In prehistoric times, the Feather and Sacramento Rivers overflowed the banks of their channels during high water periods as is evidenced by the settlement of debris deposited on the lands adjacent to the channels resulting in high banks and lands sloping away from the rivers.

During high-water periods these rivers overflowing the banks at low points, washed channels from the rivers creating natural by-passes such as Gilsizer Slough at Yuba City, Nelson Slough near Nicolaus, and Sacramento Slough near the mouth of the Feather River.

Average high-water was carried off by the natural by-passes and low swales through the banks and did not overflow the banks. This is evidenced by the many remains of permanent Indian settlements along the river banks. Refuge from unusual high-water which inundated the banks and lands sloping away from the rivers was afforded by the construction of mounds of high ground, many of which remain today including part of Yuba City.

The first attempt by land owners in and around Yuba City to keep the rivers in their channels was the construction of a levee across Gilsizer Slough. Hydraulic mining debris which started to fill the Feather River channel in 1856 raised the bottom of this river more each year as hydraulic mining spread to the Yuba, Bear and American Rivers. This made it necessary to raise the levees on the Sacramento, Feather, Yuba, Bear and American Rivers from time to time as the hydraulic mining operations continued to fill the river channels.

In order to keep ahead of anticipated higher floods, the levees were raised to allow ample freeboard above the flood plane. These levee raises proved in succeeding floods to be never enough because not enough waterways were allowed between the levees in many places. The natural banks of the rivers could never have taken care of the floods even if the mining debris had never been allowed to enter the channels.

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Land owners on opposite sides of the river began competing in an attempt to build higher and stronger levees than the levees across the river and thus assure themselves that their levees could not be over topped. The first of these levees was privately constructed, but soon the high cost of protection from flooding required that levee and reclamation districts be formed.

Hydraulic mining started on the Feather River near Oroville in 1856 and by 1871 hydraulic mining boomed on the Yuba and Bear Rivers tributary to the Feather River and the American River tributary to the Sacramento River and in many tributary streams and creeks in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

From this time until 1884 when all hydraulic mining was ordered stopped by the Sawyer Decision, the mines were permitted to operate without making provisions for debris retention, and debris consisting of boulders, cobbles, gravel, sand and slikens flowed directly into the rivers and tributary streams. These debris deposits filled the stream and river beds causing irreparable damage to the valley lands and requiring the construction of new levees and the raising of existing levees.

After 1884 the anti debris association was formed by the counties of Sutter, Yuba and Sacramento in an effort to halt illegal hydraulic mining. This association sent watchmen into the mining area and attempted to bring guilty miners to trial. However, illegal hydraulic mining was continued at a considerable scale in spite of the efforts of the anti debris association. The miners set up an elaborate sentry system and bought off some of the association watchmen making it difficult for association authorities to find a mine operating.

In 1893 an act of congress known as the “Camanetti Act” was passed which permitted hydraulic mining under the charge, supervision and periodic inspection of the newly created California Debris Commission. The Camanetti Act required, among other things, the storage of mining debris in the streams behind dams. This gave hydraulic mining a new lease on life and many shut-down mines reopened but hydraulic mining did not reach the peak it had attained prior to the Sawyer Decision. Prior to the reopening of the hydraulic mines, dams were constructed for the storage of debris, all of these dams but one were of log construction and had small storage capacities and comparatively short lives. Most of these dams filled up and allowed debris to run into the streams after less than one season’s run after which time bootlegging started all over again. A much more efficient sentry system was put into effect by the miners and a telephone alert system installed by the miners was more efficient then the rural phone lines operated in the valley.

The supervision and inspection of debris dams by the California Debris Commission was very poor. None of the debris dams are still in place and all of the debris behind these dams eventually got into the streams.

The river beds continued to rise from the mining operation and from the release of debris previously stored behind dams in the upper streams which continued to come down to the flat river channels in the valley causing the Yuba River bed to reach a peak elevation at its mouth in 1905 and 1906.
Hydraulic mining is now carried on only behind permanent concrete dams such as the Bullard’s Bar Dam and narrows dam on the Yuba River.

