Once again in the high desert, water was everywhere on Aug. 2, 1976.

On page 1 of the Rocky, beneath the photo of a broken, washed-out U.S. highway 34 by veteran photographer Bill Peery, a secondary headline said the unimaginable:

U.S. 34 west of Loveland is no more

"LOVELAND - At least 56 persons were dead and hundreds injured or trapped on steep slopes and in mud-bound cars late Sunday, after a flash flood swept through 30 miles of canyons Saturday night between Loveland and Estes Park.

" . . . A total of 500 persons were evacuated Sunday from the flood-ravaged area. A group of 42 persons reported stranded at the town of Glen Haven were to be airlifted out of the area late Sunday or early Monday, the state patrol said."

In one of those quirks of infamous journalism, not until the 10th paragraph did the lead story on page 5 name the flooded river.

"Survivors told of a surge of water in the Big Thompson River and its north fork that ranged from 'a wall six to eight feet tall' to 'a steady rise that took everything with it - cars, houses, everything.'

"The flash flood hit between 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday night following a violent thunderstorm centered in the high country a few miles east of the Continental Divide."

The news wasn't any better in the next day's edition:

Death toll reaches 80

"LOVELAND - The death toll from the Big Thompson Canyon flash flood climbed to 80 Monday night as helicopters evacuated the last of the survivors from the devastated 25-mile canyon west of here.

"As darkness approached Monday, fog which had blanketed the area all day lifted briefly, allowing pairs of U.S. Army helicopters to fly along the canyon floor. Within an hour, about 75 persons who had been stranded since the Saturday night flood were plucked from the canyon and returned to Loveland."

Eventually, the Big Thompson flood would be blamed for the deaths of at least 145. According to the Bureau of Reclamation history, only one resident of the canyon possessed flood insurance.

Strange newsfellows

In the same edition that the Rocky first reported the Big Thompson flood, it carried another unrelated, but noteworthy, story on page 20 under the headline:

FBI heard plan to 'grab' Hoffa, paper says

The union chief, whose disappearance would become legend, had disappeared only days before.

"DETROIT (AP) - The FBI overheard reputed Mafia figures discussing a plan to 'grab' ex-Teamsters boss James R. Hoffa as long ago as 1963, years before the union leader disappeared, the Detroit News said Sunday."

Paper inflation

For more than 100 years, anyone could buy the Rocky on the streets of Denver for a nickel. Now, for the second time in less than 20 years, the price of the paper had risen again: it was now 15 cents.