Flood of 1851

Historical evidence suggest flooding occurred in the eastern Plains, from Nebraska to the Red River basin, but these areas were sparsely settled in 1851.

Limited accounts from western regions suggest flooding was bad in eastern Nebraska, but this area was sparsely settled and therefore there is little information.

The worst flooding occurred May to June in the Des Moines River Basin, and early August in eastern Iowa.

[2][3][4] Major flooding in 1851 occurred in Bentonsport, Croton, Bonaparte, Des Moines, Eddyville, Farmington, Iowaville, Keosauqua, Muscatine, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Red Rock, and Rochester.

That rise came after a wet season that kept the stream about full and one that was unexampled in the violence of its rains deepening to a waterfall early in August of ten inches in twenty four hours.

[6] The winter of 1850-51 was extremely wet, leaving the town of Fort Des Moines a muddy mess, and the ground completely saturated prior to the Spring rains.

On January 14, 1851, a few months before the great flood, Arozina Perkins noted "This is the greatest place for mud I ever saw– I have waded thro' it for several days.

Some were stripped utterly of their fences; fields under cultivation were washed into ruts by the violence of the water; all hope of a crop for one season being destroyed, not only by what was carried away, but by the debris which was left by the subsiding of the river.