to search for bodies. One memory that I will never forget was behind the Osheim Funeral Home. There was a sunken car which I checked for bodies. Luckily none were found. the funeral home was overwhelmed as they had to use their garage floor to receive the bodies. There were a dozen or more laying on the floor. I'll never forget seeing a deceased lady with her hair still in curlers. They had a large water truck on hand that they were using to wash the bodies. they also used it to wash the mud off of me and my equipment.
The city was struggling to keep the water treatment plant operating as the flood had washed away their screening on the Rapid Creek side that prevented debris from getting into the water treatment plant. The result was debris plugging up their three sump pumps in the pump room.
Craig Langerman and myself were asked to dive into the sump room and clean the debris from the screens around the pumps. This turned into a full time job. The would turn off one of the pumps at a time so we could safely clear the debris. This was a challenge as there was zero visibility and we had to do everything by feel. During this time we wore holes in our wet suits and plugged up our regulators. We worked 8-10 hours a day for several weeks after the flood, and after that we were still on call for several weeks.
It was a gratifying feeling that we were able to help.
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Duane Grosz
-
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
I was living in Rapid City as a child when the 1972 flood took place. My father was employed with a non profit organization through the Wesleyan Church. He was assigned to Sioux Chapel in Rapid City from 1970-1974. Sioux Chapel was located on 11th Street (right beside Rapid Creek). Our home sat right beside the chapel on the bank of Rapid Creek. It was destroyed the night of the flood. We left and went to friends who lived just outside the city at a higher elevation when the law enforcement officers came door to door warning of the possible flood waters. From the clocks we found afterwards in the pieces of our home….we left 20 minutes before the wall of water hit our home. We would not have survived that night. The wall of water picked our home up off the foundation and dropped part of it into the basement. The water lines were at the ceiling on the first floor. Our family lost most of all we owned. I was sent to live with relatives in Ohio that summer while my parents worked to put the pieces of our life there in Rapid City back together. Interestingly, the chapel structure survived and was used until the rezoning of that area when it had to be relocated.
My brother and I made a trip to Rapid City and the Black Hills three years ago. We spent some time along the creek bank where our house stood (now a golf course). We had played in the creek many a time and we both recalled the night it became a monster of destruction. We both will never forget the events of that night or the days immediately following as we looked for our belongings. I was only 10 years old but it left indelible memories on my childhood. My heart has always been grateful the flood did not take lives in my immediate family but I have always felt empathy for those who did and experienced the trauma of those flood waters.
My father worked with Gerald Yellow Hawk who is scheduled to do a Remembrance Blessing on June 8th as part of the 50 year commemoration. I am grateful that the city still “remembers” and honors those who worked and volunteered to help rescue, comfort and care for the many who were affected by the disaster.
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Lenore (Drillien) Humble
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
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RON EIKENBERRY REMEMBERS THE FLOOD OF 1972
The summer of 1972 was filled full of promise for me. I had worked at the Baken Park Piggly Wiggly since I was a junior in high school and because my college experience didn’t work out, I thought my future was to manage a grocery store for the Nash Finch Company. I started my training June 5 at the Belle Fourche Piggly Wiggly store. As my first week was ending, Friday June 9 brought rain to the Belle Fourche area mid-afternoon. Heavy and steady rain. I headed home at 5 pm in my 1965 International Scout. Along the way it was raining so hard my windshield wipers couldn’t keep up. I stopped near Sturgis before getting on I-90 and waited for a let up in the rain but that time never came. So I continued at what seemed like a snail’s pace only to stop again at about the Piedmont area. Again I had to continue on with no letup in the rain. Finally, at around Black Hawk I ran out of the rain and got home about 6:30 pm. Home was at 618 Minnelusa Dr. in west Rapid (a small 2 bedroom house built in the 1930’s). The back of the house was about 50’ from Rapid Creek and on the west side of the creek from Baken Park Shopping Center, roughly opposite the Piggly Wiggly store location (now Boyd’s).
When I got home I was shaking like a leaf and told Nita about the crazy rain. I changed clothes into my cutoffs and tee shirt. After some thought I decided to load up some of our most valuable possessions just in case we would have to evacuate. We threw a change of clothes in Nita’s car and just waited. It started raining about 7 pm and came down as hard as it did when I was driving home. I called Paul Crosmer to talk about the rain and discuss the future of his homemade wooden sailboat he was storing at our house. Paul came over and our best thought was to tie the boat to a post used to hold up our carport. Thinking that the boat was secure Paul took off. The boat did make it through the flood.
