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© TRIBUNE filesFlooded south Bismarck in April of 1952.
The 2011 Missouri River flood certainly will go down as "the big one" in many respects. But major flood events on the river in Bismarck and Mandan are not unprecedented

In 2009, an ice jam in the river caused water to back up. In 1952, a similar scenario played out, hitting the cities hard and fast with no warning.

There was no Garrison Dam in 1952. The only dam on the Missouri River system then was the Fort Peck Dam in Montana but downstream, the Milk River and other tributaries had no dams to hold back the water.

The 1952 flood hit Bismarck and Mandan on April 6, a Sunday morning when many people had yet to return home from church services.

Jim Davis, head of reference of the state archives at the State Historical Society of North Dakota, compiled some data from Bismarck Tribune files and other sources on that flood.

The latest projection for the Missouri River is to crest somewhere between 19 and 19.6 feet.

In 1952, the river hit 27.8 feet. Similar to 2009, an ice jam caused that flood, leaving the water with nowhere to go except into neighborhoods on both sides of the river.

During that afternoon, floodwaters rose at a rate of an inch per hour, swamping about 200 homes, leaving more than 1,000 residents homeless.

According to reports, more than 100 people had to be rescued by boat and helicopter and many lost everything.

In 1952, flood stage was set at 19 feet rather than the 16-foot mark used today, Davis said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had predicted the flood. In March, a corps report showed that close to 100,000 square miles in the upper basin were covered with 15-20 inches of snow.

No one died in the 1952 flood but more than 100 cattle were lost.

Perhaps the most infamous rescue was that of Art Zumbaum, a farm worker who was stranded in a south Bismarck house for nearly two days.

Huge chunks of ice and rapid currents prevented boats from getting to Zumbaum, who was forced to break through the ceiling and roof to await rescue via helicopter.

In Mandan, owners of the Midway Supper Club along the "Strip" managed to protect the club for a time with sandbags, but when the railroad embankment gave way, 4 feet of water filled the business, leaving owner Jerry Boren and a bandleader playing the club stranded on a tractor.

During the pre-dam era, flooding was commonplace. But only three times did the Missouri River top the 1952 level: in 1881 at 31.6 feet; in 1887 at 31.1 feet and in 1910 at 30.4 feet.

Loss of life was highest during a 1917 flood. Five people drowned when their boat capsized trying to cross floodwaters from Mandan to Bismarck.

Other major floods through the years occurred in 1884, 1897, 1899, 1917, 1938, 1943 and 1947.

The Mandan flood of 1943 is regarded as the worst in that city's history. The Heart River was the culprit in that case.

Damage to property in Mandan was estimated at $1 million and floodwaters covered 75 percent of the city, leaving more than 3,000 homeless.

One life was lost in that flood when a rowboat overturned.