Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

In your column of Jan. 28 (Dennis Wyatt: “Coming flood of misery for rural south Manteca folks”) you stated, “Although a 200-year event — a reference to magnitude and not frequency — hasn’t occurred in the past century or so. . . .’

 Actually, it has, in the floods of 1861-62.  Please see the page I’ve been building at mjbarkl.com/floods.htm . I believe, but am not certain that the upper edge of inundation was Mariposa Road.  Population here was very light back then so there are few narratives available but there are hints, including in the 4.1 meg archive of Sacramento Union flooding stories linked at the bottom of that page. 

Mike Barkley

Manteca