Looking Upstream

by Jon Burch Photography

Title

Looking Upstream

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Capture And Enhancement

Description

This view is looking upstream toward the source of the 1982 Lawn Lake flood.

The Lawn Lake Dam was an earthen dam in Rocky Mountain National Park, in Northern Colorado that failed early in the morning on July 15, 1982. Now known as the flood of 1982, the sudden release of 30 million cubic foot of water resulted in a flash flood that killed three people camping in the park and caused $31 million in damage to the town of Estes Park, Colorado and other downstream areas.

Lawn Lake was originally a natural lake with a surface area of 16.4 acres, located at an altitude of approximately 11,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. In 1903 a group of farmers from Loveland built a dam to increase it to a surface area of 48 acres for the purpose of providing water for irrigation in Loveland. Over the years the road that had been cut to permit construction of the dam fell into disrepair and ceased to exist and because of the dam's remote and difficult location, inspection and repairs lapsed. The Colorado State Engineer determined that the probable cause of the dam failure was deterioration of lead caulking on the joint between the outlet pipe and the gate valve leading to internal erosion of the earth-fill dam.

The scar left by the scouring of Roaring River and the alluvial fan at Horseshoe Park are still very apparent will remain so for a very long time. This image was made of the flood area with a Canon 5D MkIII camera. The large boulders seen on the other side of the flowing water are examples of the material swept downhill by the flood in this area of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Image copyright 2013 Jon Burch Photography

Uploaded

July 15th, 2013

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