The History of the Gampadel Brook

The source of the Gampedel Brook lies at the foot of the Weissplatte just after the Swiss border.  It drains the Gampadel Valley.  In the same years as the floods at Rasafei, 1762, 1764, 1817 and 1879 the Gampadel Brook taught its inhabitants the meaning of fear and in 1910, laid waste to large portions of the Ganzenal and Tschaegga parcels.  Women and children were evacuated from many of the houses, while the men were busy with trying to combat the damages.  The mud flow, which was known as “Roefi” washed away all of the bridges, damaged many of the houses and barns and reached a width of 500 meters at the Zelfenstrasse.  At “House Renate”, Zelfenstrasse Nr. 33, it came together with the mud flow from the Rasafei Brook.  The damages to the fields and meadows were enormous and during the First World War, from 1914 to 1918, many prisoners of war were used to cultivate the land again. 

The last time the floods from the torrent scared the people here was in 1966 when it destroyed a small saw mill and threatened many of the houses.  The only way a flood and mud flow could be prevented was by the use of heavy machinery.  Afterwards the construction of the large valley barricades was started which were made to hold back the worst of the wood and boulders that future floods would bring with them.