In August 1967 in Fairbanks, Alaska, Carl and Ruth Smith had the truck loaded up to go camping with their two sons Stony, age 12, and Clark (aka Hoppy), age 10. Then the rains came, almost 4 inches in the 24 hours prior to noon on August 12. In the next few days the Chena River flooded. It would later come to be known as Fairbanks Great Flood.
The Smith family eventually made it from their home to high ground at University of Alaska where they stayed with most of the residents of Fairbanks for a week. Ruth managed to get a note out to her oldest daughter, my Mom, in California using the only paper she could find.
The rest of the letter was written on the back of deposit slips.
Tuesday morning. Six stories up in Moore Hall, University of Alaska. Well they say that certain things can be told to your grandchildren. We certainly have one to tell somebody. I am writing this on the paper I have. We are well and safe now but we certainly got out with only our skins. My wardrobe now consists of one very wet pair of blue jeans and one of your old pink knitted blouses and one pair of underwear. Daddy and the boys are no better except they are not as wet as I am. Haines Avenue broke last night some where about 8 o'clock. Daddy had
been down Eureka helping to try to keep a basement dry but is {sic} was absolutely hopeless. 17 feet of water was on us. Everybody took to Trainer Gate Road - the only exit. A car in front of us stalled and sent back waves on us and flooded out engine. There was nothing to do but get out and walk. I took my purse and we had stuffed our savings bonds in a manilla file so we took that. Daddy took Stony on his back and I took Hoppy. Daddy had on his hip boots but I just had my snow boots. We
waded water about 30 inches deep surging down Trainer Rd from C Street to the Club Car. Ken Haycraft came along and took Hop for about half the way. It certainly did help but I would have made it. We stayed at the corner at the Club Car for 30 minutes or longer when Ed Prince opened up the Cat Shop and we got in over there. The boys and I stayed there while Daddy went back and help other people carry their children out. He finally got a pick up
that could pull us us {sic}. He got out pick up on the railroad bed and it started - it just had to - . But we stayed at the Cat Shop until after 12 and had to leave because the water was coming in there. Daddy (and others) walked along to feel out the road bed and then came back and drove on. We were in water until we made the bend at Birch Hill. People were camped right in among the graves and on both sides of the vault. But we were running so we kept going.
The radio was on and they told us the U of A was available. We got here at 3:15 this morning. Wet and tired but altogether. Miss Utila is here. She is the only one I know that you know. The Brunners were stranded on Trainer Rd. too. I don't know where they got to. One family got seperated and I have not heard if they are back together or not. The Police, Fireman {sic}, news staff, Civil Defense have done a good job but it was simply too huge a job to handle. We were never in any danger at all it was rather a "high charged" exceitement.
When we left the pick up on Trainer Gate both boys almost panicked. They just were not going to leave but when they saw there was no other way and once we were out in the water they calmed down. It was around 50 degrees so it wasn't too cold. It rained or misted all the time but I did not get wet above my hips - just damp. But I have no shoes or other clothes. We have bedding, food and water in the pick up but it is so damp we felt it best to come here out of the elements. We have only a little gas for the gasoline stove and no idea when we can get more. We have no wood at all. So. Love, Mom.
Let this be a lesson!
I have read this letter a few times, but retyping it now I got chills. So proud to come from such strong stock!
Among the many other things they lost due to the flood was almost all of the family photographs. Which is why it is my mission to scan and upload as many family pictures (and letters) and get them "on the cloud", so if there is another earthquake, fire, flood, hurricane, or some other natural disaster we don't lose everything again. Hoping my family will help out and scan and share what they have.
Clark Smith says
This is wonderful stuff, Carleta & Audrey. Thank you for the effort to digitize and memorialize those analog days.
Mom captured the adventure of "that night" perfectly well. The next 6 or 7 days we spent at our adopted home, University of Alaska. I will always love that place for what it meant to us during those times.
Almost everyone squatting at UofA got a job of some sort to accommodate the sudden influx of 5000+ "summer students". We watched Three Stooges movies in the dorm lobbies at night. During the day, Stony and I ran messages throughout campus.
Communication systems were barely above the telegraph stage. You had 30,000 people in the Tanana valley displaced and no way to communicate with each other or friends and family "outside" - in the Lower 48 states. Stony and I would sit in some admin building. Calls would come in for "Bob Jones". An adult would look in a list to see if and where Bob was staying on campus and hand us the message with the on-campus address (typically one of two or three dorms).
To be 10 years old and to have such a significant responsibility was exhilarating. We grew up a lot that summer.
Maybe later on I'll write about "the clean up" which was far less glamorous and far, far more important to the family economy.
Thanks Audrey!
Clark Smith says
And don't you love Mom&Dad's account # at the bank. #1252... believe me, we were names, not numbers "back then".
Clark Smith says
I'm fairly perturbed...
My 27 year old son, Isaac, has close friends up in Alaska (actually friends of the Binkleys (Riverboat Discovery)). They say they still hear "THE OLDTIMERS" talking about the Flood of '67.
I'm sure Isaac thinks they mean 67AD.
Christmas is gonna be a cruel comeuppance for the young whippersnapper.
mygardenblue says
I just saw your comments on my blog and you are so right. I do know those street names! I got goosebumps reading it. I live on Haines Avenue between E & F street. At the end of F is the exit to Trainor Gate. I can't imagine people camping with the graves on Birch Hill. There must have been a lot less graves because there is not much space there now but the roads. I used to work at Mt Mckinley Bank which opened in 65 I believe. They have a new building now but I worked in the original building that had been through the flood. You showed me where the water came to and you could see it and they had the original vault from that period with some history about the time. I'm sure they have that in the new building now but they couldn't possible have preserved the smell of mildew from the lower levels. I really enjoy seeing the pictures of that time period. Both of my boys went to Nordale Elementary and then Tanana Middle school where they walked to school because we are so close. My oldest is now attending UAF.
I am wondering where the car club was and what it was exactly. Do you have any pictures of the area? Wouldn't it be neat to compare then and now? Are these people still around? I met this old man one time that was here to visit his daughter who lives in a cabin next to me. His daughter had not been very friendly but he said she had cancer and was going through chemo so I could understand that. He stood there in the yard and told me about how the neighbor hood was before and everyone knew each other. He mentioned several names pointed at where they lived. My lot was trees until 2004 and was part of the lot they owned at the corner of Haines and Est. The next block down on Est/Glacier is a large while house on another large lot where the Johnson's live but only a son lives there now. It is sad to me that I hardly know my neighbors when back then neighbors all came together and helped each other. The people on either side of me are not friendly and do not talk or wave other than the woman's father who only visits. I know some farther down that are nice though. Well I'm writing a book. My email address is donnaJ71 @ gmail.com if you like to talk more. Thank you for visiting my blog!