About 8 pm Ron Oney and his girlfriend Libby Balmes (69) showed up to sit out the night with us. The TV station was warning people in areas next to the creek for the potential of flooding and to stay tuned. By 9 pm the TV announcers were advising people in the low lying areas to leave their homes and go to higher ground. Ron was always thinking and thought he and I should walk to the west side McDonalds, which was only half a block away, to see if they were closing and possibly score a bag full of food already cooked that would be thrown away. He was right and we went home and ate the food.
About 10 pm, after repeated warnings to leave home and get to higher ground, a police officer in a patrol car came down the street with his bullhorn and was telling people to leave. The creek had been steadily rising and it was when the officer came through that we decided we had better leave. We left about 10:15 to go south down the street to Canyon Lake Dr., then to Mt. View. From there Ron and Libby were going to their place in north Rapid and Nita and I were going to go to my parent’s house in the Mt. View Cemetery area. Oney took the lead, Nita second and I brought up the rear. By the time I got to Canyon Lake Dr. Sioux Park was full of water (there was a house floating out there coming toward us) and water covered Canyon Lake Dr. As I headed toward Mt. View Dr. I had to cross a bridge at Rapid Creek. Both of the bridge rails were still there so I decided the road must still be there. Oney’s car flooded out crossing Mt. View, they made it into the Safeway parking lot and from there walked to Libby’s dad’s house in Robbinsdale. Nita’s car floated at the same intersection but the tires caught traction in a center island and she was able to get onto unflooded pavement on Mt. View. She made it to my parent’s house okay. My Scout flooded going across the bridge and I made it to the side entrance of Baken Park and then I pushed it down to the entrance of Piggly Wiggly onto yet unflooded pavement. The night manager was still there after having sent everyone else home. It was probably 10:45 when I got there and the first thing I did was to make 3 trips from my vehicle into the store with the few prized possessions I had saved from our house. By the time I had finished the water was thigh high on me and rising. About 11 pm I called my Mom to let her know where I was. She said Nita had not gotten there yet, so I had no knowledge of her whereabouts. The phone went out while we were talking, followed by the store lights.
The next couple of hours were the most terrifying. There were no windows in the back of the store (the creek side of the store), just big steel sliding doors which were used to get merchandise into the store. Water was coming in at a pretty good rate around the bottom and sides of the doors and the thought came to me that there was no means of escape should the store fill with water. The front of the store faced Mt. View and was full of windows. From the ground up was about 2 ½’ of brick but then window up to probably 8’. We watched the water rise, got to 4’ to 5’ deep from what I could tell. The view looking through the gap was terrifying. Heavy rain coming down but then fires burning as well. I learned the fires were coming from exploding propane tanks and ruptured natural gas lines. The rain finally stopped around 1 pm. Shortly after the rain stopped there were a couple of speed boats running around on the flooded Mt. View Rd., there mission we guessed was in trying to rescue people caught in the raging waters, most taking refuge on building roofs. In all there was probably 6” of mud throughout the store. My Scout floated down about 30’ from where I left it and had water in it up to the dashboard.
The store manager walked in from his house about 5 am so knowing I could get through, I took off and walked to my parent’s house and got there about 6 am. Nita had gotten there without any further complications. Nita and my dad had spent a good portion of their night at the Clarkson Nursing Home helping to move residents across Mt. View Rd. to safe haven in a gas station.
Our house floated off of its foundation (anchor bolts were not used in the 30’s) but surprisingly did not get washed away, we figured it was the big stucco house next door that protected it. All of the contents were ruined however. After a couple of months staying with my parents we did move into a HUD mobile home, high and dry in Rapid Valley.
The 50th anniversary of the flood is shown in pictures in the hardbound book named Turning Point. Nita and I are shown on the back cover (and on page 50) walking north on Minnelusa Dr. toward W. Main St. (McDonalds parking lot with the Cadillac teetering on the edge in the background) a couple of days after the flood.
