The Confluence of Rivers:
A Land of Floods

This has been the worst winter I have ever experienced in Oregon. In December we had two floods, the Rivers raised so as to inundate almost the entire valley. For instance -- the house that McWhitamore built at the crossing of the Coast Fork, was washed away. Between the middle and the McKensy [sic] forks, was one Solid Sheet of water, also, from Eugene to Long Tom Hills.
--Elijah Bristow to his brother, Henry Bristow, 18 March 1862

Downtown Cottage Grove, 1927.
Courtesy of the Cottage Grove Museum

My girlfriend in town says she can remember looking out the windows of her grandmother's hotel and seeing about four or five feet of water right in the middle of the street and my husband talked about moving around in row boats up and down the streets. Down around Glenwood and Springfield, that flooded just about every time the water got up at all. It used to be terrible.
--Evelynne Plueard, 1999 interview

Early valley settlers remarked on the heavy rainfalls that frequently plagued them. And when warm rains followed snowfall in the mountains the results ranged from inconvenient to disastrous flooding. Just north of Cottage Grove the Row River and the Coast Fork of the Willamette join together before they meet the Willamette River. The confluence produced floods in Cottage Grove (though surrounding nearby areas were often spared). Flooding could be even worse in Eugene, 26 miles upstream from Cottage Grove, where the Coast Fork flowed into the mainstem of the Willamette.

Newspaper article: "Record Rainfall Brings Flood to Lower Willamette Valley Section"