The floods of May 1959 in the Au Gres and Rifle River basins, Michigan, resulted from heavy rainfall during the night of May 19-20. Peak unit discharges for small drainage areas (less than about 15 square miles) were the highest ever measured in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and for very small areas (about one square mile) were of the same order of magnitude as those for the record Ontonagon River flood of August 1942 in the Upper Peninsula.
Because the flood area is sparsely populated, damages were largely confined to farm lands and facilities and to secondary roads and their appurtenant drainage structures.
The U. S. Geological Survey, through the district office in Lansing, Michigan, operates a network of streamgaging stations and crest-stage stations in the area affected by this flood. Six recording rain gages are operated in the upper Rifle River basin. Most of the gaging stations have been in operation for 7 to 9 years giving systematic records of stage, discharge, and volume of flow covering the range from drought to flood. This report contains records of
-stage and discharge at 9 gaging stations for the flood
period, peak discharges at 7 crest-stage stations
and 2 miscellaneous sites within the flood area, and
other data pertinent to the flood.
