I'm Never Going to Be Snowbound Again, the Winter of 1948-1949

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Article Title: I’m Never Going to be Snowbound Again, the Winter of 1948-1949

Full Citation: Harl A Dalstrom, “I’m Never Going to Be Snowbound Again: The Winter of 1948-1949 in Nebraska. Nebraska History 82 (2002): 110-166.

URL of Article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/2002-Snowbound.pdf Date: 1/20/2010

Article Summary: An examination of the effects of the winter of 1948 – 1949 in Nebraska illustrates key changes that took place in the state in the second half of the twentieth century. Citizens’ stories of how they adapted and survived and the political aspects of relief efforts, cause the author to wonder how modern Nebraskans would fare if faced with similar circumstances.

Cataloging Information:

Names: Margaret Pruss; Harry Page; Wesley Meierhenry; G E Livermore; W D Lear; J E McCarthy; George Manes; Sue Johnson; Caroline Moody; Richmond Case; Lois Case; Art Henrickson; Robert Buchan; Cerny family; Ed Gloy; Walter Peters; Art Henrickson; A Perry Osborn; George F Ashby; E Roland Harriman; Nelson family; Frank Bataillon; Dwight Margrave; Harmon Holloman; Cal Westover; Irene Westover; Joe Westover; James Moody; Caroline Moody; Jeanette Moody; Ed Misterick; Gene Hall, James Blundell; L E Morgan; L E Wolford; Val Peterson; Rolland Quintard; Mrs Ralph Rhoads; Harold George; Leon Thompson; Ann Van Hoff; Lois Tomkins; Irene Westover; Olive Raben; Helen Swanson; H T Boland; Mrs Marvin Fuller; Henry Canenburg; Roy H Patitz; H A Phillips; Nylan Rowse; Bobby Gartner; Betty Gartner; Hope Martin; Carolyn Wintermote; Ann Mae Gartner; Clarence Kiltz; Lewis Slaymaker; Gertrude M Banks; F B Decker; Jennie Bennett; Elja McCullough; Irma Fodge; Mrs Jack Minion; Alice Brenneman; Lolajean Ickes; Alice Young Compton Tomkins; Mrs William Murphy; Thelma Young; Cal Westover; Irene Westover; Mari Sandoz; Jo Eberly; Linelle Tompkins Kelley; Harvey Tompkins; Lois Tompkins; Vicki Sue Hutton; George T Mickelson; Hugh Butler; Kenneth S Wherry; Joe W Leedom Jr; Philip Fleming; Harry S Truman; Basil O’Connor; Lewis A Pick; Donald W Stout; Gordon Gray; Rufus Howard

Place Names: [Because this issue-long article comprises extensive coverage of the winter of 1948 – 1949 in Nebraska, towns and cities are not listed here.]

Selected place / company names are listed for this article as follows: Sioux Ordnance Depot; Lowry Field, Denver; Sheridan Hotel; Crownover Telephone Company; Kearney Air Force Base

Keywords: “Sargent Leader” “McCook Daily Gazette” “Ainsworth Air Service” “Robert Hobson” “Kearney Daily Hub” “Holt County Independent” “Gordon Journal” “Western Nebraska Observer” “Chadron Record” “big weather-maker” “City of San Francisco” “Union Pacific” “Chicago and North Western” “Red Cross” “Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy line” “Red Cross” “Rock County Leader” “Burwell Tribune” “M-29 Weasel” “Weasel” “Sioux” “Pine Ridge Indian Agency” “Rosebud reservations” “Federal Works arm au& weather mingled Blizzards are not rare in the Great The winter of 1948-49, illustrating Wwith days heralding winter mark Plains, but a relatively sparse population as it does the climatic extremes of the November in Nebraska. The first two and great distances make the region Great Plains, is an important episode weeks of November 1948 were typical especially vulnerable to the combined in the region's history. Great weather as temperatures occasionally climbed onslaught of snow and wind. The winter events, especially those covering exten- into the 60s and 70s Fahrenheit, punctu- of 194849 was particularly memorable sive areas, become landmarks in a ated by cold spells and scattered snow. because a series of storms between people's perception of their past. "The Harrison, in the northwestern comer of the November and February paralyzed a Winter of the Deep Snow" of 1830-31 state, had some twelve inches of snow in large area of the northern Plains, includ- was such an event for early settlers in a fourday period, but this hint of winter ing the northern third of Nebraska. parts of Indiana and Illinois. Laura was very local. Nature was bountiful as Between storms the persistent threat of Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter and the well as benign, and Nebraskans could high winds drifting newly opened roads climax of 0.E. Rolvaag's Giants in the take comfort in a U.S. Department of shut again was as great a worry as pros- Earth commemorate the winter of 1880- Agriculture estimate that the 1948 corn pect of more snow. 81 on the northern Plains. The blizzard crop would be outstanding. Little did Following the normal pattern, local, of January 1888 has endured in the lore they realize that they were on the brink county, and state authorities handled of the Great Plains, and the blizzard of of one of the worst winters in the state's road clearing early in the winter, but in the March 1888 left a similar impression on history.' wake of a massive blizzard on January the northeastern United States.' 2-5, it became evident that Nebraska and Harl Dalstrom is Professorof Histoiy at the other states would need large-scale federal A massive snowdrift, higher than the University ofNebraska at Omaha. Among his assistance. Timely, well-coordinated farmhouse eves and 150 feet long, almost his previous publications are biographies of obscures the Ernest Kiel home near Eugene Eppley and A. V. Sorensen. He is aid, coordinated by the Fifth Army and Lewellen, Garden County, January 5, 1949. currently working with two other scholars on the Army Corps of Engineers, would NSHS-RG3139-50 a history ofmetropolitan Omaha. prove essential in averting disaster. Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

Although images of nature's rigors the night. By the next morning, U.S. afternoon, Harry Page and two other are basic to how Nebraskans under- Highway 30, then Nebraska's principal men came to the school and arranged stand the pioneer experience, the lore of east-west road, was closed east of to lead youngsters and Margaret Pruss climatic excesses, unlike other pioneer Sidney. Even so, the state forecast on to the Page home, some one-half mile icons, continues to accumulate. Persons Thursday morning read: "Cloudy, few to the east. Before setting out, Page born in this region in the 1930s showers south- east, snow flurries in stressed the importance of staying undoubtedly heard family stories of northeast, then clearing; colder; highs together: blowing dust, the bitter cold winter, and near 40." Perhaps more germane was blazing hot summer of 1936 long before the U.S. Weather Bureau's map which So we got in line-Mr. Page, the they read about the Dust Bowl. More showed a low-pressure system over three children, myself, [and] the recently, Omaha residents whose Colorado. The Panhandle proved to be other two men. Mr. Page had memories go back to 1975 will always on the edge of a storm that would have brought a rope with him; he had associate that year with the great Janu- ary blizzard and the devastating May tornado. For Nebraskans and others who endured the winter storms in 1948-49, the experience stands out boldly. Beyond the twenty- and thirty-foot snowdrifts, stalled trains, and dramatic details of the relief activity, however, is another story that is, perhaps, more important. Because repeated storms in this long winter severely disrupted normal patterns of life over much of Nebraska and neighboring states, the disruptions become a path to understanding some aspects of routine life in the mid-twentieth century. The winter's brunt fell upon an area with no large cities and few large towns; hence, the insights gained from this wide-area diiruption relate primarily to rural life. From the vantage point of On November 18-1 9 the first storm of the 1948-49 winter almost buried the H. R. Holcomb home near Chambers, Holt County. Enlarged by subsequent storms, the some fifty years later, an examination drifts persisted through April 1949. NSHS-RG3139-72 of the effects of the winter of 1948-49 permits us to draw some conclusions its greatest impact in an area from south- each take hold of the rope so we about key changes in Nebraska in the western to northeastern Nebraska on could stay together. Mr. Page got us second half of the twentieth century. Thursday and Friday, November 18-19. to his house safely. The storm was At O'Neill, young Margaret Pruss, so fierce; we could barely see the s the third week of November teacher at the Bredehoeft School some person in front. A 1948 began, Nebraska continued four miles from town, arose on Thurs- to have pleasant weather with high day morning to what she remembered Not until the evening of Monday, temperatures ranging from the 50s to as a "very damp and cloudyn day. November 22, would Margaret Pruss the 70s. Tuesday, November 16, was a As she left home, she yielded to her make it home. In the meantime, in an bit cooler, but the next morning an mother's insistence that she take her era when not all rural residents had tele- Omaha World-Herald headline asserted, boots. By 8:00 A.M. it was snowing at her phones, her mother could only discover "Weather to Stay Fair, Warmer," and the school and only three children were "that I might be at the Page home."3 story observed, "Nebraskans will have present. "By 9:00, the snow was so On Thursday morning, Dr. Wesley C. difficulty reconciling the weather with heavy it was impossible to see out the Meierhenry of the Teachers College, the calendar." Yet on Wednesday after- windows." At noon she advised the University of Nebraska, set out from noon, Sidney in the southern Panhandle youngsters to save some of their lunches Lincoln for Newman Grove, where he had thunder, lightning, rain, and sleet, for later and she brought extra coal would teach an extension class. soon followed by snow. Strong winds from the school basement to feed the Lincoln's weather was so mild that he caused considerable drifting through stove through the night. However, that did not wear an overcoat or take any Nebraska History - Fall/Winter 2002 other winter clothing. At Humphrey, he supply, which lasted until around Burwell had its own electric plant encountered the storm front, but he got 10:OO A.M. Friday. The storm still raging, and had few power outages, but Albion, to Newman Grove and proceeded with he used some of his audiovisual instruc- sixty-five miles east, would be without his class. However, after 7:30 that evening, tional equipment to make a head cover electricity for some fifty-five hours after the electricity went off, and contrary to that would prevent his eyes from icing utility poles east of town were toppled the advice of local people, Meierhenry shut as he walked in search of shelter. following an apparent lightning strike on set out for Lincoln. Driving a short He followed fenceposts until he saw a Thursday evening. Many Albion residents distance south was no problem, but branch power line that led him to a whose furnaces were electrically when he turned east, the absence of farm home and safety." governed took refuge with neighbors visibility forced him to open his window whose home heating did not rely upon to watch the road. Making it to Lindsay, At Burwell, the storm intensified power service. Other Nebraska commu- he made the mistake of pressing on on Thursday and reached its peak on nities experienced power failures through the rolling country toward Friday. Snowdrifts of six to eight feet because of the ice, wind, and heavy, Humphrey, but atop one hill, amid snow and higher paralyzed the town, which wet snow. and winds exceeding seventy-five miles would be without mail or bus service When the storm abated at Spalding per hour, his car went off the road and until the following Monday. One person on Friday afternoon, it left drifts of up to on a nearby farm estimated the wind at bogged down in mud. Meierhenry made twelve feet. Because of blocked roads, two treks from his car in search of aid fifty to seventy miles per hour and said: milk sales on Saturday were restricted before he saw that he would have to You couldn't see 50 feet-it was to people with infants. To the west, at spend the night in his vehicle. His just blank white. The snow stuck to Sargent, the editor of the Sargent Leader, resources for warmth included mimeo- all sides of the buildings 3 and 4 G. E. Livermore, who had been a graphed class materials that he used to inches thick, and over the windows resident of the area since 1883, wrote, create a barrier between his body and and into woven wire fences, which "This storm was one of the worst the his wet clothing, and his auto's gasoline made them look like stone walls. writer has ever seen here."

