Over the past few weeks it’s been said — many times — that it’s a good thing that the town

of Berthoud is no longer located on the banks of the Little Thompson River. From 1877 to 1883 the original Berthoud settle-ment sat on the creek where the tracks of the Colorado Central Railroad inter-sected the Little Thompson River. The settlement failed to thrive at that location, so in the winter of 1883-84 it was moved to a new site on the

bluff above the river. The town was not moved to the bluff because there might

be a flood, but because it was difficult for trains to ascend the grade out of the river bottom after stopping there to take on loads of hay and grain. If the town had not been relocated for that reason it sure-ly would have been ravaged by the great flood of September 2013.

All that’s left of the original settlement that came to be known as Old Berthoud is the house of Lewis Cross, the homestead-er who founded the original town, an old barn, part of which served as a stage barn from 1875 to 1877, and the Old Berthoud schoolhouse that was completed in March 1883 at a cost of $1,451. The great flood of September 2013 filled all those structures with a few feet of water. It also exposed the sandstone abutments that were built to support an iron bridge over the river in 1883 and destroyed a train trestle that has spanned the Little Thompson River since 1877.

Both approaches to the bridge on Larimer County Road 15 were washed away, rendering that road unusable. Road 15 was built in the early 1900s so farmers

would not have to use the old road on the west side of the railroad tracks when they delivered their sugar beets to the Fife beet dump near the present-day intersec-tion of Road 15 and Wilfred Road. The old road on the west side of the tracks, a seg-ment of the stage road between Longmont and the St. Louis settlement that predat-ed Loveland, dates back to the first settle-ment of the valley in the early 1870s.

Before the flood receded, its waters also filled the Little Thompson river bot-tom with a sea of silt-laden water wider than a football field and over a mile in length. Dozens of large cottonwood trees were uprooted by the flood waters that cut a new path for the river as it flowed east toward its confluence with the Big Thompson River near Milliken.

There’s a tale behind every bridge that crosses Little Thompson River from County Road 23 at the base of the foothills to Weld County Road 7 near Interstate 25, but the story of the bridges on Larimer County roads 15 and 15A is linked to the white man’s first settlement of the valley nearly 150 years ago. That’s ancient history in the context of the Little

Thompson Valley, and for that matter the region that was considered an uninhabit-

able desert until gold was discovered in 1858.

Berthoud Weekly Surveyor October 3, 2013 Page A5

A LOOK AT BERTHOUD

The historical society and Mark French are interested in obtaining and copying old photos from Berthoud’s past. Please contact Mark at 532-2147 if you have any photos you would like to share.

Surveyor Columnist

Mark French

Old Berthoud town site inundated by Great September Flood of 2013

Photo by Mark FrenchThe Old Berthoud school house, the front section which was built in 1883, was filled with one foot of water when the flood waters crested on the evening of Sept. 12. When the flood water receded members of the Wilson family who are descended from the original homesteader, Lewis Cross, started the lengthy process of drying the interior of one of the Little Thompson Valley’s oldest land-marks with high powered fans.

Throughout September Venus is high in the southwestern sky. Start looking for Venus

about 45 minutes after sunset. Venus increases in magnitude from -4.2 to -4.5 by the end of the month, which will make it easy to find. On Oct. 31, Venus will set nearly two-and-a-half hours after the Sun.

Jupiter rises shortly after midnight in the eastern sky as October be-

gins and about two hours earlier by the end of the month. Jupiter starts October shining at a magnitude of -2.2 and increases in brightness to -2.4 on the 30th. On Oct. 25, a gib-

bous Moon will be below and to the right of Jupiter.

Mars rises about four hours before the Sun and is shining at a dimmer magnitude of 1.6. Looking high in the eastern sky about an hour before sunrise, the red-orange-colored Mars will be above the blue-white-colored star Regulus in Leo the Lion, which will be about the same brightness as Mars. By Oct. 14 Mars will be just one degree above and to the left of Regulus.

A magnitude 1 star is about 2.5 times brighter than a magnitude 2 star. A magnitude 0 star is about 2.5 times brighter than a magnitude 1 star. The Sun shines at about mag-nitude -26 and a Full Moon shines at about magnitude -12. The Hubble Space Telescope can look at objects that are as faint as 31st magnitude. Magnitude numbers range from -26 through zero, then 1 through the largest number that current instru-ments can detect, which is 31.

The Little Thompson Observatory is having their monthly open house event on Oct. 18. At 7 p.m. Cathie Havens, of S&S Optika will talk about “How to Select the Right

Telescope.” Telescope observing fol-lows the talk, weather permitting. The observatory is at the northeast edge of Berthoud High School. More information can be found at http://www.starkids.org or by calling 970-613-7793.

The Denver Astronomical Society will be hosting its monthly open house on Oct. 12, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., at DU’s historic Chamberlin Observatory, located near the Denver University campus at 2930 East Warren Ave. Telescope viewing through the 20-inch Alvan Clark re-fracting telescope will be available, along with several smaller telescopes on the lawn of the observatory, weather permitting. Call 303-871-5172 for more information.

Every Friday night of October, on the CU Boulder campus, the Sommers-Bausch Observatory will have their observing deck open to the public starting at 8 p.m., weather permitting. Hosts will guide you while you view celestial objects through their 16-inch and 18-inch telescopes. For more information, visit the website http://lyra.colorado.edu/sbo/public/openhouse.html.

Eye on the sky

Eye on the SkySurveyor Columnist

Mike Hotka