The Smith River runs calm through Bassett most of the time. But it was not always that way, and the people who lived along its banks for the first half of the twentieth century knew better than to take that calm for granted.
Between 1899 and 1945, the region experienced more than 200 floods. The written record in Henry County begins in earnest with the Henry Bulletin of March 28, 1923, which ran the headline “Heavy Rains Flood Homes and Wash Away Bridges.” The paper called it the worst flood in Henry County in years. Smith River overflowed its banks and pushed into homes in Bassett and Koehler.
Several families left Bassett entirely, making their way into Martinsville on Friday night with the water still rising. The bridge over Beaver Creek on the Rucker Road was washed away. The bridge over Double Branch Creek on the Martinsville-Ridgeway road stayed standing but barely, with guards posted and anyone crossing doing so at their own risk. Practically every road in the county was impassable by Saturday.
That flood was bad. What came next was worse. In 1928, Bassett streets went under several feet of water, and businesses took the hit.
Another flood in 1932 repeated the damage. Then came October 1937, and nothing before it compared. Downtown stores flooded. Factories shut down. Telephone lines went out.
More than 250 homes went partially underwater, and damage to the Bassett Furniture plants alone exceeded a quarter of a million dollars. In Fieldale, businesses were submerged under eight to ten feet of water. The highway into Bassett from Martinsville was blocked for twelve hours, cutting the community off from outside help at the moment it needed it most.
The flood stage on the Smith River at Bassett reached approximately 22.9 feet, with a discharge estimated at 38,000 cubic feet per second.
That flood changed everything. The cost of recovery was staggering, and the conversation that followed it eventually made its way to Washington. In 1944, Congress authorized the construction of Philpott Dam on the Smith River. The Army Corps of Engineers began construction in 1948, and by October 1951 the dam was providing flood control to the downstream communities. The powerhouse was completed in 1953. The dam stands 220 feet high, sits about six miles upstream from Bassett, and created what is now Philpott Lake, a 2,900-acre reservoir stretching into Henry, Franklin, and Patrick counties.
The dam did not end flooding entirely. In 1979, high water destroyed the swinging bridge across the river in Bassett.
Then came September 1987, the worst flood since Philpott Dam went into operation. Between eight and ten inches of rain fell on the Bassett, Rangeley, Fieldale, and Whitby Acres area over the Labor Day weekend, from Saturday the 5th through Monday. Around 500 residents were evacuated.
The Red Cross brought meals to those who had been displaced and to the volunteers working to salvage what they could from their homes and businesses. The backyard of the Bassett Public Library, which then housed the Historical Center, went underwater, and the basement flooded to within inches of the ceiling. The waterline is still visible on the walls.
Before the flood hit that afternoon, staff managed to move nearly everything upstairs, everything except the heavy metal map case, which was floating by the next morning. The experience led directly to the decision to expand the library and move the genealogy room to the upper floor, a project completed in December 1989.
The Smith River is calm now, most of the time. Philpott Dam sees to that. But the waterline on that basement wall is still there, and it tells the whole story.
Jarred Marlowe is a local resident and historian. He is a member of the Col. George Waller Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Blue & Gray Education Society, and the committee chair for the Martinsville-Henry County 250 Committee. He may be reached at [email protected].
