Great Bend Flood of 1862
Great Bend Flood of 1862
High flood waters in the Spring of 1862 carried debris down the Black River, and washed away Clark's Sawmill near Great Bend.
A number of people got on the bridge over the Black River at Great Bend to watch the sawmill building wash by, but the bridge began to collapse. People on the shore warned the watchers on the bridge and they quickly began running to get off the bridge. Everyone escaped except for two boys who fell in the water.
One boy managed to swim ashore a few miles down-river at Felts Mills but the other boy was lost. His body was found a few weeks later on a the bank of Black River.
The bridge at Great Bend had previously been destroyed by a flood in 1804 and once even by a fire, in 1840.