Ron and Nita (McKinstry) Eikenberry
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Ron and Nita Eikenberry
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Written Memories
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Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
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An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
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June 9, 1972, the Rapid City Flood remembered by Brian H. Cole
I remember that night very well. I just turned 17 in late April 1972 and was at a party up the hill near Camp Rapid. As the evening approached, we could hear someone shooting a gun and another blowing a whistle in the neighborhood west of Rapid Creek, near Baken Park shopping center. At that time, none of us knew of the disaster that had happened at lower elevations. Eventually I left the party and went down to the neighborhood below. The National Guard was there trying to get a truck out of the mud. This was about 5 blocks from Rapid Creek, across from Sioux Park. I met up with 2 other guys that were looking to help. None of us knew one another, but we formed a small group and we decided to try to get to the people that were shooting the gun and blowing the whistle. One of the guys within our small group took the lead, and he was the age of someone that may have come back from Vietnam. I say this because he took charge, like a military leader would, and that was perfectly fine with me. We took off towards where we thought the sounds were coming, towards Rapid Creek. The water became deeper and flowed stronger as we walked closer to where the gun shots and whistles were coming from. At one point we tied a rope around one guy (the lead guy) and he tried to make it closer to where we thought someone needed help, while we held the rope in case he was swept off of his feet. We may have been about two blocks from Rapid Creek at this point. But he came back and said the water was just too deep and fast. At about this time the gun shots stopped and we could no longer hear any whistle either. We started back, checking the houses as we went. All lights were out and it was dark. At one point I suddenly dropped under water because I fell into a basement (the house was already gone). After that we came across an older couple in one of the many flooded houses, so I carried the older gentleman, and another guy carried his wife. This older guy was clearly in shock, visibly shaking badly, but he was a strong South Dakotan, cussing all the way while being carried by this 17-year-old. We made it back to where the National Guard was, and their truck was free from the mud, so they took the couple up to Camp Rapid, along with others. I’m sure we all remember the weeks that followed as well. Every day we’d see emergency vehicles go by, and we knew they found another body (one of the deadliest floods in U.S. history).
Brian H. Cole
Stevens High “73”
SDSM&T “81”
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Brian Cole
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Written Memory
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May 16, 2022
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RCPL Oral History Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Members of the Rapid City community share their memories of the flood in interviews conducted by the Rapid City Public Library.
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Rapid City Public Library
Subject
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The Rapid City Public Library has recorded on film individuals who tell about their personal experiences of the events of June 9, 1972. If you would like to be interviewed, please see the <a href="http://1972flood.omeka.net/contact">Contact Us</a> page for more information.
Oral History
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Adrian Ludens
Interviewee
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Sam Bice
Location
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Rapid City Public Library
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Sam Bice
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Rapid City Public Library
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April 2022
Description
An account of the resource
Seventeen year old Sam Bice lived with his family--and delivered the newspaper--in the Braeburn addition in 1972. He talks about what happened the night of the flood, the heavy death toll among his neighbors, and the odds things he found in the days following catastrophe.
Sam Bice was born in Chamberlain, South Dakota and moved to Rapid City in 1960 where he has resided since. He joined the family business where he was a water well and foundation contractor until his retirement.
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RCPL Oral History Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Members of the Rapid City community share their memories of the flood in interviews conducted by the Rapid City Public Library.
Creator
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Rapid City Public Library
Subject
The topic of the resource
The Rapid City Public Library has recorded on film individuals who tell about their personal experiences of the events of June 9, 1972. If you would like to be interviewed, please see the <a href="http://1972flood.omeka.net/contact">Contact Us</a> page for more information.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Adrian Ludens
Location
The location of the interview
Rapid City Public Library
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Deb Kuehn
Description
An account of the resource
Deborah Kuehn had finished work and was home at her parents’ the night of June 9, 1972. Her mother, Yvonne was working at Bennett-Clarkson hospital that night, and her father, Jim, was vice president and co-editor of the Rapid City Journal, and was keeping tabs on the situation. The family lived on Selkirk, just a few blocks from Jackson Blvd, and took in many people displaced by the flood.
Deb Kuehn moved back to Rapid City in 1988. She has worked as a certified nurse practitioner at Monument’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and at Black Hills Pediatrics. Deb’s hobbies include her cats, gardening, sewing and quilting, and rummaging.
