After several very dry years the weather did a complete turn around in 1935. The winter had very heavy snows and when summer came so did the rain. The Lesser Slave Lake rose until it flooded over the highway. The lake was virtually half way to Smith.
Many sections of the railway were under several feet of water and there were numerous washouts. Train service was tied up for days and weeks at a time. Many passenger trains arrived in Smith to be turned around and sent back to Edmonton. Some passengers, the mail and express were unloaded at Smith and sent by track car to the flooded area. Boats and scows were then used to move them through. On some occasions necessities like bread and perishables were unloaded at Smith and then flown by pontoon fitted planes to their destinations.
The Athabasca River rose high enough at Chisholm Mills to break the log boom pond, sending the logs and boom chains down river towards Smith and catch on the railway bridge. To save the structure a trainload of steel rails and boxes loaded with gravel were driven onto the bridge to prevent it from being swept away. Crews were then initiated to blast and clear away the logs.
It was this flood that caused the town of Slave Lake to move from the river to the railway.