On May 30, 1935, torrential rains fell in eastern Colorado and southwestern Nebraska, and by early morning of May 31 the usually peaceful Republican River was running bluff-to-bluff along its upper reaches. When the waters subsided two days later, over 100 lives had been lost, many millions of dollars of damage had been done, and a number of persons from this community were drowned. After the prolonged drouth of the early 30's, the wet spring of 1935 had brought welcome relief to the region, but by the end of May the soil was nearing the saturation point. Rains concentrated in the basin of the South Fork and extending into the valleys of the Arikaree, Frenchman, Red Willow, and Medicine poured into the main stream, normally 300 to 400 feet wide, and turned it into a raging torrent one to four miles wide. The flood water came as a wall, variously estimated at from three to eight feet in height. The crest advanced more rapidly in the upper valley, reported at ten miles an hour above Trenton, at five between there and Oxford, and slowing to 2 1/2 miles an hour upon crossing into Kansas. To prevent such a tragedy from being repeated, the federal government built a series of six dams, five in Nebraska, across the Republican or its tributaries, providing flood protection as well as recreation and irrigation facilities.