Creator
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Rapid City Public Library
Date
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April 2022
-
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Podcast Logo
-
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Title
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Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
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To me, June 9th will always be synonymous with the Rapid City flood. We lived on Twin Elms Drive in west Rapid. I was nearly 12 at the time. A friend and I hoped to go to the car races that Friday evening. However as the evening progressed it became obvious that the races were rained out. I walked home at about 8 pm. My older brother arrived home telling wild stories of driving through high water. He said that they had driven out Hwy 44 and at Nameless Cave Road they had driven through water over the hood of the pickup. (Sure you did - like it would keep running with water over the hood...) Anyway we thought it would be good to go out and pursue more of that type of adventure. Being clever teenagers we decided we should take the 4-wheel drive Chevy Blazer since it had better ground clearance. Our Mother is an RN and she was due to work the night shift that evening so was asleep. We sneaked into her bedroom and got the Blazer keys. We set out with my older sister and her 2 year old daughter. We went down several flooded streets with water up to the doors of the Blazer. One of the bridges we went over was directly below Canyon Lake Dam and it had two feet of water rushing over it. By this time it was around ten pm. We went to Canyon Lake Park and walked along the dam in the rain. When lightning flashed, it illuminated Canyon Lake which was a swirling mass of debris, houses, trees, boats and other junk. At that time it was one or two feet from overtopping the earthen dam. We walked to the old spillway which was full to the top. It seemed the water was rushing 60 mph down the spillway. The top of the spillway was clogged with debris. I remember there were men there, likely city workers, trying to clear the debris perhaps with crowbars. Of course it was futile due to the force of the water. It was likely obvious to them that the dam would soon be overtopped. In fact it did break less than an hour later. The idea that the dam could break, or the overall danger did not really cross our minds. We were just dumb teenagers. By now it was well after ten pm. We went down Jackson Blvd which was also flooded and past the bank at Baken Park. I vividly recall the time on the bank clock was 10:38 pm. Canyon Lake Dam broke right about that time. We drove back home down Canyon Lake drive, having seen enough unusual sights. If we had driven down Jackson Blvd I would likely not be writing this. I am sure we were some of the last people to see Canyon Lake before it overtopped and the dam failed. Meanwhile Mom had risen from her nap and found that her kids were gone in her 4 wheel drive and by this time there were dire flood warnings on TV. Panic-stricken, she set off down the street looking for us with a flashlight. After a block or so she realized how silly that was, looking for us on foot and went home. We awoke the next morning to the horrible aftermath. I will never forget the smell. Not exactly a stench - just a smell of earth torn apart by the floodwaters. We walked to what was left of Canyon Lake Dam and witnessed a body being retrieved from what was once the bottom of the lake. We later walked down to Omaha Street looking for a friend that lived near Rice Cycle. He survived but some of his family did not. While we were there, police cars went zipping by and sirens wailed. It was rumored that Deerfield Reservoir had broken. We jumped in the back of a dump truck and headed for high ground. As I recall, there were other such rumors the following days, Pactola breaking etc... At the time of the flood my Dad was at a funeral in Iowa. Relatives asked him if he had brought the family and if he had heard the news of the big flood. He could not believe what they were saying so he turned on the car radio to hear the news at the top of the hour. He knew it was real when he heard Dick Shilvock, a local broadcaster, on the national news describing the devastation. Immediately after the flood he drove home as fast as a 1970 Plymouth could go. He was stopped several times by the law but they let him go. Of course he could not contact us as all the phone lines were out. The day after he got home he discovered that the clutch was seized up on the pickup (the pickup my brother said he had driven underwater). We popped the hood and there was horse manure on top of the intake manifold. We concluded that perhaps he really had been in water over the hood at Nameless Cave Road. My brother, sister, niece and I were very, very, lucky to survive. It was an interesting summer, dealing with washed out bridges everywhere. Our family had a cabin west of Nemo. The old road up Boxelder Creek had washed out and it took us several months to find a new way into the cabin. Shortly after the flood we drove up Nemo Road and every bridge was washed out. Crossings had been improvised since it would be months before new bridges could be put in. Our pickup got stuck in one of the first crossings. Dad walked nearly to Nemo before locating someone with a 4-wheel drive to pull us out. Victims of the flood - a classmate from West Junior High, relatives of a good friend, daughter of a co-worker of Dad, several children in a family just three blocks from our house - rest in peace.
