Drake and the Big Thompson Flood
Near Estes Park, Colorado
The small community of Drake, tucked where the North Fork meets the Big Thompson River in Larimer County, sits at the epicenter of two catastrophic Colorado floods. In July nineteen seventy-six, a slow-moving thunderstorm dropped twelve inches of rain in four hours onto the Big Thompson Canyon. The resulting wall of water killed one hundred forty-three people and destroyed hundreds of structures, leaving a lasting lesson for the canyon: climb to higher ground and leave the road.
Then in September two thousand thirteen, record rainfall struck again. Drake was cut off when roads washed out, and residents had to be evacuated. The two-thousand-thirteen flood reshaped nearly every drainage in Larimer and Boulder counties.
Drake has been rebuilt both times, a testament to how tightly canyon communities cling to the places they love, even when the river insists otherwise.
