Listening to the east branch of the Pecatonica River thunder beneath the Wisconsin 81/78 bridge in Argyle on Friday was an incredible experience.

I’ve seen violent, turbulent waters before, whether it be waterfalls in Canada or simply the dam at Indianford, but usually when the Pecatonica goes through Argyle, it does it in a lazy fashion.

The river is usually little more than 50 feet wide, it’s placid — people rent innertubes and hang out in the river all day in the summer like it’s a water park.

Then last week’s snowmelt met about two days of rain. By Friday, the river at Argyle was flowing over  81/78 just north of the Cenex convenience store. Lafayette County Highway Department workers were running “slow” and “stop” signs to allow one-lane of traffic, with water up to wheel-wells, to pass through the flood water.

I talked to the county worker on the side closest to downtown Argyle and he said he hadn’t seen flooding in Lafayette County to the degree it was last week since 1993.

Making the floodwaters in Argyle so interesting was the fact that the water above the bridge through town had flown over its banks to the north by at least a third of a mile, from highways 78 and 81 to an area just below the Argyle public school. That area looked like a broad lake of water.

That wide stretch of flowing water heading toward the bridge was condensed into the width that would pass under the bridge; maybe 100 feet. The water was about six feet from reaching the bridge deck. Once the water passed under the bridge, it picked up a great deal of turbidity.

I parked at Jacobsen Landing and walked onto the bridge a few feet to take some pictures. 

I was not the only visitor as several people had come out to the area by the bridge to see the high flood water for themselves.

“I come fishing here all the time and it’s usually so peaceful,” one man in his early 30s said to me. “It’s nothing like this. I’ve never seen it like this before.”

I’ve seen several floods in the past 15 years. 

I witnessed the flooding of the Kickapoo River Valley several times where strings of communities like Ontario, La Farge, Viola, Readstown, Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills were all repeatedly dealt heavy flood damage requiring the rebuilding of dams, bridges, culverts; all the man-made things that are supposed to mitigate the effects of flooding.

We haven’t figured out how to completely counter Mother Nature when it comes to any natural occurrence. Our meteorological warning and prediction system has improved, but when some of our low-lying areas get the spring snowmelt at the same time as rain, there will be flooding.

We have to be thankful to the emergency response workers — all those who help us get through these times.

After visiting the flood area, I drove home, got out of my car and could still hear the pounding of the water past the bridge from about four blocks away in Argyle. That hasn’t happened in those parts for a long time.

— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.