Most towns rebuild after a flood. Columbus did something bolder. It moved.
The Mississippi River flood of 1927 was the worst in the town’s history. According to a historical marker at Columbus-Belmont State Park, the water ate away 350 feet of riverbank in just a few weeks, and the business district slid into the river. Of about 150 houses in town, only 13 came through untouched.
The Red Cross steps in
Marion Rust, who led the American Red Cross relief work, looked at the damage and decided the old town could not be saved where it stood. The Red Cross bought 80 acres on the bluff above, about half a mile away, and started moving Columbus up the hill.
Houses and buildings began rolling to the new site in September 1927. If a family could not afford to move their home, the Red Cross paid for the move or built them a new house. By April 1928, around 600 people were living in the new Columbus.
The Kentucky Historical Society’s marker on KY 58 calls Columbus the “first entire town in Kentucky to be moved from one site to another.” The two markers give slightly different numbers for the cost, $87,710 on one and $100,000 on the other, but either way it was a huge sum for the time.
What about the national capital story?
You have probably heard that Columbus was once considered for the nation’s capital. The park marker is honest about it: local tradition says so, but the town did not exist during the capital debates of 1789, and congressional records from later years do not mention it. Whether it was ever really in the running “may never be known.”
What we do know is that our neighbors in Columbus refused to give up on their town. That kind of grit is a big part of who we are around here.
Did your family live through the move? We would love to hear about it at news@southwestky.com.
Sources: Kentucky Historical Society, Marker 1398, The History of Columbus, Kentucky marker.
Photo: The old river town of Columbus around 1900, before the 1927 flood. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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