The spring of 1903 was one of the warmest and driest that residents of Oregon could remember. Amidst the wheat fields of north-central Oregon was the town of Heppner, with a population of around 1,500.
Sunday, June 14th was a particularly hot one. Around 4:30 p.m. rain began to fall heavily in the hills south of town and a half hour later, an incredible tragedy would leave this little town in ruins and many of its residents lost their lives.
A Quiet Little Town
The little town of Heppner Oregon is located in the north-central part of the state, south of the Columbia River, southwest of Pendleton, and well east of Portland. The town was proximate to the Blue Mountains.
In the late 1800s, a new county (Morrow) was formed in Oregon, and Heppner was designated as the county seat. A railroad extension connected Heppner with the Columbia River to the north. A small creek ran through town but the water was only ankle-deep most of the time. To the south of town was Willow Creek and two tributaries, Balm Fork and Hinton Creek.
A map indicating the location of Heppner, Oregon. Map Credit – MapQuest.
Calm To Disaster In Minutes
Sunday, June 14, 1903, was quite hot in the midst of a very warm and dry spring. Many of the town’s residents were preparing for supper or for evening church services.
As the clock approached 4:30 p.m. dark clouds gathered over the hills south of Heppner and thunderstorms commenced. It began to rain and hail accompanied the rain as the intensity increased rapidly. Suddenly, torrential rain was falling over the watersheds to the south of Heppner and Willow Creek began to fill as water rushed northward.
Heppner’s residents could hear the rain and thunder making loud noises but they wouldn’t be able to hear the wall of water that was headed their way. There was sparse vegetation around the town and the ground was still wet from a storm that occurred on Thursday.
The creeks and streams were suddenly overflowing their banks. By 4:45 p.m. a wall of water was rushing toward Heppner from Balm Fork. The water was full of debris from farms in the area.
As 5 p.m. approached, the rushing floodwaters encountered a steam laundry building on the edge of town that essentially became a dam that allowed the water to rise quickly. The building collapsed and a wall of water rushed across the town without warning.
Orgenweb.org printed an account of the event, from the Heppner Gazette. “Without a second’s warning, a leaping, foaming wall of water, 40 feet in height, struck Heppner at about 5 o’clock Sunday afternoon, sweeping everything before it and leaving only death and destruction in its wake.”
The silt-laden floodwaters carried away everything in their path. The thick mass acted more like a battering ram than a flood of liquid. Homes floated off foundations and crashed into other structures, breaking apart and adding their debris to the flowing mass.
A photo showing the remains of the Methodist Church and the surrounding buildings that were destroyed by a flash flood on June 14, 1903. Photo Credit- U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers.
The receding floodwaters left the town in ruins and dead bodies were strewn all over. Some bodies were recovered many miles from the town. Overall, 247 bodies were recovered but the death toll was likely well over 300. Heppner’s business district was left in ruins.
A temporary morgue was set up in the stone Roberts Building, one of the few structures that were left mostly intact on Main Street. The Methodist church was totally destroyed.
The USGS determined that water raced to the town at over 36,000 cubic feet per second. As mentioned in the account, numerous houses were stripped from their foundations and crashed into other structures. About a third of the structures in Heppner were totally destroyed.
Beyond Heppner
After the floodwaters receded, two residents of Heppner, Les Matlock, and Bruce Kelly rode on horseback to warn the towns of Lexington and Ione downstream.
The floodwaters hit Lexington around 7 p.m. just before they could be warned. Matlock and Kelly did get to Ione before the floodwaters reached that town. There were no fatalities from the flood in either town but raw sewage was washed into both towns and 18 people eventually died from typhoid fever.
The Heppner flash flood is the deadliest natural disaster in Oregon history and the second deadliest in the U.S., only behind the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889. The flood damage was estimated to be around $600,000 at the time (over 17 million in today’s dollars).
There is some conjecture as to how high the wall of water was. Some said it was 40 to 50 feet high. Others recalled that it was more like 20 feet, but it really didn’t matter much.
Many of Heppner’s survivors left after the flood. In fact, by 1910, the population was a mere 880. It took another 80 years before the population came up to the pre-flood level. There have been other floods since 1903 but they were not significant.
A number of flood control studies were conducted over the years. In 1983 the Willow Creek Dam was constructed just above the town for flood protection.
A recent photo shows the Willow Creek Dam over the town of Heppner, Oregon. Photo Credit- Wikipedia-Public Domain.
There is a poem by C. Franklin Sutton about the tragic event that was printed in orgenweb.org
Heppner’s Sorrow
By C. Franklin Sutton
Death, in madly tearing torrents
Rushed upon a peaceful town,
Sweeping everything before it, Rooting up and tearing down.
Too Late! Tis done,
The setting sun hides his face in a rain of tears,
Hearts we cherished now have perished
Lost to us, through coming years
Heppner, peaceful mountain village,
We deplore thy awful scourge,
While the music of thy valleys Echoes
back the solemn dirge.
Love is mourning,
Yet adorning
Crowns eternal for love’s sake;
Till love meets them
And love greets them On that strand where souls awake.
Not a word of warning heard,
Till death held in close embrace
Fathers, mothers,
Sisters, brothers,
Terror stamped upon each face.
Onward rushing maddened waters,
Can no force thy power stay…
Must grim death and desolation Mar
this peaceful Sabbath day?
Hearts must bleed and fingers tremble,
As we raise a lifeless form
From a grave the deluge gave Each victim of that dreadful storm.
A happy home becomes a tomb,
A dress for church becomes a shroud,
A couch of cheer becomes a blur,
And peaceful songs are wailings loud.
Heppner is a pleasant community and a much safer one today. Many of the residents are of Irish ancestry and there is a festive St. Patrick’s Day celebration each year.
In 2003, a three-panel stone monument was placed in town to mark the hundredth anniversary of the catastrophe. The monument includes a panoramic image of the destruction and it lists the names of the flood’s victims as a reminder of the tragic event that devastated the town.
