68

The Ryckman house at the West Creston ferry, 1948. There were 24 feet of water at the ferry.
June, 1948
West Creston, west of Creston, BC

69

Of the nearly 50,000 acres of farmland on the Creston flats, only the 2,000 acres in the Nick's Island Dyking District remained. Everywhere else was underwater. At the peak of the flood, the water at the West Creston ferry was twenty-four feet above normal.

"My dad was the West Creston ferry man, and our house was right down by the river at the ferry landing. My dad had a garden in front of the house; it was a little bit higher ground there. One day Harry Kuramoto and myself dammed along the river on the north-west side of the house and put a pump in. I filled it up so it would run most of the night to keep the water out of dad's garden, which was growing beautifully. This was about the end of May. The next morning, both the pump and the garden were underwater as the water had risen considerably during the night. That was the end of the garden for that year."
- Fred Ryckman

70

Bob Maxwell's boat, used as transportation on the flats during floods.
1948
Creston Valley, BC

71

The West Creston ferry was taken out of service for the duration of the flood.

"My dad and I stayed on the ferry, slept on the ferry, and the only way you could get to town was either walk the dyke, or there was a fellow by the name of Bob Maxwell had a boat, and he ran a motor boat every day."
- Fred Ryckman

72

Loading people and supplies on Bob Maxwell's boat
June, 1948
West Creston, west of Creston, BC

73

"He hauled the mail, people who were going to or from town, all sorts of things; he hauled them from Vern Peterson's place [below Creston, on the east side of the valley] to Corn Creek, about where the West Creston Hall is now. The water was ten or twelve feet deep there, and that's where he dropped them off."
- Bill Piper

74

Looking east towards Creston, from Bob Maxwell's boat.
June, 1948
West Creston, west of Creston, BC

75

The concept of having to take a boat to town was a very strange one for Rachel Wilson, who had come from Alberta to visit her sister and nieces, the Phipps family, in West Creston before the flood occurred. She took a series of photos, including this one, en route to Creston on Bob Maxwell's boat.

76

Once the dykes broke, the entire Creston Valley was underwater.
June, 1948
Creston Valley, BC

77

"There was a lot of interesting things that came down the river. I think one of the most humorous things I can remember is a big hay stack, with about twenty-five chickens on it, white leghorns, with the rooster crowing like crazy, came just floating down the river."
- Fred Ryckman

78

Looking west across the flooded flats from Wynndel.
June, 1948
Wynndel, north of Creston, BC

79

"Dick Wigen and me, we found a little boat in 1948, and turned it into a sailboat. We sailed it along the flats at night in 1948. The fence posts floated out of the ground, but they were still attached to the wires, so we'd have to push the wires down and under the boat. Once, we didn't push the wires down far enough and they caught on the rudder of the boat, so we went sailing down the flats pulling this fence behind them. It was Otto Steiner's fence, and the next day we had to bring it back."
- Cyril Colonel

80

Flood waters across the width of the Creston Valley.
June, 1948
Creston Valley, BC

81

It is good that people were able to find some things to laugh about, but there was little reason to smile during those few weeks in May and June, 1948. Water reached from one side of the Creston Valley to the other, with only a thin line of the dykes showing in some places. The crops, with the exception of those on Nick's Island, were destroyed.