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Levee District One was first formed in April 1868, following the big flood of December 1867 to construct a portion of the present levees and on November 18, 1873 was formed under The Act of 1868 which fixed its present boundaries. The flood of 1867 took out the existing levee across Gilsizer Slough and the levee broke again at Gilsizer Slough in 1871.

From 1871 on as the hydraulic mining debris raised the bed of the channel of the Feather River, it was necessary to raise the existing levees and construct and maintain a back levee for the protection of the district from the waters in Sutter basin between Sacramento and Feather Rivers which overflowed from these rivers during high water stages. With the exception of a break in the Feather River levee at Gilsizer Slough in 1875 which flooded Yuba City and possible breaks in the back levee at various times, I have no knowledge of breaks in the levees of levee district one from 1871 to 1907.

Realizing that the levee crown of the Feather River was too close to a possible flood stage based on past floods and the possibility of the levee being overtopped, and taking into consideration the generally poor condition of the levees, the directors of the district decided to slab the sides and raise the crowns of all the levees five feet above an estimated flood plane. For this purpose they purchased the clamshell (dredge Sutter) in 1905 and started work on the proposed project. This project consisted of raising the Feather River levee from the south boundary of levee district one to the wagon bridge between Yuba City and Marysville. The dredger raised the levee from the bridge to north boundary of the district by borrowing dirt from the Harkey lands between the levee and Gilsizer Slough, transporting it on tracks in mule hauled dump cars to the base of the levee where it was hauled by donkey engine power to the levee top and again hauled by mule cars on tracks to its place of use.

The dredger work started soon after the dredger arrived in 1905 and was carried on in different locations along the Feather River until the flood of March 1907 at which time a sand levee along the west bank of the Feather River between Shanghai Bend and Yuba City had been partially constructed. The 1907 flood peaked at a higher elevation than any previous flood and caught Levee District One unprepared for such an emergency.

Two breaks occurred on the river levee, one on the Starr Ranch near the old county hospital north of Yuba City known as the (Starr Break) and one on the Holmes Tract about five miles south of Yuba City known as the (Holmes Break).

Nearly all the lands of Levee District One and all of Yuba City were flooded and much of the uncompleted dredger levee was washed away. During the years of 1907 and 1908 the dredger levee was in the process of reconstruction to a newly established flood plane with less slope in the water side. The dredger was working on the levee between Star Bend and Yuba City and had completed the dredger work on the sand levee between Shanghai Bend and Yuba City which still required sloping by fresno scrapers when the flood of january 1909 occurred again leaving Levee District One unprepared because portions of the levees were still below grade and the sloping of the sand levee between shanghai bend and Yuba City had not been completed. The flood reached an elevation of about one foot higher than the top of the levee in the pocket where the old bow levee joined the sand levee at Shanghai Bend and a crew of men placing sacks of sand fought desperately to hold the sacks in place where waves from the turbulent flood water flowed over the sack wall. At approximately 5 p.m., a break occurred in the sand levee at its junction with the old bow levee which opened up to 800 feet and another break occurred in the sand levee half way between Shanghai Bend and Yuba City which opened up to 2600 beet. These breaks allowed water to overflow the lands between the sand levee and the old original levee along garden highway, (bow levee) the old bow levee did not break. During the night or early the next morning the sand levee constructed by the dredger on an alignment slightly east of the original earth levee was washed out causing the water to overflow the old levee and causing another break just south of Shanghai Bend.

This flood clearly proved that the original levees as they existed in 1905 prior to the dredger work would have been overtopped. It also established a new flood plane three feet higher than the one previously used.

During the year 1909 following the flood, the dredger filled the breaks in the sand levee and the moving of sand deposited by the dredger away from the river created a slope from six to seven feet horizontal to one foot vertical by the use of four mule fresno scrapers. The crown of the levee was raised to conform to the newly established flood plane and was so maintained at almost no cost to the district until it was rebuilt by the corps of engineers in 1938-1940.