Opening roads drifted shut in the November storm, like this one near the H. R. Holcomb farm, was a huge task, but only the beginning of a long winter's work. NSHS-RG3139-71 Winter of 194849 in Nebraska

McCook, the principal town in south- western Nebraska and a division point on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, saw train service come to a halt. The storm was particularly hard on the railroad's centralized traffic control system. McCook was without long distance telephone service as were some one hundred other Nebraska towns, and the storm disrupted Western Union telegraph service. For two days the McCook Daily Gazettewas without its wire service and had to rely on news- casts from radio stations around the region for some material. Greeley, a county seat in central Nebraska, was physically cut off from the outside when a large cut through which the rail line and highway entered the town from the east was filled with snow. In the storm-stricken areas of Nebraska, hotels were filled with motorists; other people on the road were fortunate to reach farmhouses or other shelter. At Lexington, which was without electricity for over thirty hours and had no water Although outside the main path of the storm, high winds left the Louis Vap farm, near service during part of this time, some one Glenville, Clay County, locked in a frozen sea of drifts. NSHS-RG3139-57 hundred travelers found shelter in a hotel built for sixty persons. However, fell off rapidly beyond the main path of Lear learned that a nearby pasture was the situation was worse in western the storm; for example, on November 19 clear enough for a plane to land. George Kansas, where sriowdrifts stranded Atkinson, in north-central Nebraska, had Manes of the Ainsworth Air Service hundreds of highway travelers and sixteen inches of snow, but thirty-one flew Lear and Sue Johnson, a nurse, the passenger trains on three lines. miles west, Bassett received some four seventy-five miles to the makeshift land- Six Nebraskans died as a result of inches. Ainsworth, seventeen miles west ing strip. Walking from the plane to the what some elderly residents compared of Bassett, had only a trace of snow for house meant getting around drifts as to the famed blizzard of January 12,1888. the entire month. The storm brought a high as ten feet, but the mission ended Others, perhaps more accurately, con- ten-inch snowfall to Fremont, but successfully. For Manes, this would be cluded that it was the worst November Omaha, thirtysix miles to the southeast, the start of a long winter's work. storm in the state's history. The Weather had heavy rain followed by sleet and In the wake of the November storm, Bureau described the storm as "one of two inches of snow. Lincoln had three Northwestern Bell Telephone Company the most severe blizzards of record over inches of snow, while most of the pre- had 1,750 felled poles and 5,000 wire much of the central and northeastern cipitation in far southeastern Nebraska breaks to cope with in Nebraska. McCook portions of the State." Between Thursday, was rain.5 Public Power District linemen worked November 18, and Saturday, November In the next few months, the use of from the afternoon of November 18 until 20, McCook received eleven and three aircraft for emergency services to snow- the evening of November 20 making inches of snow, and snowfall blocked farms and ranches became repairs, and the district had to secure elsewhere in southcentral and south- an absolute necessity. On Saturday, additional help from a rural electrification western Nebraska ranged from six to November 20, Dr. W. D. Lear of construction crew. In northcentral nine inches. Ainsworth, just beyond the storm area, Nebraska, opening roads was a major Albion received twenty inches, but was called to attend Mrs. J. E. McCarthy task, and some areas went without mail the most snow came in the Bloomfield- who had been in labor for at least thirty for many days. Hartington area in the northeast, where hours. Although drifts blocked roads to As the storm continued its diagonal twenty to twenty-four inches fell. Totals the McCarthy home northwest of Burwell, path, it struck a heavy blow at southeast- Nebraska History -Fall/Winter 2002 em South Dakota, northwestern Iowa, the deepest snow in the northern third n Saturday, New Year's Day, and southwestern Minnesota. When it of the state. Although Bassett received 01949, the forecast called for light moved over the Lake Superior region, twelve inches, southern portions of snow starting in the west, and reaching winds at Duluth broke the steel mooring Rock County had upwards of two feet.8 most of eastern Nebraska by evening. cables securing the excursion ship S.S. O'Neill was covered with eighteen The "experimental," fiveday forecast Wayne and drove the vessel into a coal inches, and the Holt County Independent predicted "moderate" snowfall over most dock a half-mile away. The Robert declared: of the state. By Sunday, January 2, little Hobson, an 11,900-tonore camer, was It will be some time before roads had changed and the World Herald's run aground at the Wisconsin entrance are open again here, and some had daily forecast read: "Cloudy with light into the port of Duluth-Superior. just been opened after the Nov. 18th snow east, little change in temperatures. Relatively mild temperatures during storm. Mail camers will be unable Highs 25-30." In northwestern Nebraska, and after the storm abated the human to make their routes for sometime Caroline Moody and her five children suffering and kept livestock losses low. [sic] until the roads can be opened. got in their car to drive twelve miles Although there were some significant south to church in Crawford. Her daugh- turkey losses, the snow probably helped ter, Jeanette, would remember that ride, winter wheat crops, particularly in saying, "Mother looked often at the southwestern Nebraska, which had western'sky, mumbling that it looked experienced a dry a~tumn.~ like a severe storm was coming. About Although the first few days of half way to town, she uttered a moan December were very mild, more and turned back toward home." seasonal conditions returned on the To the east, the town of Gordon fifth and sixth. The cold winds. which experienced "almost spring liken snapped this warm spell, brought weather that morning, according to "blinding dustn to the High Plains the Gordon Journal, and, as Richmond around Sidney. Winds bringing a cold Case recalled, "There was no hint of an wave on December 19 and 20 caused approaching storm." After church, Case more blowing soil and damage to the and his wife, Lois, drove his aunt and wheat crop in the Panhandle and south- uncle to Chadron for "a leisurely late western part of.the state. Residents of lunch" at a restaurant. Sidney, buffeted by sixty-mile-per-hour In the meantime, snow driven by winds, called it the worst dust storm strong gusts of wind out of the north- since the famed Dust Bowl days of 1934.7 west, had reached the Hamson area late As Christmas approached, the fore- in the morning and by late afternoon hit cast called for snow, and on December Sidney. As the Case family dined, "light 23 and 24, three to sixteen inches fell skiffs of snow with lots of wind" reached across the state. In general the winds Chadron, and as they got ready to go were not strong, and the precipitation home, Case's aunt suggested that they caused few problems, though travel was spend the night there. But the Cases were restricted in some areas of the Panhandle. anxious to get back to their children, There, the snow was a blessing for the who were with their grandparents, and dry land and wind-ravaged wheat. they began what would ordinarily be Two bulldozers from Council Bluffs, Iowa, On December 28 freezing drizzle clear roads near Mclean in Pierce County. an hour's drive. This time it took three followed by "moderate to heavy snow," Northeastern Nebraska bore the brunt of hours. Case said, and winds of forty to fifty miles per hour the November storm. Courtesy Neil moved across Nebraska, again from Becker, Omaha By the time we reached Hay southwest to northeast. This storm was Springs, a distance of 30 miles, it is far less damaging than that of Novem- In northeastern Nebraska, drifting dark, snowing heavily and blowing ber 18 and 19, but drifts clogged roads proved to be almost as troublesome as like crazy. You can't see beyond and many telephone and telegraph lines in November. By contrast, at Chadron the hood of the car. I suggest to Lois went out of operation. There were some in northwestern Nebraska, the editor of that we pull off at Hay Springs and electrical service outages, and the the Chadron Record exclaimed, "Good stay the night. She says no because Kearney Daily Hub could not go to press. old Chadron! We've again missed the of the children. Fortunately we had The two late December storms left second big blizzard in the state." filled with gas prior to leaving Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

Rav Mickels and his sons Gene and Donald of rural Madrid, Perkins County, digging their chicken house out, of a drift, January 7,

Chadron. I put the car in second recalled the details of his eight-block gear and we press on. walk to the newspaper office in Kimball Lois looks out the lower right on Monday morning: hand comer of the windshield and I It was impossible to see or drive, the lower left hand comer for the so I put on my old World War I1 ditch. We meet no one and we pass great coat, flying helmet goggles no one. Had there been a car and oxygen mask with about a foot stalled in the roadway, I would of the flexible tubing that would probably [have] collided for there have connected to an oxygen tank, was no vision. I had been over the which I didn't have. But the oxygen road many times and so could mask and tube, tucked inside my approximate where we were. The coat, allowed me to breathe despite car was driven in second gear be- the wind and snow. cause I would hit snow drifts that 1 didn't know existed and didn't want On Monday morning, as the blizzard to lose my power or momentum. raged, Gordon high school junior Rob- So far as I can determine, we were ert Buchan trudged off to class, walking the last car into Gordon. backward much of the way to keep his By evening the storm was hitting back to the wind. At the school he Thedford, Burwell, and Springview in found a sign: "No school today." The the northcentral part of the state. As homeward trek, with the wind, was night fell, the snow grew heavier and much easier. "School closings were the wind stronger. At Sidney, where the almost unknown in town in those days," high temperature Sunday afternoon had he recalled, but "that day stretched into been thirty-two degrees, the thermom- more than a week of extra vacation." Three joints of stovepipe stood on the eter fell to minus three during the night, At Albion on Monday, rain and sleet roof of the brooder house on the Herman and the wind reached forty-eight miles heralded the blizzard. By then it was Boerger ranch near Rose, Rock County, clear that westem, central, and northern but on January 30, 1949, only part of the per hour. topmost joint was visible above the snow. More than forty years later Art Nebraska were being pounded by NSHS-RG3139-31 Henrickson, editor and publisher of what the Rushville paper later called a the Western Nebraska Observer, clearly "'genuine ring-tailed howler.' " The fore- Nebraska History -Fallminter 2002

