Douglas Martin and Glende Vernice standing next to the remains of a building on the Hank Fox place, Red Dirt Creek. Vesintiner's Dam broke on June 3, 1952, flooding the area down through McCoy. -- Verso
Eagle Valley Enterprise June 5, 1952 p.1: "Dam Break Destoys Cabins at McCoy.
Homes, ranch property and livestock were destroyed early Tuesday morning when the King Mt. Reservoir dam near McCoy gave way, spilling 600 acre feet of water into Red, Egeria dn Rock creeks, into the town of McCoy.
The dam broke around 9 p.m. and its rushing waters carried cabins, livestock and poultry in its rush to the Colorado river.
Heaviest losses were on the Harry Fox ranch, where farm machinery, barns, corrals, calves and hogs were washing into the torrent.
Rich meadow and hand land on the Ralph Kaiser place, the old Arthur Horn ranch, was washed badly, and covered with mud.
A bunk ouse belonging to Leonard Horn of Wolcott, who retained ten acres of the original Horn ranch, was completely destroyed, carrying away $2000 in personal belongings owned by Robert Anderson, living in another house on the property, which stood in five feet of water, but was undamaged.
Two of four cabins owned by Henry Robbins at McCoy were washed away, and the remaining two swept around on their foundations. John Summers and Harry Sproul occupied the two cabins which went with the flash flood. Two bridges were swept away.
The dam is located about three miles above McCoy, and was about three-quarters of a mile long and twenty feet high, storing irrigation water for the livestock raising and ranching in that section of northern Eagle County."
[Title supplied from catalog prepared by the Eagle County Historical Society.]
