My parents, Eugene and Roberta Crawford were married on June 9, 1951 in Emporia, Kansas. When they would talk about their wedding, they would always tell stories of the ‘flood’. According to my dad, his parents, his best friends and many of the Dodge City guests had trouble getting into Emporia because of flooding.
My mother’s stories centered around her father, who ran the local movie theater. In the 50’s the movies came in large rolls which had to be returned as soon as the last showing was over. According to mom, her father had to take the reels out of Emporia by row boat and trade them for the reels for the new show.
For the longest time, I assumed that these flood stories associated with their June wedding were about the great flood of 1951.
It was likely 1993 when I realized that the flood of 1951 was in July and not June. The above image verifies the July 1951 flooding in Emporia. The article is from July 19, 1951 issue of The Emporia Weekly Gazette (Emporia, Kansas) found on Newspapers.com.
So, was there flooding at the time of my parents wedding — or did they attach stories from July to their wedding memories? Since Emporia was surrounded by flood waters in July, my grandfather would have had to take the movie reels out by boat. However, my dad’s parents and friends would not have had a reason to travel to Emporia from Dodge City in July by automobile.
So, was there flooding that made it difficult to travel from Dodge City to Emporia in early June of 1951? With the Neosho River on the North and East sides of town and the Cottonwood River on the South side of town, it is possible that roads were closed due to flooding.
Currently, the primary route from Dodge City to Emporia is Highway 50. (Blue line on the map)
A look at a map from 1950-1951 shows that there were only 2 highways into or out of Emporia: Kansas Highway 99 from the North to the South and U.S. Highway 50S from the West to the East. (Map available on KDOT: Historic State Maps)
Kansas Highway 99 crosses the Neosho River on the North side of town and the Cottonwood River on the South side of town. According to the 1950-1951 map, US 50S paralleled the Cottonwood River from Florence to Emporia. The highway crossed the river at Florence. If both rivers were flooding, then both highways likely would close and the town would have been cut off.
Two newspaper articles verify that the Cottonwood River was flooding the weekend of June 9, 1951. Both articles are from the June 11, 1951 issue of The Emporia Gazette. On page 2 of the paper is an article about sightseers going across the bridge at Soden’s Grove (where Highway 99 crosses the Cottonwood River).
The second article was on the first page of the paper and discussed flooding of the Cottonwood River along the highway at Elmdale.
Based on the newspaper accounts, the Cottonwood River was flooding the weekend of my parents wedding. This flooding may have impacted US highway 50S from Florence into Emporia. While we have the technology to warn us of road closures, my grandparents likely were unaware of the flooding issue until they reached a flooded roadway. A lot of backtracking would have been needed to get around the flooded Cottonwood River. June 10, 1951 issues of other newspapers report flooding on the Saline River, Kansas River and Blue River.
Thus, I believe the tales of family members and wedding guests having a difficult time getting to Emporia for the wedding to be true.