Missed by the November and December storms, Chadron was buried under forty-one inches of snow on January 4, 1949. NSHS-RG3139-26

cast called for a blizzard, cold wave, and high at the ridge, was showing above were dug through the high drifts on fifty-mileper-hour winds, but the storm the snow by January 3. Fortunately, they the west side of Main to bring in missed the area southeast of Norfolk. had a shovel inside. In Sidney, drifts needed supplies. The storm continued through covered parking meters, and a snow Wednesday, January 5, lasting from bank in front of the Fox Theatre The snow was very dry and granular, forty-eight to seventy-two hours in many reached the marquee. At Mullen and and the high winds packed it solid, areas, and making it one of the worst Thedford, drifts were "as high as greatly hindering the clearance of high- winter storms in the state's history. At houses," but some places the blizzard ways and rail lines. In places drifts were Harrison the low on Monday was minus behaved differently, leaving the ground so solid that livestock could walk over eleven degrees; on Tuesday the estimated "blown clear." Gordon's Main Street, fences? average wind velocity was fifty-five miles running north and south, illustrates the At Alliance, where sixteen inches of per hour with gusts to sixty-five or seventy. latter. As Robert Buchan wrote, snow remained on the ground from the After the first night of the storm, the prechristmas storm, the January 2 Cemy family near Rushville discovered When the storm was over the east blizzard brought an additional twenty- the storm had "wreckedn their windmill. sidewalk on Main Street was blown plus inches and left drifts up to fifteen The same thing happened on the Ed clear. This was used for several feet high. The Times-Heraldsaid, "Only Gloy farm near Grant. Northwest of days as a road for tractors to move a few brave souls walked to town Monday Burwell, near Rose, only the chimney of groceries and milk to town resi- and Tuesday and it was an arduous task. the Walter Peters home, twenty-two feet dents. Strategic cuts and tunnels Usually two or three would go together Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska and it was not uncommon to see Nebraska. The storm ended when this part of the state came to a halt by the several men roped together." The wind surface low continued northward, prob- first day of the storm. Similar conditions prevented accurate measurement of ably detached from an upper atmosphere prevailed in areas of South Dakota, the snowfall, but minimum estimates low that was possibly over Wyoming." North Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado. ranged from ten to eighteen inches. The storm had caught many Schools could not reopen after the Ainsworth may have received Nebraskans off guard, and the Alliance Christmas holiday, and many businesses upwards of twenty-five inches, but the Times and Herald excoriated the United were closed. At Seneca, on the apparent maximum was forty inches or States Weather Bureau for having failed Burlington line between Grand Island more at "Good old Chadron." Some two to give warning: and Alliance, and along the Union hundred miles to the southeast, at Grant Even the small barometers around Pacific at such places as Columbus, near the southern edge of the area most town started dropping from 10 to 20 North Platte, Sidney, Dix, and Kimball, affected by the storm, drifts up to fifteen hours in advance of the Sunday townspeople did much to ease the feet blocked storefronts. The moisture night storm, yet the government's plight of stranded rail travelers.I3 content of the blizzard at Grant was six- multi-million-dollar tools were as The plight of the Union Pacific's tenths of an inch. silent as the radar instruments westbound City ofSan Francisco, with Throughout the storm area drifts before the Pearl Harbor debacle. 270 passengers, is especially interesting. blocked house doors, and people could The skipper of a 15-foot yawl The train reached the western outskirts only get out through windows. Another could give better weather forecasts of Kimball on Monday morning amid problem was snow blown into attics than we get in the range country. heavy snow, winds gusting to sixty miles and farm and ranch outbuildings. Scott per hour with a visibility of about thirty Hardin and his wife, visiting Gordon In Nebraska, rail and highway traffic feet, and a temperature later reported as more than a week after the storm ended, northwest of a diagonal line from having been minus four degrees. The reported spending hours shoveling snow McCook, which received a glancing engineer of the two-unit diesel-powered from their attic down a trap door and blow from the blizzard, to the northeastern train concluded that he should not hauling it outside. Although one person recalled that snow blowing into upstairs parts of houses was a typical winter event, in 1949 some people failed to clear their attics promptly, and when heat from the house melted the snow, runoff water damaged plaster and wall- paper.I0 The blizzard of January 2-5,1949, occured when a low-pressure system moved eastward from Colorado to Oklahoma and then northward to Kansas. As one meteorologist later said, an inverted trough-known even in 1949 to be "big weather-makersn-extended northward from Kansas through the Dakotas and an upper air area of low pressure may have contributed to a slowly evolving weather system." The surface low-pressure system in the southern High Plains permitted the northward flow of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, while an Arctic cold front advanced southward from Canada. The cold front subsequently stalled and high winds continued. By late on Monday, January 5, the low-pressure area that A lone snow shoveler is dwarfed by a massive Chicago and North Western locomotive, had been in the southern High Plains its flanks scoring the high walls of snow thrown up on either side. Near Chadron, Dawes had moved northward to northeastern County. NSHS-RG3139-28 Nebraska History -Fall/Winter 2002 proceed, and around 11:OO A.M. he he could not secure an estimated amval was pulled eastward to continue its backed to what he accurately estimated time in San Francisco. His secretary journey. Eleven days later, an article to be the site of the Kimball depot. passed the complaint to the Union in Life, which included two pages of Just before noon, Art Henrickson at Pacific corporate headquarters in New Hendrickson's photos, would bring the Westem Nebraska Observer received York, which forwarded the gist of the national attention to the sojourn of the a phone call from Life magazine, asking complaint to the Omaha office of George City of Sun Francisco in Kimball. In the about a report that the City ofSan Fran- F. Ashby, the railroad's president. Ashby meantime, on the evening of January 8, cisco had left Kimball but had not made himself was stranded aboard a Union the Union Pacific had cleared its main the next twenty miles to Pine Bluffs, Pacific train in Cheyenne, but A. J. Seitz, line between Cheyenne and Sidney Wyoming. Henrickson battled his way Union Pacific vice president of traffic, where drifts up to thirty feet high had to the depot, and found a passenger phoned Osborn in Kimball. Osbom now been reported.I5 train near the north side of the building. put a more positive light on the situa- Motorists took refuge from the blizzard Station personnel did not know the City tion, saying that some crewmembers as best they could. For five days, of San Francisco was there. had been helpful, and that a passenger Ogallala was the westem limit of travel Returning to his office, Henrickson agent had given him useful information. on U.S. Highway 30, and the refuge for called Life magazine, which requested The blizzard was not the only two to three thousand travelers. Public that he provide photos of the snow- interesting aspect of Osbom's stay in accommodations filled quickly, and the bound train and its passengers. Kimball. Forty years earlier, in 1908, he overflow travelers stayed in private Henrickson went aboard the train and, had worked on an uncle's ranch near homes. The Nelson family farm, in as he remembered, "One old guy Potter and knew about a local historian, Banner County between Scottsbluff and wouldn't tell me his name, but he took Emil Forsling, who possessed a large Kimball, became the refuge for thirty me in tow and was introducing me to collection of Indian artifacts and other people, some of them passengers on a people and having me get historical items. Osbom looked up bus that had stalled about a mile and a . pictures of them." Forsling, and used the time to view half away and had been pulled in by The City of San Francisco remained in his collection. The following month, tractor.I6 Kimball for the duration of the storm. E. Roland Hamman, chairman of the At the Sioux Ordnance Depot, some On Monday night the train became ever Union Pacific Board of Directors, wrote four miles north of US. 30 and about colder as steam lines froze and the heating to congratulate Peny Osborn saying "I nine miles west of Sidney, almost a system failed. A steam engine amved have seen several of your co-passengers thousand people were snowbound, and from Sidney on Tuesday to provide heat and some of the operating men all of the electricity had failed. Indeed, there for the City ofSan Francisco. It, too, whom reported to the same effect, that were scant comforts for workers who soon froze, and no one could stay on your common sense and initiative were lived in apartments at the depot. The the train. With the help the train crew, of great value in the emergency." dry, winddriven snow filtered under Henrickson, and other townspeople, Hamman told Seitz, "I learned at first the rafters or through crevices around the passengers were taken to the hand in San Francisco that he [Osborn] windows and drifted up around windows, Kimball Hotel and the Wheat Growers had been very helpful with the passen- keeping out daylight. One depot apart- Hotel. They slept wherever they could, gers and I thought it appropriate to ment dweller, Frank Bataillon, recalled a day-night shift system governing the acknowledge it."I4 that he and his wife had been well sup use of hotel beds. The dining car staff Toward the end of the Kimball plied with coal and wood before the put the closed hotel dining room back odyssey, Art Henrickson got a better storm hit. He invited neighbors needing in operation, while the Kimball Cafe did clue about Life magazine's interest in fuel to use his supply, and in a few days round-theclock business. Some passen- the story. "I went back to the depot and it was exhausted. Some residents used gers stayed at the Servicemen's Center the old guy that had helped me line up their furniture for fuel, a measure that and in private homes, and seven of people for pictures was sitting on the would be repeated in at least a few them joined in renting a house. front steps. He finally told me who he other isolated rural homes in the next On the evening of January 5 a was. The father of Henry Luce, publisher month. When the electricity failed, the passenger, A. Perry Osborn, first vice of Time and Life.n Bataillons had made "jars of stewnof their resident of the American Museum of On the evening of Thursday, January 6, groceries, which they refrigerated in ~aturalHistory in New York, reportedly the railroad opened an alternate line snow banks. The road to the depot was phoned his secretary and complained across northern Colorado via Julesburg closed for five and a half days.I7 that the train crew had essentially left and La Salle to Laramie, Wyoming. The In the meantime, snowplow operators, the passengers to fend for themselves. City of San Francisco, its passengers police, volunteer firemen, local pilots, Osbom was especially anxious because impressed with Kimball's hospitality, and physicians handled medical emer- Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

