Elmdale

[Gypsy Heart]

Only remnants of what used to be a booming Elmdale still exist. Two schools sit empty, side by side. The high school closed in 1967 and the grade school soon after. One grocery store is left, Bummies Grocery, about the only business on the main street. But the market isn’t as busy as when Maria (pronounced Moriah) Baumgardner and her husband, Glenn, first opened the operation near Elmdale’s train depot in 1947. Baumgardner has watched friends and acquaintances leave, one by one. The first exodus was after the 1951 flood, which tore into town and left more than 4 feet of water in her store.

 

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[Gypsy Heart]

Some residents stuck it out, she said, but later left after a flood hit in November 1998 — going over the town’s levy. “We had a doctor, a pharmacy, two hotels at one time,” she said. “The hardware didn’t reopen after the 1951 flood. Then the high school and grade school closed, the bank closed. This is what happens to towns when something devastating like a flood comes through.”