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Title
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Brian Stambaugh
Subject
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Written Memory
-
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Written Memories
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Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
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I'm sure there have been a plethora of '72 flood stories posted as we just passed that inauspicious date, but I have a bit of a different point of view on the events of the day. I was a 15-year old Boy Scout camping at Camp Old Broadaxe in the Nemo area with a bunch of other Scouts from the Black Hills Area Council for an Order of the Arrow weekend. When the rain first started we all headed for our tents located at various sites around the grounds and spent the next couple of hours doing the usual grab-ass stuff that Scouts on campouts do. By around 8 pm the deluge was worsening and it was starting to get concerning to the leaders in charge. Finally, runners were sent to all the campsites to round up the boys and head them up to the mess hall. Needless to say, it was a bit of a madhouse with 50+ wet and excited boys stuffed into this structure. About 10 pm we got the news that the bridge across the creek that ran alongside the camp was getting ready to go. I remember venturing out with flashlights and rain ponchos to watch this bridge constructed of large Ponderosa Pine trunks torn away and washed down stream as if it were made of Tinker Toys.
The next day dawned clear and sunny and as a bunch of kids we didn't really think much of the storm. We were told Rapid City was hit pretty hard but didn't really realize the full extent of what had happened. On Sunday when we were scheduled to leave, we had to hike out with our gear as the bridge was out. Again a great adventure until we came to a clearing and saw a SD National Guard UH-1 Huey (what they called slicks in Vietnam) set down. The pilot told us they were surveying the damage in that area and that Rapid was in bad shape. We hiked to where a bus had been found to bring us home and as we got nearer to Rapid we saw the devastation that had been visited on our town the night before Needless to say what we observed had a sobering effect on all of us.
Thankfully, my home in the Canyon Lake area had escaped any structural damage although we did have the smelly issue of the sewer in the basement backing up. The night of the flood my dad nearly drown when his vehicle was washed down thru the West Main gap when the dam burst and sent a wall of water down thru town. Thankfully, a good Samaritan pulled him out of the water and very likely saved his life. One of the people whose remains were never found was a classmate of mine. He along with his mother and father all perished on that terrible night.. It was a long summer of clearing debris, cars , destroyed houses and in a few cases, recovering the bodies of victims. It will always stay with me.
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BSA Camp Old Broadaxe
-
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Radio and Television
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On this page you will find radio and television broadcasts that have been donated to the Rapid City Public Library's collection of items relating to the 1972 Flood. Many of these are part of the Robb DeWall Collection.
Robb DeWall, a long time resident of Rapid City, broadcast journalist and historian was the EBS (Emergency Broadcasting System) broadcaster during the first 13 hours of the Rapid City Flood of 1972. His papers were donated by his estate to be preserved electronically by the Rapid City Public Library and retained in archive with the Minnilusa Historical Society.
The broadcasts are used by permission of KOTA.
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of broadcasts regarding the 1972 flood.
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Robb DeWall Transcripts
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<span>Robb DeWall, a long time resident of Rapid City, broadcast journalist and historian was the EBS (Emergency Broadcasting System) broadcaster during the first 13 hours of the Rapid City Flood of 1972. His papers were donated by his estate to be preserved electronically by the Rapid City Public Library and retained in archive with the Minnilusa Historical Society.<br /><br />The papers are hosted by Rapid City Public library in our Local Historic Archives. <a href="https://rcplib.catalogaccess.com/search?search=%22robb+dewall%22&page=1&size=10&withImages=false" title="Robb DeWall keyword search on PastPerfect">Click here to explore the collection.</a></span>
Description
An account of the resource
Transcripts and interview questions in the Robb DeWall Collection.
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2aa021c5a7bacc4d75f11698c8528c3d
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Memorial Park
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Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
It started raining in the early afternoon. That wasn’t unusual and for the tourist shops that lined the road to Mount Rushmore on the “strip”, it meant more business as campers left their tents to escape the rain.
By 7:00 that night, the Keystone House was packed and the player piano in the back of the restaurant was cranking out honkey-tonk music. By 7:00, it was raining hard and this wasn’t our usual summertime shower. Rena, my wife, wanted me to go home and bring our three year old son and her sister to Keystone House. Ester, her 16 year old sister, just arrived from Pennsylvania that day and she didn’t think she should spend her first night in a heavy rainstorm. I didn’t want to venture out into the rain, but I agreed to go…reluctantly.