gencies. As early as January 3 local Red Cross chapters began relief assistance, and a C-47 aircraft from Lowry Field in Denver dropped supplies at the Sioux Ordnance Depot.I8 In the wake of the blizzard a brief thaw, followed by more freezing temperatures, left a glaze of ice glaze on the snow, and Frank Bataillon recalled that a man was dragged some distance on the slippely surface when he grabbed a parachute bearing dropped supplies. Accordingly, depot residents stomped down an area where parcels could land and be easily retrieved. Aircraft from Lowry Field also dropped food and blankets to the tiny community of Dix, east of Kimball, where 175Union Pacific passengers were housed in the American Legion Hall. A state rotary plow and crews, accompa- nied by nineteen men organized by the Kimball Lions Club, brought food to travelers stranded at the Nelson farm. Along the way, they rescued two people who had taken refuge, without food and scant heat, in an uninhabited farmhouse. Gordon resident Dwight Margrave's snow-clearing work suggests the means by which many people and livestock would find relief from the winter's multiple onslaughts. Margrave had worked on the building of the Alaska Highway during World War 11, and he had a bulldozer. Following the blizzard, he was flown to his machine left some eighteen miles southeast of town and used it to clear a trail to Gordon, allow- ing rural people a brief period to reach town, purchase supplies, and return home before new drifts blocked the trail. Margrave then helped clear town streets, enabling residents to resupply their heating fuel and otherwise go about their business. By the evening of January 7, four . .- \ -t- " * persons were known to have died of I -?------_ - .. - storm-related causes in Nebraska, and Frank Battaillion stands on a drift almost as high as his apartment roof at the Sioux sixteen more had perished in North and Ordinance Depot near Sidney. Nearly a thousand people were snowbound at the site, where the electricity had failed .and supplies of all kinds were scarce. Fuel was in such South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado. short supply that some residents burned their furniture for warmth. Courtesy Frank The death of Gordon resident Harmon Battaillion, Hamburg, Iowa Holloman illustrated the peril of high- way travel on the sparsely settled High Nebraska History - FalllWinter 2002

Plains. Holloman's gasoline transport James Moody dug his way out of his truck stalled nine miles east of Hamson, family's ranch home north of Crawford and he left the vehicle, apparently and walked along a drift to check on intending t.0 take refuge in a nearby the poultry and milk the cows. As his haystack. fiis body was found short of trek stretched to two hours, his wife, his objective. Caroline, grew womed. "I remember," In the course of the exceptionally said their daughter Jeanette, then a ten- long storm, farmers and ranchers year-old, "how frightened Mother was tended their livestock as best they as she walked from window to window could, but exposure to the elements looking for him. She asked us to bring might bring more than the discomfort the oil lamps and set them in the window of the moment. At his family's ranch so Dad could see his way back to the near the western border of Cherry house." When he returned safely he County, Cal Westover spent much of the brought word that the storm had left first day of the storm taking care of live the chickens upset and the cows too stock. When he returned to the house distraught to give much milk. around 2:00 P.M. his wife, Irene, who, Unlike the November 18-19 and with their ten-year-old son, Joe, had December 28 storms, the January blizzard helped him for a time with the outside did not cause widespread damage to work, noticed electrical and telecommunications His face was bleeding where it lines. A new Consumers Public Power District transmission line from Norfolk had frozen then the ice had pulled to O'Neill, energized on January 2, away, taking hide and all. He . . . warmed up a little and drank a cup helped sustain power service in that of hot cocoa then went back out to area. Nevertheless, stranded travelers finish taking care of the stock. and emergency conditions placed a heavy demand on the telephone system, Nearly three weeks later, Westover's and switchboard operators put in face was still too painful to shave. extremely long hours. Five Gordon At the Green Valley Ranch northeast operators stayed in the Sheridan Hotel of Memman, Bob and Stan Moreland so they could get to work. However, also spent the first day of the blizzard I Grant operators could not get to work, caring for livestock. That evening, Bob n and Ed Misterick, the phone company's said, local manager, stayed at the switch- ./*, ' . Our wrists, Stan's in particular, r e board while the storm imposed idleness had big water blisters all the way on most townspeople. The Crownover around where they had been frozen Telephone Company, serving the Sargent and had turned a dark purple. My A cow freed from a drift on the Eldon area, had struggled to keep up with the volume of calls since the November face swelled up and had several Miller farm near Belmont, Dawes County, appears little the worse for its experience. storm and, following the early January large black spots which didn't help NSHS-RG3 139-80 my looks. Before going to bed we blizzard, urged its customers to keep put salve on our frost bites, wrapped their conversations brief. up Stan's wrist and wondered what worrying about the cattle, which we The January 1949 blizzard quickly tomorrow had in store.lg knew would drift if they could." After invited comparison with the blizzard the storm, preliminary assessments of of January 1888, even though the two Indeed, on this night and many to animal lo&es in ~ebraskavaried from storms had different characteristics: The come that winter, anxiety about "what pessimistic to cautiously optimistic, but 1888 blizzard was of much shorter tomorrow had in storen must have been it would take time for stockmen to duration, but brought colder temperatures common for snowbound rural families. determine how their herds had endured. than the 1949 storm. Long-time residents Recalling the midst of the blizzard at her During the blizzard and for days after of Nebraska tended to conclude that the farm home north of Crawford, Olive it ended, people who had remained at blizzard of 1949 equaled or exceeded Raben said her husband Spent a good home worried about others who had that of 1888 in its overall impact, if not share of the night pacing the floor and ventured out. When the storm ended, short-term ferocity. Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

A rotary plow and two locomotives on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy line between Sioux City and O'Neill fill the air with plumes of snow, smoke, and steam. Photo by H. 0.Smith, McLean, Nebr. Courtesy Neil Becker, Omaha. At North Platte, where the airport lines and highways, especially in north- of sewice near Marsland, Nebraska, but weather station measured 16.6 inches of central and northwestern Nebraska, it was a big event in Edgernont when snowfall for January 2-5 and an average remained blocked. Near Ashby, in Grant the first train in eight days followed the wind velocity of 41.2 miles per hour on County, a drift some three thousand feet two plows into town on January 11: January 3, the meteorologist declared, long and thirty to forty feet high on the Train 43 was made up of 12 "This blizzard was perhaps the severest Burlington line from Lincoln to Alliance coaches laden with mail and on record at North Platte except for had stalled a plow pushed by two loco- passengers, and was greeted some temperatures. There have been a few motives. The wall of snow collapsed, what like a ship lost at sea, which others more severe but they did not last and it took four days to free the work finally pulls into harbor.'O near so long." Gene Hall, a Box Butte train. Rescued from the drift fifteen feet County cattleman who had lived in above one of the engines was a steer In the meantime, January 6-8 western Nebraska since 1878, and that had managed to keep its nose and temperatures in the blizzard area had rancher James Blundell, who had lived the end of its tail above the snow. climbed well above freezing, but a new in Dawes County for fifty-six years, said By January 8, the Burlington had cold snap put an ice crust on the old that they could recall no blizzard that slashed through huge drifts in the drifts, and additional snow on January 9 equaled the severity of the January 1949 Ellsworth and Bingham area of southern hindered clearing efforts.?' storm. Sheridan County, opening the line to The Chicago and North Western line Alliance. Within another three days, and U.S. Highway 20 were the principal lthough the Burlington and Rock two rotary plows, the best type of snow- links between most of Nebraska's northern AIsland railroads soon reopened moving equipment for both railroads counties and the outside world, and their Lincoln to Denver lines, and the and highways, would open the these arteries took the full brunt of the Union Pacific rerouted trains briefly Burlington line between Alliance and blizzard. A week after the storm, north- through Colorado to avoid the blockage Edgemont, South Dakota. The hard- western Nebraska was still isolated; between Sidney and Cheyenne, rail packed drifts put one of the plows out Mayor L. E. Morgan of Gordon pro- Nebraska History - FallIWinter 2002 claimed a state of emergency because of declining food and fuel supplies. The situation in the Gordon area was com- plicated by.the presence of fortyseven families of'migrant workers-247 people in all-from the Pine Ridge and Rose- bud reservations in South Dakota, who were subsisting with meager shelter and provisions. 22 On January 11, two days after Mayor Morgan's proclamation, Highway 20 from Gordon east was opened. By January 13,the highway was open west nearly to Hamson. A "prairie cow trailn blazed by local highway workers using shovels and a truck fitted with a bull- dozer blade gave Hamson tenuous access to the highway. Just east of Hamson, railroad crews using a wedge plow and two locomotives battled three days to break through a gigantic drift. To the east, between Merriman and Hay Springs, the North Western tracks remained blocked by thirty- to forty-foot drifts. Railroad officials concluded it was the worst traffic impediment on the line in fifty years. The storm and its aftermath also placed an exceptional burden on the crews and equipment of the State High- way Department. County and town crews faced similar difficulties. In the Gordon area, for example, snowplow operators worked from twelve to twenty hours a day. L. E. Wolford, who worked on Highway 20, said "we run that old rotary plumb to death. The clutch went out and the front wheels almost dropped off." Day by day, county road crews would labored to open the thousands of miles of roads that linked rural areas to towns, sometimes ignoring existing roadways to avoid drifts. Radio stations broadcast instructions to snowbound The Chicago and North Western line and State Highway 20 took the brunt of the rural people for laying out ground-to-air January storms. A crew on the line near Chadron resorted to hand shovels to dig si'gnals indicating their need for food out a snowplow mired in the packed drifts. NSHS-RG3139-27 or medical attention. Nebraska National Guard aircraft searched for evidence Governor Val Peterson, the Tenth Air was established to coordinate relief of people in distress, and the Civil Air Force created a Domestic Emergency effort^.'^ Patrol also flew relief missions. Relief Team. On January 12, the day it Before or shortly after the relation- The U.S. Air Force had authority to was created, the team flew to Lincoln, ship was formalized, Air Force planes aid states in meeting emergencies and, and an "operational control boardn in from Lowry Field in Colorado began pursuant to a request for assistance from the Nebraska Adjutant General's office dropping supplies: hay to stock in Winter of 194849 in Nebraska

