Yesterday (June 9, 2022) was the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Black Hills flood.
Then 28-year-old Rapid City mayor Don Barnett faced the unthinkable on the evening of June 9, 1972, when he began receiving reports of flooded creeks in the area, a result of a deluge of 17 inches of rain. A power outage made the flood warnings and evacuation alerts moot. The foggy dawn of June 10 revealed the extent of the previous night’s death and destruction. 238 people were dead and there was a swath of ruined homes and businesses six miles long and six blocks wide.
Fifty years later, Barnett has written a memoir of the flood and its aftermath– “Thorns and Roses”– from the perspective of the Rapid City mayor’s office. He will share that story today (June 10, 2022), at 3pm Central/2 pm Mountain with a live audience at the Journey Museum’s Wells Fargo Theater and a virtual audience on Zoom. Register for the program at sdhsf.org/events.
Military Assistance of Captain Brad Olson and the 153rd Engineer Battalion after 1972 Flood, Rapid City, SD.
Photo source: SD State Archives.
1972 Flood, Rapid City, SD.
Photo source: SD State Archives.
Book cover image courtesy of SD Historical Society.
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