Water, rocks, soil, slopes, and gravity—and a path of least resistance. Put these six together and you’ve got a landslide—at least potentially.

Maiden Rock knows this firsthand, suffering as much in 1916 and 1975, after which it put in defenses.

The Prescott Journal carried the news from Aug. 29, 1975:

“Pierce County’s historic village of Maiden Rock relived history early Saturday morning when a rampage of mud and water cascaded down its “schoolhouse hill,” the paper read. Heavy rain within a short period of time had led to oversaturated soil let loose with nowhere to go, save the path of least resistance. Before it was said and done, an estimated 300,000 cubic feet of debris made its way downtown. Thankfully, no one was killed.

As to what had caused the landslide, the answer to that lay uphill, as did the solution.

Cause and effect

Blamed on a lack of watershed protection at the time, the Maiden Rock Landslide of 1975 came from above and behind, as far as the downtown was concerned. Six inches of rain (one account says seven) falling in a little over a half hour resulted in oversaturated soil letting loose, following the path of least resistance as it spent its pent up energy. A wall of water seven feet high—some say it bounced 10 to 15 feet on Main Street—roared down the coulee with no warning, piling rocks and debris.

Split into two events, the first wave came Saturday, followed by a second on Sunday.

According to First National Bank President Ron Kocher as based on photos, the 1975 event was nearly identical to 1916, whitewater coming downhill as it flowed to the Mississippi, where it had before Maiden Rock was founded. The presence of a town changed things.

All businesses sustained some damage from the landslide, with the most affected being the McMahon Family Restaurant and the Swandy Furniture Store and Funeral Home, with cars and homes impacted as well. In all, $500,000 worth of property damage would be logged from the event. Among the infrastructure needs and repairs in view were County AA and County S, schoolhouse hill, and a highway culvert, as well as removing four feet of mud from the railroad tracks.

Springing into action after the landslide was Pierce County Civil Defense, guarding businesses and directing traffic as Maiden Rock started to dig its way out from the fallout.

Need for defense

Aftermath from the 1975 Maiden Rock Landslide saw torn up streets and several businesses damaged. The grade school (then with Ellsworth Community) was closed for flooding. So how to prevent another wall of water from coming into downtown Maiden Rock and causing damage like 1975?

Control and redirect the water flow, for one.

Following the Landslide of 1975, Maiden Rock undertook a series of measures to make sure if another landslide came, it would be prepared. Funded by the federal government and helped by the Soil Conservation Service, a series of dams, diversion and terraced platforms were created to control both volume and time of drainage, spacing out the water burden. A flue under Maiden Rock’s Main Street had railroad ties added to keep it from clogging, while manholes were added in case the under street flue reached capacity and needed to let off pressure. Differences in farm tilling practices and other measures meant to reduce soil erosion

“We can’t say for certain that something like that won’t happen again,” U.S. Soil Conservation spokesman Louis Barber said in a 1987 Progress edition article by Jim Turvold for the Republican Eagle. “But, I’m confident that enough causes of the disaster have been taken care of that damage from a story of that size will limited.”

With 49 years intervening between 1975 and the present, the record thus far holds.