provide transportation between towns and isolated farms or ranches. Airstrips in the blizzard area were cleared as well as possible to accommodate the small planes that dropped groceries, mail, medicine. and other necessities or flew sick and injured persons and expectant mothers to hospitals. Post offices at the isolated southern Rock County hamlets of Duff and Rose received first-class mail by air. People on a mail route in the Bassett area received telephone notifi- cation that their mail would soon be dropped. Planes also took anxious ranchers to ins~ectlivestock. and returned ranchers stranded in town to their rural homes.24 Aviators faced severe challenges. Some aircraft in the blizzard area were fitted with skis, but operating over terrain blanketed with snow was hazardous. As one Chadron flyer said after a fresh Darrell Holmes of Anselmo, one of dozens of private pilots who flew relief missions, is almost swallowed up by the all-white landscape. NSHS-RG3139-102 snowfall, "We risk breaking a prop every time we land and take off since this new snow came on." Indeed, in the week after the blizzard, Chadron pilots ruined five propellers. Aviators in wheeled aircraft landed and took off from fields blown clear of snow. When snow conditions did not permit either of two skiequipped planes to take off with a rural Rushville area woman who had broken her leg, a wheeled aircraft was brought in and a bare field served as the runway. On takeoff, men held the wings as the pilot gunned the engine. As the plane lifted off the short runway, its wheels clipped a snow bank at the end. Tuesday, January 18,was windy. It was a bad day for flying, but a Hamson youth with a ruptured appendix had to be taken to the hospital in Alliance. As pilot Rolland Quintard prepared for takeoff, it took six men to steady his 5-3 Piper Cub and keep it from overturning Vehicle tracks ending at drifts blocking the lane tell the story of a snowbound Greeley in the gusts. After a nearly blind takeoff County farmstead. Scotia Register Photo. NSHS-RG3139-127 and flying around three squalls, Quintard approached his destination, but he Cheyenne, Kimball, Scotts Bluff, and plies and yeast for bakers in Chadron. could not see the Alliance airport Sioux counties; penicillin and insulin to As in the immediate aftermath of through heavy clouds. He had no instru- the druggist in Hamson; blood plasma the blizzard, private pilots and local ments, so finding a break in the clouds, and penicillin to Gordon; medical sup- commercial air services continued to he landed on a road near town. By the Nebraska Historv -FaIllWinter 2002 end of the blizzard emergency, Quintard had flown fifty-two consecutive days, and was hospitalized for ten days for stress.25 ~erha~sinevitabl~,the storm-related flying resulted not only in daring res- cues, but also in tragedy. On Februaly 2, two men on a Civil Air Patrol flight were killed near Alliance when their plane struck a wire and crashed into a house.26 Not surprisingly, immediately after the storm there was some confusion about what people in the stricken area needed. The Red Cross, for example, arranged for milk to be airlifted to towns in northwestern Nebraska, but the well- intentioned effort went awry: As one visiting newsman wrote, "Broken cans of milk clutter up every small town air- field in the sandhills." In fact, there was a brief milk shortage, but the problem was soon solved. Airdrops of other pro- visions also could bring unanticipated results as suggested by a report in the Chadron Record by Mrs. Ralph Rhoads from the Deadhorse district: In February 1949 a Civil Air Patrol airplane delivering mail to an isolated family near Alliance hit a power line and crashed into a house, killing both men aboard. Wednesday, January 5, groceries Photo by Bill O'Brian, courtesy Helen Hawley, Alliance, Nebr. were dropped by plane to the following rarich homes: Elam Grantham, Alfred Brecht, Nick Carter, Forrest Buchanan and Ralph Rhoads, Sr. The groceries dropped hard and fast. One bundle, the flour and powdered soap [,] got mixed and boxes of matches ignited within the box but instantly went out only to leave a sulphur taint on various produce. In spite of this[,] all ranchers were especially grateful to receive all they could. Mrs. Rhoads later said she was unsure whether to use the mixture for baking bread or doing the washing. On the other hand, a Lisco pilot dropped a supply of fragile glass lamp chimneys to a farmer who picked them up undam- aged from a snow bank. Oddities aside, small aircraft, their pilots, support personnel, and support Following the January 2-5 blizzard, helicopters joined the relief effort. This one, from the agencies, especially the American Red Kearney Air Force Base, was stationed at the Broken Bow Airport and flew Red Cross Cross, did much to prevent a serious relief missions in Custer County. NSHS-RG3139-107 situation from becoming far worse in

124 Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

Throughout the blizzard area, road conditions forced many rural people to revert to earlier forms of transportation. Horses pulling sleighs and wagons, like this one in Anselmo, Custer County, became a common sight. the six weeks following the January 2-5 the Meek area of northern Holt County, there. Dad took the tractor (a small blizzard. By early February, six private horse teams along with tractors were 20-HP Ford), put chains on it, a can- planes and an Army helicopter were used to plow snow. At Crawford, the vas 'Heat-houser' over the hood and handling emergency work from Bassett. need to plow the road north to the the operators seat for protection From January 7 to February 17, the Red town's cemetery allowed at least one from the cold, two scoop shovels Cross sponsored daily flights from farmer to get to town on horseback or behind the seat, and he and I Ainsworth to look for distress signals in by horse-drawn wagon. headed for town. Since we 'knew the snow. Often the recipients paid for The irony of returning to the motive the country' we followed the the relief supplies, but the Red Cross power of past generations was syrnbol- ridgelines and crossed the draws funded the flights, and all told, the ized for the Bunuell Tribune on the bitter only in places where the snow had organization, working through its Brown cold afternoon of January 22, when blown away and only came back to County chapter, funded 301 hours of Arnold Garska stopped his team and the road when we got near Sumner flying by the Ainsworth Air Service. wagon in front of the newspaper office. and the road had been opened for In this period before front-wheel- Garska beckoned for Tribune editor C. J. a ways. I then got a ride with the drive and four-wheeldrive vehicles were Durham to come out, and when he did, 'Bread man' to Kearney, caught a common, World-War-11-vintageJeeps Garska said, "Today I'm doing exactly bus to Grand Island and finally got and powerful Dodge Power Wagons what I was doing 35 years ago--driving another bus into Lincoln. The 'trail' were most useful in confronting the a team and wagon through the streets of that dad and I blazed to Sumner tortuous travel conditions. Horses, too, Burwell; do you think the town is going was used by many neighbors for helped many to cope with the severe forward or backward?" three weeks (tractors only!) or more conditions. Ranchers used horses for Resourcefulness and determination until the army came in with bull- travel and checking livestock, and if were essential traits in coping with the dozers and opened things up. the tractor would not start, horses drew aftermath of the great blizzard. Harold wagons or sleds of hay to stressed George, a University of Nebraska student The need to abandon snowclogged livestock. stranded at home in southeastern Custer roads and strike out over terrain that the Newspapers reported farm and ranch County, recalled how he got back to winds had left in more passable condition people arriving in Hay Springs on horse- school: undoubtedly governed travel across the back, and a few also used sleighs. In blizzard belt. As an observer in the Lone early February, horses pulling wagons The local road south to Sumner Star area near Grant remarked in the and sleighs full of coal and other neces- [northeastern Dawson County] was Tribune-Sentinel,"The men, with tractors sities were common on the streets of the logical way out as it was only and trucks, have opened a trail to town Madison, south of Norfolk near the east- eleven miles, even though it wound for needed supplies. These trails did em end of the snowbound country. In through the hills and valleys to get not follow section lines, but weaved Nebraska History -Fall/Winter 2002 through the drifts across country to town." Similarly, a resident of the Riverview area in the Niobrara River country wrote in the Rock County Leader, "Travel has been through alfalfa fields, feed lots or any place where a trail could be made." About three weeks after the end of the big January storm, the Burwell Tribune reported, Leon Thompson and his wife, of rural Amelia, used an innovative method for making the thirty-mile trip south to Burwell. After arising at 400 A.M., feeding cattle and shoveling snow, Thompson, with another person's help, placed his car on an "underslung"- a low-wheeled trailer used for hauling hay. Six horses pulled the underslung In 1949, four-wheel-drive vehicles were less common than today, and many rural bearing the auto to the partly cleared people, as this scene in Anselmo, Custer County, suggests, used farm tractors to negotiate improvised routes to town, often pulling wagons in which to haul goods Atkinson-to-Burwell highway, and the back. NSHS-RG3139-15 Thompsons got to town. People quickly adapted to the On Friday, January 7, Lois Tomkins with alternatives at mealtime were prevailing conditions. Ann Van Hoff in noted in her diary, sleighs were essential. As Irene Westover, on a ranch Verdigre, Knox County, recalled that common on the streets of Inman, Holt in Cherry County wrote on January 12, farmers with telephones received word County, as rural residents came to shop, We are out of yeast and coffee "on the general linen-five long rings- and she mentioned sleighs and sleds in but I experimented with starter when country roads had been opened. several other entries as well. The Holt before I ran out of yeast so we are That was the signal to scurry to town, County Independent reported, using that to bake with. Starter attend to business, and get home before Inman's main street resembled a bread is not so hot the way I make the roads drifted shut again. Frontier town last Saturday [January it but it is eatable. We only drink Wherever people could escape their 81 as several of the farmers and coffee for breakfast so don't miss white imprisonment and reach town, ranchers made their way to town that too much as long as we have streets and stores became beehives of for provisions, fuel oil and the mail tea to take its place. The old hens activity, especially on the weekend after for themselves and their neighbors. quit laying. the storm, when people wanted to be Some had not been to townfor at Olive Raben recalled a similar situa- prepared for the possibility of more least ten days. snow. The editor of the Burwell Tribune tion at her farm home north of There were all sorts of vehicles Crawford: noted, on the streets and the old hitching Quite a few farmers and ranchers posts were sadly missed.?' We always took a pick-up load managed to get to town over the of wheat to the elevator in Chadron week-end, and in all manner of Perhaps the most unusual sight after every fall and had it ground up for vehicles, ranging from horseback, the blizzard was reported in the Chadron our own flour. . . I always baked tractor, hayrack, wagon and buggy, Record: a farmer rolled into Alliance on my own bread, but soon ran out with a very few managing to make a tractor, his wife astride a saddle rigged of yeast! So this meant biscuits, it in their trucks and cars. And be- to the tractor's hood. combread, muffins. We had our lieve you me, those that made it in In Sidney and Chadron, and probably own chickens, so for a while were town Saturday, with the. . . blizzard elsewhere, people afraid of being caught Ok, [with] . . . eggs and chickens to scheduled for Saturday night, they short of supplies went on a grocery- eat. But soon the chickens started made their stay in town short and buying binge that, in its lack of selectivity, freezing to death. We did not have sweet, -transacting what business was reminiscent of the World War I1 heat in the chicken house, and an necessary, stocking up on grocer- period. If going to town became imprac- old hen can just take so much. ies, and [going] back home while tical or impossible, a wellstocked So we ate a lot of chicken and getting there was still possible. pantry and a willingness to make do noodles. Also, we used to butcher Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

our own beef. ..We had half a beef hanging in an old enclosed windmill tower near the house. Naturally this was frozen solid. So when we needed it, my husband would go out and literally chisel off a chunk!

