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Madison River Gorge---PIX!!

R

ranchwife

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
3,990
Location
ennis, montana
Our famous river gorged the early morning hours of the 12th!!! She is one of only 3 rivers in the world that does this!!! SPECTACULAR!! When she "gorges", she swells and takes over the surrounding land, including the local park where the kids have their summertime baseball games!! She was almost as high as our bridge into town......as you can see by the pix!!
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the local park....you can see that the "fishing pond" is now "ONE" with the little playground!!
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Danged near to the bridge...this is the main river!!
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The last one is actually the small creek that originates on our place!!! She was overrunning her banks and has the small campground on the banks of the river flooded out...til spring, anyway!! :D
 
Jinglebob said:
How often does this happen, rw?
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Whenever the temp drops in the negative digits for a certain amount of time....usually has to be over 24 hours!!! Since we have had at least a few days of those cold temps, it was pretty well expected!! Never fails to get quite a response out of folks...especially those who have never witnessed such an event! :wink:
 
ranchwife said:
Whenever the temp drops in the negative digits for a certain amount of time....usually has to be over 24 hours!!! :
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Okkkkaaaayyyy. I'll try again. How often does this happen? Once a year, twice a year, every other year? I am not aware of your temps or how oftyern it gets cold and stays cold.

Hate to act stupid (tho it seems to come pretty natural) but I am trying to figure out if this is a rare occourance or not, every year.

Can this happen several times in a year? Once a year , pretty normal, or what? :)
 
Jinglebob----in my 12 years here, I have only seen it happen once a year, but cowboyup was raised in this area and he would probably be better equipped to answer......I have NO doubt, though, that it COULD happen twice a year if the temps drop enough!! :wink: We did have 3 years in a row in the early turn of this century where the temps never dropped enough to freeze the river! :shock:

Lilly----the Madison river (for SOME reason) freezes from the bottom up!! That is why she gorges the way she does......the river waters freeze and swell like a thick, frozen slushy!!!! amazing to watch!! Many folk around here are smart enough NOT to build their fancy million dollar homes in a known "gorge zone"...however, have a "newbie" here who built quite a fancy get-up inside the zone and now is watching with nervous eyes to see just how far she's gonna climb the banks!! :roll: :roll:
 
Last night I googled "rivers that gorge" and came up with all kinda stuff, but nothin that gave me any answers to your river. I was just curious..and tryin to learn. LOL Google didn't help much.

But that is interestin that it freezes from the bottom.

As for folks that build their houses in a "gorge zone"......we get em all the time that don't check flood zones and build big fine homes...just to have them flood in a year or two when it rains big.
Same thang happened to all those people that built their houses along the Mississippi a few years ago when it flooded. Gotta check them flood zones before hammerin any nails.
 
After the floods on the Mississippi in 93 I know at at least one town that upped and moved to the top of hill to get out of the flood plain... I remember driving out to the area that year and oh my god... That was a lot of water... Seems every few years that stinker breakes the banks however.
 
You were right Ranchwife,that is a lot of cold water !!!!!!!!!pretty pictures can be deceiving I bet the river has caused alot of damage..........HURRY UP SPRING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!........good luck
 
Now those are some ugly pics..........not really, good pics of a bad thing.
That ice can be awful wicked stuff.
 
Jinglebob said:
How often does this happen, rw?
Click to expand...


Jinglebob, this usually only occurs about once a year that it makes it as far as the bridge into town but once it has started it will make several short runs up the river in a normal winter. There has been a few times that it has gone twenty miles or so up river but that is pretty rare. One winter (78 and 79 I think) it went over the highway and was as deep as the bumper on the school bus. The same winter it covered most of the bottom down here where I calve. that winter it trapped a cow out on some high ground and my dad packed hay to her everyday over almost a half of mile of ice for two months. She suvived and had a good calf too. That is why whenever the gorge hits town and the temps are supposed to stay cold I pull everything close to the bench.
There is only one other river that is in Russia that starts freezing from the bottom(that i'm aware of anyway). Despite the havoc it causes with the fences and surviving the cold, the gorge is a good thing because it will help the grass grow next spring.
Used to be you could count on it happening every December or January at the latest but the last couple of years it hasn't happened until the end of February. There has only been a couple of years that I know of that the gorge hasn't made it to town.
 
cowboyup said:
Jinglebob said:
How often does this happen, rw?
Click to expand...


Jinglebob, this usually only occurs about once a year that it makes it as far as the bridge into town but once it has started it will make several short runs up the river in a normal winter. There has been a few times that it has gone twenty miles or so up river but that is pretty rare. One winter (78 and 79 I think) it went over the highway and was as deep as the bumper on the school bus. The same winter it covered most of the bottom down here where I calve. that winter it trapped a cow out on some high ground and my dad packed hay to her everyday over almost a half of mile of ice for two months. She suvived and had a good calf too. That is why whenever the gorge hits town and the temps are supposed to stay cold I pull everything close to the bench.
There is only one other river that is in Russia that starts freezing from the bottom(that i'm aware of anyway). Despite the havoc it causes with the fences and surviving the cold, the gorge is a good thing because it will help the grass grow next spring.
Used to be you could count on it happening every December or January at the latest but the last couple of years it hasn't happened until the end of February. There has only been a couple of years that I know of that the gorge hasn't made it to town.
Click to expand...

OK, thanks for the info. :)

I kind of wish I had one of them rivers running thru' my place, but then, if I did, I'd have to fight all the fishermen and big money who would want to live her. :wink:
 
Jinglebob said:
cowboyup said:
Jinglebob said:
How often does this happen, rw?
Click to expand...




OK, thanks for the info. :)

I kind of wish I had one of them rivers running thru' my place, but then, if I did, I'd have to fight all the fishermen and big money who would want to live her. :wink:
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Plus all the tree huggers, the fish lovers, the duck lovers, the geese lovers, the ecoterrorists and the swamp things :wink:
 
cowboyup said:
Plus all the tree huggers, the fish lovers, the duck lovers, the geese lovers, the ecoterrorists and the swamp things :wink:
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SWAMP THINGS! :shock:

:cry:


















"Here Swampy, Swampy, Swampy. Now don't you be afraid of this little ol' gun. It won't hurt you. I promise." :wink:
 
ranchwife and others....

Here's a link to a article about the White River in Meeker, Colorado getting close to gorging. Although I don't think it happens as frequently with this river as yours, it happened in the late 1970's....

I saw on the news that Monday night the low in Meeker was -39. I imagine that has something to do with the rare occurance!

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_5028219

Cheers, and stay warm and dry!!!

TTB :wink:
 

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