In 1938, the corps of engineers rebuilt the sand levee from Shanghai Bend to Yuba City in accordance with the newly adopted flood plane and to plans and specifications requiring a core below ground level. These plans and specifications were approved by levee district one. After completion of the work, a public meeting was held at the county courthouse in Yuba City with the directors of Levee District One, property owners in the district, and other interested parties to discuss the construction of the sand levee prior to the approval of the work and adoption of the levee by Levee District One.

The work was approved and the levee accepted as a part of the levee system and was maintained by Levee District One from that time until the flood of 1955. I have no history of floods from 1938 up to 1955 and from 1955 to 1986.

In December 1955, California experienced heavy rains both in the valley and mountains. The Feather River and Yuba River both with no dams such as Oroville Dam and Bullards Bar dam, (both these dams came after 1955) continued to rise. Camp Beale (an army base at the time), supplied men to help sand bag the levees. On December 24th at about midnight, a large boil exploded between Shanghai Bend and Yuba City. On christmas day, nearly all of Yuba City was under water. 37 people were known to have lost there lives in the flood and many millions of dollars of damage.

Many mistakes were made before and during the flood by the directors of Levee District One, the county supervisors and the city council. We have all learned from this experience. The levee was rebuilt by the corps of engineers. There was more high water in the Feather River from 1955 to february 1986, however no serious flooding occurred.

In february 1986 there was a heavy snow pack in the mountains when a warm rain came across and dumped heavy rain which melted all the snow, something like what happened in 1955. The only difference was we had Oroville Dam and Bullards Bar dam to help regulate the flow of water coming down the rivers. Even with these dams in place the rivers reached the extreme danger level on the levees. Levee District One had three extreme trouble spots that was of great concern to the directors and emergency service people. The worst spot was just north of the 10th street bridge. Sand was being hauled and used to beef up the land side of the levee. The second most serious was at Star Bend. The third was at Shanghai Bend at the sharp bend near the park. The break in the Yuba River levee on the Linda side caused a big drop in the levels of the two rivers overnight. No levees were breached on Levee District One.

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In 1987, Levee District One obtained funds from the state of California for levee repairs. Levee District One let a contract to construct a chimney blanket on the side of the levee which started at the old county hospital and south to the fifth street bridge in Yuba City. This construction adds great strength to the side of the levee and should water seep through, it cannot carry the dirt through the blanket. This same procedure was used at Shanghai Bend the same year. At Star Bend, we constructed a filter trench where we had dangerous boils. Water may still seep under the levee; however no dirt will carry through the filter in the trench. The above work was all done at a cost of nearly 3.5 million dollars in 1986 money.

In the summer of 1994, a filter seepage pipe was installed from the Shanghai Bend Road north about one mile. In the flood of 1997, this seepage pipe worked very well. In December 1996, another event occurred like the 1955 and 1986 events. There was a record snow level in the mountain water sheds of all the rivers from the Sacramento River to the Kern River in the south. On or about December 26, a warm pacific rain moved into the area and stalled over the mountains. It rained, melted all the snow and kept on raining. All dams had every flood gate and penstock wide open with California Dept. Water Resources predicting that water would come over the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam. This was more than our levees wound hold. Thank God it was very close but did not come over.

All citizens in Yuba City, Marysville, Linda and Olivehurst were ordered to evacuate and head for higher ground. The levee broke in Yuba County causing loss of lives. There was a break on the by-pass levee in the Meridian bowl. Sutter County was able to mobilize construction companies to build a low berm around Meridian and saved it from flooding.

Levee District One escaped any levee breaks; however we had several places that had us very concerned. These spots as well as others have all been repaired by the Army Corps of Engineers to the tune of nearly 30 million dollars. These places are all listed in our records.

Levee District One directors are now in the process of having plans drawn up for a new set back levee to replace the sharp bend at Star Bend. This new levee would be nearly one mile long. This is in progress now at a cost of $20,000,000.00 dollars. We assure you that we will do everything that we can to try and make these levees safe. The directors and management of Levee District One.