When I returned, Abner Hunter George, a local radio announcer, called to ask how Keystone was faring the storm. Minor flooding started in Rapid City. Thing were still normal in Keystone, but that changed about 9:00. We noticed red flashing lights outside our door and saw a Highway Patrol car moving slowly south down the strip. Battle Creek, near the 1880 Train, was flooding and out of its banks and the main road across the bridge was closed.
Keystone sits on Battle Creek and Grizzly creek and campgrounds line the creeks, just as campgrounds should. Battle Creek was the larger creek and Grizzly was shallow and only 3-4 feet wide as it flowed through the strip. Grizzly Creek was still in its banks about 10:00, but Battle Creek now flooded all the tourist shops on the strip.
I went downstairs to the basement with my dad, Tom McKiernan, and a couple customers to move merchandise to higher shelves because the basement was flooding through the sidewalk entryway we used for deliveries. We weren’t down there very long when Rena called down to tell us to get upstairs, “Water is coming through the doors and the store is being flooded.”
We hurried upstairs to the main floor and looked outside. The water outside was three feet high. Grizzly Creek had become a raging torrent and the little creek now stretched across the narrow valley containing the strip. Water was moving rapidly.
Suddenly, the Keystone House trembled. The basement delivery doors collapsed under the weight of the water and the basement flooded instantly as the water poured in just like water being flushed down a toilet. The entire portion of the Keystone House heaved as water slammed into the center building supports and raised the floor over 12 inches. Electric power went out.
We quickly herded the employees and customers upstairs to our second floor apartment. The first floor quickly flooded, but the building was holding. We didn’t know how long it would last and looked for escape routes to higher ground. We could escape over the Opry House rooftop and climb the hill behind the store. But, we didn’t want to leave before we had to.
Looking out the front window, we saw the flood at its full fury. Cars, tents with tourists screaming for help, debris and water swept downstream on the main road. There was nothing we could do to save them. The memory of tourists being swept downstream haunted us for years and we used to carry 100 feet of rope in our car for years afterwards to prevent the feeling of being helpless.
We survived, but the Keystone House was wrecked. So was my trailer located on Grizzly Creek. It was destroyed. If I hadn’t gone home to bring Ester and Curt to the Keystone House, they would both be dead. It appears a slag pile upstream on Grizzly Creek contained flood water, but finally failed and released a wall of water that wiped out the tourist campers along Grizzly Creek…and my home.
It’s been reported people found recording tape from our reel-to-reel tape collection over 10 feet high in the trees below Keystone.
By the next day, the storm was gone, but Keystone was destroyed. Old Keystone received the brunt of both Battle and Grizzly Creeks. Everything was buried in a thick cover of mud and clean-up took over a year. But, thanks to the Mennonite Disaster Relief group, the Red Cross, and many other organizations, lives were brought back to normal.
A lot of people died during the second worse flood in American history. For those of us that have lived it, these words don’t adequately describe the terror, heroism and resolve of those involved. I would say to those that read this: “Cherish life and live it as best. Events happen that will change your life, but accept them to make you better and stronger.” The 1972 flood will never be forgotten, but it has made us better and stronger. We wish you the best.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
Description
An account of the resource
Written Memory
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
Age at the time was 12 years old. Remembers Black Hills Gold Jewelry and Laundromat cash boxes buried in our back yard. Mom and dad returned them to the owners. How scary it was to see houses float past. Bobbie slept through it. Granny’s dog Fi Fi sensed danger and was freaking out as water was flowing into basement. Bobbie worried about saving his bicycle.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Denise Rohde
Description
An account of the resource
Written Memory
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
I was in Custer in 1972, age 25 years old. I grew up in Custer and had just graduated from college in 1971. I came back every summer when I was in college and when I was teaching school until 1973 then we moved to Pierre. Summer of 1971 I was the summer city police officer in Custer. I loved the job and had met Bill Morgan, highway patrolman, and he and I had worked together. In 1972 the night of the flood , what first happened was I was working as a Park Ranger at Jewel Cave national Monument and that day I happened to have the historic tours at Jewel Cave and I had two young men from California. We came out of the cave about 3:30 in the afternoon. Caves breathe opposite of the barometric pressure, atmospheric pressure, so when there’s a low pressure system coming in the cave will breathe out. When we got out to the entrance we had to move to the side because the wind was just ferocious coming out of the cave. You could see the dark clouds on the horizon and these two kids from CA said a few choice words and that storm had been following them for the last two days and told about the heavy rains the couple nights before. I went home and I had a tunable radio monitor listening to the police band. I could tell there were problems up north; they were talking about it; so I went down to