Manawa Created by Flood in 1881

Courtesy of the  Council Bluffs Nonpareil (exact date unknown, but it appears to be from the 1930s)

The state conservation commission, with the aid of the Council Bluffs Junior Chamber of Commerce and federal agencies, is attempting to restore to the city and southwest Iowa a beauty spot nature created half a century ago and with the years despoiled.

At the urging of citizens, the Iowa commission is at work building protective dikes, dredging and landscaping the area to restore to Lake Manawa the beauty and popularlity it enjoyed before silt and drouth ruined it.

The drive to restore the gradually disappearing lake was instituted with the organization of the Manawa Park Association in August 1930, with the object of having the lake made a state park.

After the drouth of 1934 left the lake bed practically dry, the junior chamber, assisted by the Fish and Game Protective Association, Outboard Motor Club, country club and other service clubs, took over the responsibility of a financial drive to reclaim the lake.

Dates Back to Flood

Lake Manawa dates back to 1881, long remembered by many citizens as the year when the Missouri River  wrought damage in two floods that spread over large portions of the city, but "penitently" attempted repayment with recreation of the lake, for many years an asset to the community.

The date of April 1, 1881, stands out in the memory of many old-timers.  Word was received from Yankton, S.D., that the Missouri River rose thirty-five feet, bringing death and destruction to the lowlands in that area.

Railroads in Council Bluffs and Omaha received warnings from points to the north advising people to leave the river bottoms.  Railroads transported their rolling stock and other movable equipment to higher land.

The flood reached Council Bluffs the morning of April 9.  The North Western Railroad  levee broke and water spread over the west and south sections of Council Bluffs.

A man whose identity was never learned did a Paul Rever act, riding a horse through the south part of the city to warn residents when the levee gave way.

Families rescued were housed in the courthouse, Dohany's Hall, Bloom and Nixon's and other placed.  Any building that was suitable was thrown open to the refugees.

Lake Area Inundated

By daylight, the area from Ninth Street west to Omaha and from Big Lake south beyond the Union Pacific transfer was a sea, dotted with houses and outbuildings like islands.

Boats soon made their appearance as the only means of transportation in the stricken area.  Large sections of wooden sidewalks were pressed into service by boys as rafts.  It was common knowledge that those who operated them earned from $15 to $20 a day.

A woman, identified only as a Mrs. Denning, was on the scene in a short time, supervising the work of caring for and feeding the victims.  The culinary department was in charge of Miss Jennie Fish.

From a point near Big Lake, the North Western Railroad transferred its passengers to wagons for transportation to the transfer building.  From there they walked over flat cars to high ground where they took the trains west.

Two babies were born at the courthouse after their parents fled from the flood.

The water started to recede on April 12, and work of railroads clearing up and repairing tracks was started.  Families, returning to their homes, rolled up their sleeves and began cleaning out the muddy water.

A week later the river started its second rise.

It rose rapidly but few believed it would reach flood stage again.   On April 22 the river stage increased at the rate of a foot an hour.  Alarmed, the people again moved to higher land.

The second time the "Big Muddy" broke its banks and the water spread to Eighth Street and Broadway and extended south to the Union Pacific transfer.  Down the river houses, trees and livestock were seen floating.  Union Pacific railroad employees reported seeing a calf floating down the river on a large cake of ice.

Dodge Supervised Rescue

Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, chief engineer in charge of the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, had men ride through the flooded area, rescuing cattle which were driven to the hills.

The river began to recede on April 27 and families returned to their homes, only to find fences, buildings and sidewalks had been swept away.

South of Council Bluffs, the Missouri River had looped itself in a hairpin bend.  Persons who had gone to the hills to get a better view of the flood saw the water pouring out of the bend's neck.  The old channel was filled with quiet water.

When the river resumed its normal flow, a new channel through the neck was discovered.  Within a few years the river formed its banks along the new course.  The body of water left stranded by the river's change, its bed covering about 400 acres, later became Lake Manawa.

Miss Julia Officer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. thomas Officer, pioneer residents, is credited with having bestowed the name, Manawa, on the new lake in 1885.   It signified peace and comfort.  Miss Officer was one of the outstanding musicians of the middlewest.  The name came into general use later after the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad referred to the beauty of Lake Manawa.

At one time, Thomas Officer owned 160 acres of land, the greater portion on the south side covered by the lake waters.  Part of the land was sold to the Kansas City, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad, now the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which moved its tracks eastward three times due to the inroads of the river.

Wray's landing Nearby

On the northwest shore of the lake was the famous Wray's landing, a stopping place for steamboats on the Missouri River from the early fifties to the early eighties.

An Englishman, William Wray, after whom the landing was named, rented boats for fishing and operated a farm, which had been reduced from eighty to twenty-five acres by creation of the lake.

Steamboat traffic on the Missouri River was a big business in those days.  John Dohany, opera house and livery stable operator, conducted a transportation line from the city to Wray's Landing.  When he spied smoke of an approaching steamer with the aid of a field glass, he woulud start for the landing to meet the passengers.

Wray's Landing has since disappeared.  Mr. Wray died March 18, 1918, at the age of 89 at the home of his stepdaughter, Mrs. M. L. Sluyter.

At first, little attention was paid to Lake Manawa as a possible asset, but in 1887 a group of socialites of Council Bluffs formed the Council Bluffs Rowing Association, purchased some racing shells and built a clubhouse.

Mrs. James S. Chrisman and  Mrs. George W. Robards, daughters of James Beauchamp, who died Nov. 4, 1867, inherited the 160 acres of land near the lake.   They sold to Hattie A. Hay on March 27, 1887, for $28,000.

The property was platted and laid out into streets, avenues and alleys.  The new owner's husband, Israel M. Hay, who came from Minneapolis, Minn., planted hundreds of trees.

On May 2, 1887, Mr. and Mrs. Hay held a public sale of the lots which they had named Manawa Park.

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