Clay County Flood of 1881
Spencer, Clay County, Iowa
Anna Walker
4/9/1881
1881 was a year of legendary flooding in Western Iowa and it wasn’t much different in Clay County. While most of the major flooding in Iowa took place on the Missouri River proper, smaller watersheds that connect to the Missouri were also hit in their own way. The Little Sioux River, which runs through Spencer, Iowa, on its eventual journey to the Missouri River between Sioux City and Omaha, flooded in 1881 due to heavy rain and rapid snow melt in March. A fairly small washed out section of the passenger bridge across the Little Sioux River attracted large crowds of people in Spencer, Iowa, on April 9th, 1881.
Those in Council Bluffs, Iowa were not so lucky. April 9th marked the day the North Western Railroad levee broke from the weight and pressure of the Missouri River and the river inundated this south-western Iowa City. The Missouri kept rising through late April and the waters didn’t begin to recede until April 27th of that year.
Being upstream of the mighty Missouri, Clay County experienced relatively few inconveniences and none of the dangers related to the flood season of 1881.