the police station and Morgan was there, he said come on lets go to Hill City They’re having high water. So I got in the patrol car with him and when we left Custer it was not raining in downtown Custer, but when we got to the top of the hill right at the entrance to the cemetery it was just like driving into a carwash. So we drove, and it took an hour for us to get to Hill City and back on what would typically be a half hour drive. When we came back, we didn’t find anything, and the radio was starting to get a little active and we drove out of the rain. Virtually within fifty feet exactly the same place again, it was only sprinkling in Custer and pouring right on top of the hill at the cemetery entrance. We just got back to town (Custer) and the state radio in Rapid calls Morgan and says Joe Pine needs help in Keystone, and can you guys go and help. We came up (Hwy) 224 and we got to the area were you see George Washington’s profile and the guardrail was gone. Morgan said someone’s driven off the road up here; sure as the devil, right in the middle of all of this we’re going to have to signal one car wreck with injury, take this six-cell (flashlight) out there and see if you can see them down there. I got out of the car and the rain was so heavy you had to face away, you couldn’t breathe, and I had the six-cell looking down into this and I turn around and shine it back underneath. Nobody had driven off the road, what was happening was water was coming down off the monument and coming across the road and undercut the road and we were just sitting on top of asphalt. I got back in the car and said let’s get out of here because this is going to give way, and it ultimately did later that night. When we came down into Keystone, talking to Joe Pine on the radio, he said don’t come down here, we’re in trouble, I can’t get these people out of the campgrounds, and nobody wants to go. We didn’t pay any attention. We came down to the Discount Gas Station, which is where the gas station is still today but configured differently, and met with Pine; all of the sudden Morgan said we got to go. I turned around to see the water was coming down the road, crossing it and going into Grizzly Creek. We got in the car and immediately stalled out, there were big rocks coming down the road. We got out; the water was over my knees. I yelled at Morgan to get the hell out of the car. Fortunately the whip antenna was on the right side of the patrol car, which I later found out that we were the only district to put the whip antenna on the right side, I grabbed the antenna and flipped myself over the patrol car. We managed to go over that motel behind the old Copper Room and started beating on all the doors on the lower level, the water was breaking up around us. The motel cabins located in that area were on shale foundations, there were at least 20 kids down there. The water was coming so fast like a locomotive running by, we thought “oh my gosh those kids are dead,” we heard propane tanks exploding as they were going down the creek. We were soaking wet and there was nothing we could do. Then there was a whole period that was just a blur. It was strange the water went down as fast as it came up. I couldn’t believe it but every one of those kids that we saw earlier were still on the roof of the cabin, so we helped them off the cabin. Joe Pines car was okay so we got into the car and started loading people up to take them to Mt. Rushmore, all this time all I could think of was this only happening in Keystone? As it was getting lighter we continued to work our way back down the Main Street. By then a Pennington County Grader operator was coming into town. We contacted Custer Dispatch, to let them know we were okay. And unbeknownst to me, my wife, her mother and grandmother were on the other side of Sign Mall; they were in Rapid Friday to pick up my sister from the airport and got stuck in Keystone. They tried to call me. And at that time no one knew for sure if I was alive or dead. Then though out the morning of Saturday we were looking for survivors up and down Battle Creek. While sitting in the car on KIMM radio we heard that half of Rapid City was underwater. Later General Duke Corning from the National Guard, which at that time he was a legend in South Dakota. Anyway he saw me when he crossed the creek and asked, “Who was in charge?” I said, “No one, we have just been running the radio” and told him that this town did not have any form of government at the time. I was only 25 years old. And he said son, “You look like you know what you’re doing. What would you like from me?” I said well we are getting a lot of looky lou’s coming into town, we need the road blocked coming into town and Mt. Rushmore. So that’s what they did. Now by this time it is about 10:00am Saturday morning, and we had our shots, food was brought in, and dry clothing was coming in. We picked up the other patrol car out of the creek, and it wasn’t damaged, just full of water. A wrecker hauled the patrol car back to Custer and I went home to sleep for a few hours. Morgan and I came back into Keystone later that afternoon and parked our patrol car in the middle of the street sideways to guard the businesses from the looters that were still trying to come into town.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
John Culberson
Description
An account of the resource
Written Memory
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
It had been a really wet spring. Battle Creek was already swollen some. The boys, age 8 and 10, were at Kemp’s Kamp, which we owned. Darleen was in Pierre at a sorority convention. It was a beautiful summer day and we had just finished mowing the camp and had several campers and cabins were rented. We were excited thinking we’re off to a good tourist season.
