Peering at the Past Unless something was done, things were getting worse

Part three of a series

“The dry years, nobody thinks nothing of it then,” said Wilfred Pohlman, who along with his father William and neighbor John Goetzinger, had attempted for some time to form an organization to prevent flooding in Crooked Creek Valley in southeastern Houston County. But 1946 was not one of those dry years.

“Words cannot describe the havoc that resulted from the flood that raged through the Crooked Creek Valley Sunday evening, June 16,” wrote Ray Ryan, editor of The Caledonia Argus, 12 days later in 1946. “The very apparent damage that was done to bridges, roads and homes could be seen and estimated, but the cost of replacing the good old Mother Earth that was carried away and washed from the fertile fields must be left only to the imagination. It is only one or more lifetimes that such a flood occurs, but the effects of it will remain forever.”

That 1946 flood was the most famous flood to hit the Freeburg area, followed by another in 1951. But they were not the only ones or the last ones. Could future catastrophe be avoided?

There had been previous attempts, but they proved to be no match for the flood of 1946. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) had protected stream banks and worked on flood control gates along with planting cedar trees and willows along Crooked Creek. “Well, their conservation work and plantings all went along with the floodwater,” lamented Wilfred’s wife, Lucille Pohlman. “What power those rushing waters had!”

The topography features deep, narrow stream valleys below steeply-rising valley walls, which rise 300 to 400 feet above the valley floor. This makes the area one of the most scenic but also highly vulnerable to flash floods.

The village of Freeburg in Crooked Creek Township prospered in the 1920s with a bank, creamery, post office, railroad depot, barber shop, flour and grist mill, two stores, two blacksmith shops, three taverns and a shipping association with a stockyard. During the Great Depression, the bank closed in 1932. When trucks became available, there was not the demand for animals to be transported by railroads, and the shipping association disbanded in the mid-1930s.

The water wheel at the flour and grist mill was destroyed by floods, but it was replaced with a gasoline engine. The Silver Star Creamery burned to the ground in 1935, but the property became the site of Little Miami, a tavern with a flowing-well swimming pool, which attracted patrons from outside the valley. Passenger trains and freight trains were the heartbeat of the valley until the popularity of automobiles eliminated passenger trains. Then, what few passengers there were could ride in the caboose with the conductor.

But the monumental flood of 1946 washed away the Freeburg depot and the post office, never to return. Railroad tracks and ties were destroyed, and railroad bridges fell. And the east end of the railroad line was never replaced. The flood filled the swimming pool at Little Miami with mud, and swimming never resumed. The restaurant/tavern is the lone surviving business location in what was once a thriving village.

Flooding led to the formation of the Crooked Creek Watershed District in 1959, when flood damage was costing thousands of dollars in repairs to land and public transportation facilities, including $40,000 annually for rebuilding fences. Soil erosion was severe, claiming up to 50% of the topsoil in some higher elevations. And sediment had built up on the valley floor near Freeburg to such an extent that agricultural land had been taken out of production.

The Crooked Creek Watershed District, which drains a 70-square-mile area into the Mississippi River, is 13 miles long and four-to-seven miles wide. From Caledonia, the southern boundary approximates County Highway 14 and the northern border roughly follows County Highway 3.

To prevent future disasters, 10 flood-retarding structures were built along with another 34 grade-stabilization structures, 42 ponds and 152 acres of waterways. Conservation was promoted and applied by farmers with 158 acres of waterways; 8,000 acres of contour strips; 14,000 acres of contour farming; 35,000 acres of diversion terraces and 500,000 acres of field terraces.

In 2023, the district maintains eight earthen retention structures, including four larger dams, plus one drop structure. The largest floodwater dam in the watershed is the South Fork Dam, which forms what is known as South Fork Lake, which drains 8,100 acres into a permanent lake of 30 acres and up to 90 acres during floods. When it was built in 1966-67, South Fork Lake was the largest earthen dam in Minnesota. It took 230,000 cubic yards of earth to build the dam, which is 46 feet high at an approximate cost of $340,000.

In 2006, six decades after the flood of 1946, Margaret Goetzinger said, “I was really very, very happy with the notion of the watershed (district). I don’t think Freeburg would be there if we hadn’t had it. Unless something was done, things were getting worse… it’s very vulnerable with the hills and everything.”

There are 46 watershed districts in Minnesota, but Crooked Creek is the only one in Houston County. The physical constructions and improved conservation practices preserved the agricultural prosperity of the Crooked Creek Valley. Houston County farmers had the highest corn yield in Minnesota in 1971, 1983 and 1986.

Another benefit was Crooked Creek again being a top-notch trout stream. South Fork Lake and Shamrock Lake (Zenner Lake), have been stocked and are available for public fishing.

At the age of 97 in 2017, the late Wilfred Pohlman retired from the Crooked Creek Watershed Board of Managers after 70-plus years of service –since the flood of 1946. He was one of five original managers of the watershed district and was chairman of the board for over 50 years. “It wasn’t just me. It was all these people,” Pohlman said, “and the farmers and the City of Caledonia – everybody was involved, and I hope they continue.”

Sources: Root River Soil and Water Conservation District; Houston County History, 1982; an article by David Heiller, published in the Caledonia Argus in 2006; Caledonia Pride, 1854-2004; Nominating petition for the establishment  of the Crooked Creek Watershed District.