Courtesy Pueblo Public Library
A view looking north on Main Street at 3rd Street in Pueblo after the Arkansas River flooding in 1921.
One hundred years ago raging waters unleashed by torrential rains and snowmelt broke through Pueblo’s Arkansas River levees, causing one of the deadliest and most destructive floods in Colorado’s history.
Local historian John Korber’s father worked for the railroad back then. Korber wasn t born yet, but he tells his family’s story of what happened on the evening of June 3, 1921 when his dad finished his shift.
“He was on one of the last trains that came in from Salida,” Korber said, “and when he arrived in Pueblo the water was already up almost knee deep.”