About 5:30pm it clouded over and began to start raining. About 6:30pm it was pouring so hard you could not see very far. By 8:30pm the creek was out of its bank and over the county road and rising. By 9:00pm we had lost power. At 9:30pm the water had risen to a level where I told the boys to tell the trailers and RVs to move to higher ground. I went to the other end of the camp and got the people in tent camping and in cabins to come to the house and woodshed which was on higher ground. In one of the lower level cabins the people would not come out and were standing on the bed to be out of the water. I took the window screen off and coaxed the lady to the open window, grabbed her and pulled her out the window of the cabin. Her husband then followed.
Later that evening I had my flashlight on a pickup that was floating past with an arm out of the window waving for help but nothing could be done. Later I learned Search and Rescue found the man’s body. Propane tanks also raced by like torpedoes; there were at least 15 or more of the tanks found piled at Rushmore Cave. At one point lightening flashed and I saw the shower house crumble and disappear. Along with that we lost fencing, shelters, fireplaces, and picnic tables. I found our red stained material all the way through keystone.
It was a terrible long night with the continued roar of the rushing water in the canyon. The next morning I got my registration cards out and had roll call of the campers in front of the house/office. I was excited to find everyone was accounted for. It was foggy and gloomy and the area looked like a war zone. Everyone was trying to make the best of a terrible situation and planned a late afternoon picnic and we did! Everyone shared their food and lifted spirits. They slept in our house and woodshed or other campers. The road was totally destroyed and there was no water or electricity.
The next day, Sunday, the water level in Battle Creek was receding. Search and Rescue did come from Keystone, maneuvering up the creek to check and see we were all right and to assure us Keystone was still there, although destroyed. Darleen in Pierre only knew her family was alive because Nancy Kneip, the governor’s wife, had the sorority woman to the mansion to keep them informed. By Monday many of the campers were very nervous and wanted to leave. I had another group meeting, and shared with them I would walk those who wanted to, and could into Keystone. We had to pick our way on a route through the creek. The road and railroad tracks were destroyed. Those that could not walk out I assured them we would get help from Search and Rescue. Upon getting to Keystone I made arrangements for a helicopter to extract the rest of the people. The helicopter also extracted other people who lived up that road and were stranded. Those that couldn’t walk out were nervous I wouldn’t come back. I assured them I would be back and left my boys behind for assurance.
Everyone had to leave their campers, RVs, and equipment. It was four to six weeks before the road was repaired. I called all who still had belongings there and eventually all came back. I applied for an SBA load and spent the rest of the summer rebuilding. The Mennonites did come and volunteered their time restoring my cabins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Glenn Woldt
Description
An account of the resource
Written Memory
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Written Memories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Each item in this collection is an individual's story or memory about the night of June 9, 1972 and the following recovery efforts. These memories have been collected by the Rapid City Public library at various memorial events and through online submission by community members. If you have a memory you would like to submit, please do so on the <a href="https://1972flood.omeka.net/contribution">Contribute an Item</a> page.<br /><br /><span>Below is a map of all the interviews and written memories we have conducted and gathered to help you visualize the impact of the 1972 Flood and explore stories.<br /></span><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1KzeKQJ4R89Riq5B9FguZdJzj6c0&ll=44.0744389777805%2C-103.24796692260742&z=13"></iframe>
Description
An account of the resource
Stories and memories of the flood submitted by community members and shared with Rapid City Public Library.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
The night of June 9, 1972 we lived on Roy Street in Keystone in the house now owned by Gohsmans. What started as a rainy, foggy morning, turned into a nightmare. It was so dark, but from the lightning we could see propane tanks, cabins, and mobile homes going by. People were on top of the Laundromat roof across the street. Cars were floating down the street.
The next morning as dawn came and people were starting to walk around as if they had been drugged. The next week is pretty much a blur.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Betty Jo Sagdalen
Description
An account of the resource
Written Memory