By the second week after the storm, it appeared that livestock losses, with some exceptions, were relatively light, but providing feed and water to snow- bound animals would become crucial. Where livestock perished or were vul- nerable, coyotes feasted. Sometimes they killed calves, but they also pursued deer. In Dawes County, a longstanding effort to eliminate coyotes may have significantly reduced predation. In February, in southem Rock County, Helen Swanson observed that the "coyotes are so thick and so hungry- looking-are afraid they'll tackle some of the calves." About the same time, a resident of the Riverview area in Keya Paha County reported coyotes "in droves." Around McCook, south of the blizzard area, the coyotes were guant, apparently because there were fewer opportunities for scavenging and predation. The pheasant population was mark- edly reduced, many suffocating when A curious dog surveys a buried pickup near Thedford. NSHS-RG3139-84 they were buried in the snow or their beaks were coated with ice, and many sacks was dropped from airplanes, and Ainsworth, noted that pheasants in farm starved in the storm and its aftermath. in at least one instance freight train country were generally more likely to Sheridan County, where the Cooperative crewmen scattered feed along the line. survive than were those in lake and Extension Service estimated pheasant A baker in McCook provided bread- marsh areas where drifting snow deprived mortality at 80 percent, endured crumbs that were distributed from the the birds of cover. He told residents of exceptional losses.28The storm-killed air and by the bakery's truck drivers. the Ainsworth-Bassett-Wood Lake area pheasants could be eaten if properly Local people also provided shelled and whom to contact if they discovered prepared, and a farmer who found cracked corn to McCook's airport man- "concentrations" of pheasants needing ninety birds east of Gordon gave them ager who spread it by air. In Gordon, feed. away in town. Robert Buchan recalled feeding pheasants became a Future By January 14, Highway 20 was open a Jeep ride with his father and another Farmers of America project. west to Harrison, and the North Western man to a patch of windcleared land Pheasants were especially vulnerable Railroad had delivered a load of coal to south of Gordon where they found 125 to suffocation, but grouse were more the community. Between Wednesday, frozen pheasants. likely to s~rvive.'~Game birds that January 12, and Saturday, January 15, The State Game Commission, sports- found heavy cover and a good supply temperatures across the state gradually men's organizations, and individuals of weed seeds were fortunate, and some climbed above freezing, but on Saturday, quickly implemented programs to feed pheasants survived using farm buildings as towns were filled with winter-weary surviving pheasants, grouse, and quail. and grain for shelter and food. Jack rural people, a new storm with strong In the Valentine area, feed in paper Strain, district conservation officer in winds quickly moved into the Panhandle Nebraska History - Fallminter 2002 and points east, blocking recently Bloomfield, and probably every loaded a sled with sixty dozen eggs and opened roads and stranding motorists. other town in the county, appear as a can of cream. Cutting across fields Harrison got significant snow, but deserted villages; business is at a and meadows, they picked up another Sidney suff.ered only a brief, but severe standstill and card games here and sixty dozen eggs at a neighbor's home "ground blizzard."30 there are about the only activity and trekked on to meet a produce truck On January 18, a new snowstorm one sees. at the highway. In early February, a pilot struck parts of the Midwest. Although who flew provisions to stranded families most of Nebraska escaped significant At the Bloomfield Creamery, H. T. in northeastern Nebraska reported that new accumulations. winds a cold wave Boland came up with a partial answer some farmers had up to twenty-two undid some of the gains that had been to the problem when he obtained a war- cases of eggs on hand. made in opening roads and rail lines. surplus M-29 Weasel, a tracked military From Clearwater, Antelope County, Even though no more heavy snow vehicle that could pull a cargo sled over came a report of a farmwoman, snow- fell, the situation was discouraging. heavy snow. "Chet" Roland, a World bound for four weeks, who filled all her Blocked roads kept farmers away from War I1 veteran who worked at the available egg cases, and then used pails, towns, and business was poor. There creamery, was an experienced Weasel tubs, boxes, and other containers to was little trade in cream, eggs, and poul- operator, and by late January he was store the daily accumulation. When the try, which, along with the checks that using the Weasel and a sled to take produce truck finally arrived, they loaded farm families received for these com- supplies to snowbound farms and bring fifteen hundred dozen eggs, and paid modities, attested to the economic produce to town. In the next few weeks, the woman $550. interdependence of townspeople and Weasels would become essential in The parts of northeastern and north- rural dwellers. As roads remained shut. relief efforts across the blizzard area. central Nebraska that had borne the produce literally piled up on farms. In Around the neighboring town of brunt of the November and December Wheeler County, buried in fifty to sixty Verdigre, some farmers "refrigeratedn storms were especially burdened by the inches of snow, at least one family used cans of cream in snowdrifts until they January blizzard and its aftermath. By every receptacle at hand to store cream. could take them to town. The local co-OD mid-January, routine activities had been About two weeks after the big January made occasional produce pickups and disrupted for nearly two months. Antici- storm, the Bloomfield Monitor (Knox delivered supplies at farm lanes. On pating that a pilot delivering food to her County) described how routine life had January 12, the LeRoy Holcomb family family home southwest of Clearwater been disrupted: near Chambers in southern Holt County would take outgoing mail, Mrs. Marvin Fuller wrote to Governor Val Peterson, detailing local problems: Our road .. .is the correction line & maintained by Antelope Co [unty] & has not been opened since Nov 18[.I Its getting serious[.] all the neighbors are running out of fuel. Hogs are ready for market, we bor- rowed corn from neighbors &that won't last long, [for] we can't get out to buy more. One neighbor is burning green wood &you know how much heat you get from that. They have 4 little children. His wife is in Clearwater with a new baby 2 wks old &he's never seen it yet. She went on to describe how they had used a tractor-mounted plow and, aided by their neighbors with horse- drawn equipment, had cleared a road In Bayard, and elsewhere in the Panhandle, dust from fields blown clear by strong to a point where they expected to meet winds covered drifts with a dirty layer evident in this photo of Lillian Cunningham and her two brothers. Courtesy Donald Cunningham, Lincoln a road maintainer from Elgin. It never appeared, the road drifted shut again, Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

In Pierce County, the Ben Fuelberth family renovated a fifty-year-old old sled and used it to haul cream and eggs to Osmond and take groceries and mail back home. NSHS-RG3139-68 and she wanted Peterson to dispatch housetops. Ranchers in southern Rock some work on Highway 183, a petition rotary plows to the area.31 County hired heavy equipment from the circulated in Bassett called for a plow to Then, as now, U.S. Highway 183 Dunlap Construction Company-then be stationed in the town so that mail through the eastern Sandhills from building a road near Bassett-to open could be distributed to rural post offices Bassett south to Taylor was the lifeline trails so they could feed livestock. along the route. In a front-page editorial, for isolated people living off the high- The brief blizzard that hit the after- which suggested a grievance that way on county roads. The November noon of Saturday, January 15, left transcended the present winter, the storm had left great drifts south of people stranded south of town on High- Rock County Leader asked, "Why is it Bassett, and the snow and wind in late way 183 and on other roads as well. that 183 is usually one of the last to be December thwarted efforts to keep the That night, a rescue party was also opened in the winter when it is drifted highway open. Bassett was a service stranded. On Sunday a plow working shut?" Bassett residents Henry Canenburg, center for this large area extending into southward brought relief, and private president of the Nebraska U.S. No. 183 southern Rock County, and by mid- aircraft and pilots from Blair, in eastern Highway Association, and Roy H. Patitz, January continuing redrifting across Nebraska, flew in to check on Highway Rock County Republican Party chairman, Highway 183 was a major problem. In 183 travelers and provide assistance to informed Governor Peterson of the need the immediate aftermath of the January farm and ranch residents in the area. to keep this road open. Although the blizzard came word that drifts reached Although a rotary plow had done governor replied that the state was Nebraska History -Fallminter 2002 doing its best in allocating clearing spot-why it looks like the Chicago equipment, Canenburg was not satisfied. terminal.' On January 25, he told Peterson, "We On January 19 the line was open to are getting the run-around on Highway Omaha, but new drifting jeopardized 183 south'of Bassett," a comment that movement east from Chadron, west to stung the governor. Casper, Wyoming, and north to Rapid The same day Canenburg wrote, a City. By the end of January the line was rotary plow reached Bassett and, with still drifting shut, especially in northern other equipment, began working south Cheny County. One westbound passenger on U.S. 183. The following week, how- train reached Gordon in the week after ever, Canenburg complained, "Highway January 27, and in the month after the 183 north of Bassett has not been January 2 blizzard, the town had rail opened for weeks." The governor now service only on three days. As February seemed tired of his complaints. Tenu- began, a thousand freight cars were tied ous travel on Highway 183 south now up at Long Pine and points east, and not was possible, a situation apparently till February 16 did the westbound train similar to that which had prevailed some arrive in Gordon on time. On February 17 two weeks earlier. Matters were slow to Harrison anticipated its first passenger improve, and the Leader continued to train since New Year's Day. discuss what it perceived as a failure of The C&NW's woes were not limited the state to meet its road maintenance to the northern line. After December 28 obligations in Rock County. As publisher the branch between Scribner and Clifford Buckendorf put it on February Forty-one inches of snow and strong Oakdale was at times burdened with up 10, "This county has less than 100 miles winds made opening rail lines a daunting to seven inches of ice. Albion was with- of highway and still they are blocked task, taxing both men and machines. out rail service from January 1 until the NSHS-RG3139-25 with the exception of about 10 miles." night of February 9, when a train pulled As he had done earlier, he contended the first North Western train since the in from Oakdale to the north. Subse that much more attention was being big blizzard-only a plow and work quent drifting interrupted service on this given to the highway north from cars-pulled into Gordon from the west, branch, and the C&NW line east from Ainsworth than was being given to followed the next day by three cars of Albion remained completely closed. In Highway 183. coal. East of Gordon, the town of Cody, its struggle to restore service, the C&NW The Ainsworth Star-Journal saw local population 375, in northern Cherry tried everything from sophisticated power highway maintenance in a different County, was the focal point for C&NW's equipment to men hacking away at the light. In late January, it reported that attack on the drifts. As the Sheridan ice with picks. Finally, on February 23, State Highway 7 north from Ainsworth County Star reported, workers chiseled through a six-and-one had been given snowclearing priority in The equipment strung over the half-mile stretch linking Humphrey and order to open access to Norden. Except tracks in this small town told the Creston, and the tracks east from Albion for one period of about seven hours, the story of the perseverance and 'hard- were opened.32 highway to that Keya Paha County ham- ships' of these crews. Thirteen snow Similarly, the Chicago, Burlington let had been blocked continuously plows-eleven of them broken and Quincy Railroad line from Sioux since December 31, and the public down from the 40-foot, icepacked City to O'Neill had been blocked since school's coal supply was being rationed drifts; diesel engines, steam before New Year's Day. Wind had filled out to residents. Moreover, the paper engines-out of oil and none avail- deep cuts with upwards of thirty feet of detailed the tremendous amount of over- able; wreckers sent in from as far snow. On December 31, a short distance time work by State Highway Department away as Des Moines, . . .some of east of O'Neill, two locomotives driving employees. the railroad's biggest equipment, a plow were almost through a drift some Despite the new storms, crews were scrapers, cabooses, living quarters, eighteen hundred feet long and twenty beginning to make progress clearing the cars, and numerous other pieces of feet deep when they derailed. A work Chicago and North Western line across equipment picked up at intervals- train sent from Sioux City was marooned northern Nebraska. On Sunday night, all gathered in these few miles of at Page on January 3, and the arrival of January 16, they won a tenday struggle track. One trainman remarked, 'In the blizzard and the subsequent ice against the drifts between Hay Springs 44 years of railroading, I've never problem assured that the CB&Q snarl and Rushville. At 5:45 P.M. on Monday, seen so much equipment in one east of O'Neill would not soon be Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

