The last major flood occurred sixty years ago, and it began far away in the streams and creeks that interlaced the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Melting snow and heavy rains gathered into the South Platte and other tributaries, flooding Denver and heading toward an inevitable meeting with the R-Kansas River in Eastern Colorado.
Once joined, the floodwaters were fed by heavy rains as they swept through La Junta, Lamar and Holly, Colorado.
The torrents crossed the Kansas state line and into Hamilton County before dawn on June 17, 1965. An additional four inches of rain at Coolidge brought the depth of the waters to 8 feet, sweeping buildings off foundations and ruining crops and wiping out livestock…