"There was a terrible flood in Kansas City, called the Great Flood of '51. It flooded all of Argentine and Armourdale, all the places in what is normally called the West Bottoms.

Twenty-five thousand head of livestock were lost there; they just pushed them in the river and let them float on down to St. Louis. That was the only place they could get rid of them, because all the rendering plants were gone. The devastation was terrible.

I was 26 years old and I'd been working for the gas company. They were desperate to get their part of it all cleaned up because natural gas is flammable, of course. It was a huge, huge job to rehabilitate that whole area, and I got the contract for it. If you can imagine—a 26-year-old kid!

We had 600 to 800 men down in that area for about six months, doing all the things necessary to dig up the pipelines and make sure they did not leak, and flush them out. I bought several old fire engines with pumps on them to pump out the lines."

—Ray Pitman, 86, Olathe

Ray Pitman