Blackfeet Reservation flooding

The waters of Swift Reservoir, an irrigation dam on Birch Creek west of Dupuyer, failed. A heavy toll of life and property resulted.

Although 15-month-old Victoria Edwards of Browning was too young to understand what happened, her expression mirrored the consternation of Montana worst flood.

At Browning, Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall is given a Blackfeet welcome by Old Chief White Calf, Blackfeet patriarch who was 107 years old. Udall was in Browning looking at Glacier Park's flood damage. Others are Earl Old Person, left, interpreter, and Walter Wetzel, Blackfeet tribal council chairman and president of the American Congress of Indians.

One of a sequence of photos of a swollen Birch Creek wiping out a bridge.

The Clarence Hirst family of Big Badger, northwest of Dupuyer, was left homeless by flooding in the Birch Creek area. Here they wait in the Valier High gym, hoping for word of missing friends and family.

Fifty miles northwest of Great Falls, farm lands lifted whole buildings on the crests of turgid waters. It left barns upside down and pieces of bridges scattered across the countryside.

A street in Shelby is flooded.

Looking north across the eastern part of Shelby at the Sullivan reservoir, the lower of five reservoirs.

The flood-swollen Marias River at crest early in the week of the flood rose to the level of this Highway 91 bridge south of Shelby.

Swift Dam along Birch Creek located in Pondera County is 205-feet high concrete dam that was completed in 1967 after the original dam constructed in 1912 failed on June 10, 1964. TRIBUNE PHOTO/LARRY BECKNER

On June 10, 1964 Swift Dam failed sending water down Birch Creek destroying homes and killing people and livestock. TRIBUNE PHOTO/LARRY BECKNER

Swift Dam along Birch Creek located in Pondera County is 205-feet high concrete dam that was completed in 1967 after the original dam constructed in 1912 failed on June 10, 1964.

Swift Dam along Birch Creek located in Pondera County is 205-feet high concrete dam that was completed in 1967 after the original dam constructed in 1912 failed on June 10, 1964.

1964 flood. Upstream face of the original Swift Dam on Birch Creek, as photographed in July 1914. COURTESY PHOTO/PONDERA COUNTY CANAL AND RESERVOIR CO.

1964 flood. In the aftermath of the deluge, no evidence is apparent of the existence of Swift Dam on Birch Creek. COURTESY PHOTO/PONDERA COUNTY CANAL AND RESERVOIR CO.

1964 flood. Visible is the riverbed rock shelf of Birch Creek after Swift Dam was swept away. COURTESY PHOTO/PONDERA COUNTY CANAL AND RESERVOIR CO.

1964 flood. The concrete plant feeding construction of the new Swift Dam on Birch Creek as seen on the first day of the concrete phase of construction, May 4, 1966. The plant remained for much of the duration of the project. COURTESY PHOTO/PONDERA COUNTY CANAL AND RESERVOIR CO.

Eloise Erickson stands next to a piece of concrete slab that was part of the original 1912 Swift Dam which failed on June 10, 1964. The current Swift Dam is a 205-feet high concrete dam that was completed in 1967.

Joe Bird Rattler talks about 1964 flooding in and around Browning.

The cement dam at Lower Two Medicine Lake replaced the earthen dam that failed in 1964.

John Murray talks about the 1964 flooding at Lower Two Medicine Lake, April 29, 2014.