In the flood of 1894, no community illustrated this ethic of self-reliance more strongly than Boulder. Like Governor Waite, the city temporarily went missing in the deluge — an entire population unaccounted for, cut off from the outside world. The waters swelled Boulder Creek into a rushing river, washing out bridges and train tracks in every direction and bringing down telegraph and telephone lines. It is a measure of how isolated the city was that newspapers in Denver, just thirty miles away, reported almost no news of the wreckage in Boulder until about sixty hours after the event.
During those long hours of isolation, the people of Boulder had no one to fall back on but themselves. The same held true in the weeks and months after the flood, after contact with the outside world was restored. No disaster-relief structures or protocols existed; no officials from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, or Red Cross volunteer task force would arrive to take charge of the situation and assist in community rebuilding. Boulder could not even count on help from the Colorado National Guard; it was on duty in Cripple Creek helping Governor Waite negotiate the labor strike.
It was up to the people of Boulder to rescue their own community. “Boulder must provide for her own,” the editors of the Boulder Daily Camera wrote the day after the flood. And in that spirit, the community set about the task of rebuilding.
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