across southwestern Nebraska to Sterling, Colorado, was blocked, and as towns along this branch ran out of coal, they appealed to the governor to intercede with the railroad and persuade it to clear the tracks. Some believed the delay related to the railroad's effort, then underway, to gain regulatory approval for ending passenger service on the branch. The Burlington vigorously denied the accu~ation.~~ From Omaha, Samuel Fee, general manager for the CB&Q1soperations west of the Missouri River, wired detailed daily reports to the governor on the status of the company's lines. On January 18, he wrote: As of 4:00 P.M. date we have 513 miles of track in the state of Nebraska, exclusive of the Holdregesterling line, blocked with snow, ice, and Inching down the tracks between Chadron and Whitney, Dawes County, Chicago sand. The drifts range from four to and North Western locomotive 2320 makes slow progress behind a plow and a thirty five feet deep and are so solid track-clearing crew. NSHS-RG3139-29 as to almost defy our continuous efforts to dig through them with untangled. In early February, with the necessities such as coal and livestock mechanical plows. The Chicago, line still blocked, coal was rationed at feed, but the CB&Q could not promise Burlington and Quincy owns but 3 Page. Mayor H. A. Phillips when the line would rotary plows. We have rented one The railroad took the unusual step of be open. On January 20, the town from one of our neighboring lines. hiring a private contractor to help bull- sought help from Governor Peterson. All four of them have been in doze the O'Neill line open. They also A rotary plow stalled in a drift near continuous operation day and tried dynamite, but in one of nature's Greeley, and a wedge plow sent to free night since January 2nd. paradoxes, the drifts that were too hard- it also stalled, marooning both work packed for railroad plows were not trains and at least sixty crewmembers. He also claimed that the Holdrege- dense enough for explosives to be Not until the morning of January 31 Sterling line was getting special effective. Not until February 25 did a would a rotary plow, followed by a attention?' Burlington work train reach O'Neill and special train carrying oil, coal, and feed, By January 20, the track was cleared service to Sioux City resume. The rail- reach B~rwell.~ to the west beyond Curtis and people road reported its labor cost for the job A parallel CB&Q branch running along the eastern part of the line could at about a thousand dollars per mile.33 northwest from Palmer to Sargent was anticipate the restoration of service.38. Burwell, a town of about fourteen blocked until February 3, when four However, two weeks later, referring to hundred at the end of a Burlington locomotives pushing a plow brought a the work on a stretch of line in south- branch running northwest from Aurora, load of coal to Sargent. Operating con- western Nebraska, Fee noted, "The had been without rail service since ditions remained difficult. On February progress is slow due to the plows en- December 23. The line ran through hilly 5 what the Sargent paper called "a near countering considerable dirt frozen in country where snow blocked many real train" pulled into town with addi- the snow." As elsewhere in the stom cuts, particularly between Greeley and tional coal and other goods, its two area, cuts were especially vulnerable, Burwell, and the railroad could not locomotives pushing a snowplow. The and Burlington workers were shoveling deliver the fuel oil the town relied on to crew, "nearly stupid from loss of sleep," them open by hand. A snowplow crew- run its light and water plant. Fortunately, would get only eight hours off before man who had been clearing tracks the southbound highway was open and going back to work?= since 1915 said that obstruction of the some fuel could be brought in by truck. South of the main blizzard area, the "high line" was the worst in his The railroad was essential for other bulky Burlington's "high line" from Holdrege rnem0ry.3~Although no disastrous con- Nebraska History - FallIWinter 2002

After weeks without classes, most schools were open again by mid-February. At District 156 near Chambers, Holt County, February 17, 1949, returning students are (I. to r.) Nyal Rowse, Bobby Gartner, Betty Gartner, Hope Martin, Carolyn Wintermote, and Ann Mae Gartner. NSHS-RG3139-77 sequences of the fuel shortages were on its branches north of the Platte River, people died in Holt County from reported, the disruption of rail service and on the Keamey-to-Stapleton branch weather-related causes. Two of the brought delays in postal service. At last, the amazing capacity of ice and snow to deaths were especially poignant. At his on February 7, the line was opened all thwart the determination of men with home southwest of Atkinson, eighty- the way to Sterling. their powerful machines spelled tragedy. seven-year-old Lewis Slaymaker became At various times in January and early On January 18, a Union Pacific train seriously ill. It took more than a day for February Burlington lines south and east comprised of a wedge plow, two engines, a twenty-person rescue group using a of the main storm area were also plagued a ballast car filled with rock, and a snowplow and shovels to reach his by blocked tracks. On January 29, the caboose was moving west in an attempt home. He died in the Stuart hospital CB&Q reported that twelve Nebraska to reopen the line to Stapleton. Near some twelve hours after being rescued. branches in addition to the O'Neill, Hoagland, Logan County, the train A resident of the area since 1879, Burwell, Sargent, and Holdrege-Sterling slammed into a fourteen-foot drift and Slaymaker had witnessed the loss of lines were blocked.40 derailed. The plow jackknifed into the many of his family's cattle in the By February 7 only three southem two locomotives and a brakeman in the blizzard of 1888. Nebraska branches remained at least second engine was killed. Wind and South of O'Neill, a neighbor checking partly closed, but on February 18, rotary drifting snow made the recovery of the on the plight of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence plows were still working between Sutton body, the rescue of an injured crewman, Kiltz discovered Mrs. Kiltz dead in the and York and between Bladen and and cleanup work slow and arduous. snow between the house and the barn, Holdrege. In late February, with all To the east, on the Union Pacific and her husband dead in the barn. branches open, Fee said, "Nowhere in branch from Columbus to Spalding, two Apparently she had become worried the entire 100 years of the existence of blizzard-related derailments impaired or about his long absence and had died the Burlington railroad is there any blocked operations on the upper part of while looking for him. record of a storm so severely intense, the line until February 14."' prolonged and widespread as we've The hard conditions also were locked roads kept many rural experienced in the past three months." 41 dangerous for elderly rural residents. Bschools closed and made it difficult The Union Pacific also had trouble Within two days in late January, four for students from the country to get to Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska town to attend high school. Some rural Bennett suggested that some teachers Another family was worried about students who did reach town stayed were not exercising proper diligence in their seventh and eighth grader[s] with relatives or friends, but attendance getting back to their schools, and noted getting behind in a neighboring from outlying areas was down for long that local boards could designate make district. They invited their teacher after the big storm. More than two up days. For Margaret Pruss and her along with me to come stay in their weeks after the blizzard the Hamson pupils who had been nearly stranded at house and have school. It was so Sun reported that some of the boys the Bredehoeft School in Holt County much fun having school in the living might have been absent because they during the November storm, the heart room of their house! The four of us were helping tend livestock weakened of the winter extended their Christmas "played" school for a week, as I by the weather. In early February, holiday until February 15. Pruss recalled recall and the road was then opened Gertrude M. Banks, Garfield County that County Superintendent Elja so we could get to our own school superintendent of schools, reported, McCullough directed that rural schools the following week. The teacher for would make up classes on Saturdays, the neighboring district was a cousin Blizzards and no school in the and teachers would be docked half of mine, Miss Thelma Young. rural districts in Garfield County is their salaries for days missed. no longer news. Two-thirds or more A well-publicized story of such In fact, some rural schools functioned of these schools have been closed adaptation came from the remote with varying degrees of success, and the past month. The County Sandhills country midway between teachers provided noteworthy examples Superintendent has been unable to Ashby and Gordon. On January 19, of adaptation to adversity. Irma Fodge, even contact a number of teachers. when travel conditions closed her who taught near Alliance, gave assign- What were once roads have no Happy Hollow School, the teacher, ments to her students by telephone. resemblance [sic] now as drifts of Cecilia Sandoz, had at least a partial Three teachers who lived in Alliance various weird shapes and sizes that solution. She boarded at the Cal and but taught at drifted-in country school- are unbelievable, block these roads. Irene Westover ranch, and, as Irene houses, taught classes in their own School boards in the majority of wrote, "Celia and [the] boys walked to . . . homes. A farmhouse basement served cases have ruled that it is neither school and brought the books home on as a classroom for at least two weeks for safe for teachers or pupils to walk the toboggan. We'll have school in the Mrs. Jack Minion and her Box Butte to school. front room now." Although the Westover's County District 46 pupils. Another supply of heating oil was running low, At least one Garfield County school teacher, Alice Brenneman, prepared their home remained the school for remained closed for five weeks because assignments that were mailed or carried more than three weeks. of the weather and impassable roads. to the twenty-two students, including Typically, eight of the thirteen children No state law governed weather- seven eighth graders, of Garfield attended, three of them Westover related school closings, so the State County's Rosehill School. youngsters and two others who resided Department of Public Instruction ruled By the third week in February, most at the Westover home during the diffi- that a statute on school closings during children were back in school, and cult travel period. Three students made epidemics was applicable to the current teachers were struggling "to make up for the trek to and from their home, but the situation. The law provided that teachers lost time." Holt County schools were remaining five lived too far away for a would be fully paid for the time schools especially hard-hit. Lolajean Ickes, who daily trip in those conditions. In 1954, were closed, and that lost instructional taught near Star, northeast of O'Neill, Man Sandoz, Cecilia's aunt, published days would not have to be made up. found the drifts around her school so Winter Thunder, a novella inspired by However, on February 2, F. B. Decker, formidable that she held classes in the the epi~ode."~ director of the Department of Public home where she boarded.43 As the teacher for Platte County Instruction, announced that he had In the same area, thirteen-year-old District 17 in the Shell Creek Valley received "a number of reports that far Alice Young (now Alice Young Compton northwest of Platte Center near the too many teachers, board members and Tomkins) whose school would not meet southeastern edge of the blizzard area, pupils are abusing the epidemic ruling." for six weeks, became anxious about Jo Eberly also experienced the severity He declared that school boards would how she would fare in the eighth grade of the winter. She boarded with a farmer decide whether to make up lost time county examination in the spring. Her and his wife not far from the school, due to teacher absence, and suggested teacher, Mrs. William Murphy, sent Alice which had twelve pupils. The telephone that teachers should agree to make up extensive study materials-delivered on was basic to school operations: some of the lost days without pay. horseback. Toward the end of the snow- Later, when roads were opened, bound period, Alice had an unusual The school board advised me Sheridan County Superintendent Jennie experience: when possible by phone. A party- Nebraska History - Fallminter 2002

line ring would let the students night. One time my friend Vicki Sue experienced the winter of 1948-49 in know school was open. Should the Hutton was snowed in a couple of Nebraska. Nowhere was the plight of phone system be out 1would hike days before she could go back to humans in a cruel environment bleaker to the school, light the fuel oil heat- her home in Inman .. . More fun! than around Gordon, where some three ing stove and hoist the U.S. flag for Roger and I would go outside and hundred snowbound Indians, most of anyone to see that school was on. whom had been employed in the area as migrant workers, had been subsisting Eberly gave assignments by tele- on donated potatoes and frozen cattle. phone, paying particular attention to For fuel they burned old tires, donated reading, spelling, and mathematics. If railroad ties, and coal.JS the school's pump froze, a farmer pro- Robert Buchan, recalling the 125 vided a bucket of drinking water and pheasants that he had helped collect, also helped clear snow from the paths said, to the privies. Eberly recalled, "The students carved steps down to the nec- We took the pheasants to the kary rooms as the snow piled deeper." Indian camp that was east of the For rural schools, as with blizzard- sale barn and told them to be sure area residents generally, heating fuel to thaw them and bleed them had to be conserved. At the Platte before they attempted to cook County District 17school: them. I remember that the tents were sheathed with ice, but they We used #3 fuel oil from a large seemed fairly snug since they had storage tank outside the school stoves. Just before we got to the building. We never ran out but we camp a local grocer, Mr. Ferd didn't use high heat long. We sat Shald, had delivered a beef to the the smallest, younger students near- camp and other groceries. est the fire. Once the building was entirely under the drifted snow it Their hardships became even more was snug. Perhaps we had a year's evident when two newborn babies died. worth of fuel.on hand. Most of the Indians, some of whom claimed to be residents of Gordon, were Coal was still commonly used for living in shacks and tents, and working heating. When the Willow Springs In spite of the disruption it caused, many at whatever odd jobs they could find!= School near Burwell finally opened, a children, including Jerry and Lorraine Greenwood of rural Whiteclay, Sheridan A Rushville area couple gave food shortage of coal made it necessary to County, thought the blizzard was a grand dismiss children early, but they were and shelter to two families who had adventure. NSHS-RG3139-36 been picking corn at their farm when given homework. the Indians' tents and cars were buried For rural children, the experience of climb on the huge drifts when it in the snow. The Gordon Journal paid being out of school for a long time must wasn't snowing. We could get on the medical expenses for an Indian have been an especially notable memory. top of buildings by climbing on child whose father was wary of govern- Linelle Tompkins (now Linelle Kelley), some of the drifts. We also made ment help at the reservation. the eight-and-a-half-year-old daughter tunnels. We tagged along with Dad At Gordon, a mayor's committee and of Harvey and Lois Tompkins, who whenever we could. We also had a the Red Cross also aided the migrants, the ranched near Inman, did not like being lot of family fun.. . card and board Red Cross purchasing groceries from out of school for six weeks, but the rest games, singing around the piano, local stores for distribution to the Indian of her experience was fine. For her, the putting jigsaw puzzles together. families. The expense prompted winter was "a great adventure": Roger and I also made forts in the Gordon's leaders to seek help from It was great fun to bundle up, sit house by putting blankets on card Lincoln, the Pine Ridge Indian Agency, on the bales of hay in the wooden' tables and furniture. Mother must and Washington. Basic to such requests sled my Dad and the hired man have had lots of patience! was the argument that Native people made, and go to town. My brother from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Roger and I liked to go whenever f course, memories of hardship, reservations in South Dakota were not we got the chance, and it was fun 0struggle, and some tragedy dominate a local respon~ibility.4~ to bring a friend home to stay over- the composite picture of how people In the Alliance area, 225 to 250 Sioux Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

A drifted road at the Lester Broadfoot ranch near Halsey, Thomas County. By mid- On January 24, 1949, after hearing reports January as rural residents continued to struggle with drifted roads, and as food, fuel, from the field and observing conditions by and livestock feed supplies were exhausted, it became obvious that state and local air, Gov. Peterson (right) appealed for governments could not handle the situation alone. NSHS-RG3139-87 federal help. NSHS-RG3139-114

were aided by the Box Butte County Red Peterson was not impressed with the state had two dozen rotary plows, six Cross, an Alliance grocery store, and the extent of the aid, which he later described acquired only the previous week, work- Alliance Times-Herald. Local residents as "simply stinky." Senator Kenneth S. ing round the clock. Peterson was also contributed to the relief effort, and Wherry of Nebraska shared this view.4g mindful of the additional challenge of more help came from people in Lincoln Joe W. Leedom, Jr., editor of the clearing county roads, and from this and Illinois. In January, Box Butte County Gordon Journal, wrote, "Reservation meeting came the prospect of a legisla- provided the nieager sum of $179.80 in lands will support but a quarter of the tive appropriation to aid county relief to nineteen non-resident Native Oglala Sioux population." Leedom governments in this task. Adding to the American families totaling 114 persons. sympathized with the Indians, "America's sense of urgency, were alarming predic- A state welfare official, speaking of the own DPsn [displaced persons], who tions for the livestock industry if hay were general plight of Indians in Nebraska, lacked money to provide for their needs, not delivered to snowbound anirnal~.~' said counties were reluctant to give but in a plea for an integration of Native The last two weeks of January were them assistan~e?~ people into mainstream American soci- very cold. Albion had fifteen consecutive Gov. Peterson and local officials ety he hinted at whiteIndian tensions in days with lows of zero or below, and appealed for federal assistance for the Gordon area: "In towns less close to from eight to eleven days with lows of Indian relief, as did South Dakota reservations Indians are as productive zero or below were common through- Governor George T. Mickelson. On and useful citizens as any." Clearly, in out and around the blizzard area. January 19, the governor was advised the High Plains of Nebraska and South January 22-23 brought snow to western that the Federal Works Administration Dakota, the brutally hard winter high- and northern Nebraska, and elsewhere would aid the migrant people. With the lighted one of the country's most freezing drizzle and freezing rain made help of Senator Hugh Butler and other durable social problems.50 highways treacherous and knocked out members of the Nebraska congressional long distance telephone lines. The area delegation, arrangements were com- s time passed, highway and road from about Hastings east to Lincoln and pleted by the end of January for the use Aclearing became evermore daunting. north to Saunders County was especially of federal funds for the relief of the Indi- On January 20, Governor Peterson met hard hit. On January 27-28, freezing ans in the Alliance, Gordon, and with members of the legislature from rain, sleet, and snow again hit the state." Valentine areas. The funds were the blizzard area and State Highway "Another bad storm in progress. High disbursed through the Pine Ridge and Department officials to consider possible winds drifting snow," Lois Tompkins Rosebud reservations. However, Gov. action. The governor noted that the wrote in her diary on January 27. At -3&=-.z- - -

Nebraska History -FalllWinter 2002

Grant, on the southwestern edge of the blizzard area, drifting snow mixed with blowing dust, producing a muddy con- glomeration. The greatest precipitation fell southeast of the area already para- lyzed: Omaha had thirteen inches of snow, and Lincoln received nine and onehalf inches.j3 The magnitude of the paralysis grew increasingly evident. On January 27, Lois Tompkins wrote, "Heard a telephone call over WNAX [Yankton] to Gov. Peterson & Gov. Mikkleson [Mickelson] of So Dak. about requesting Fifth Army help in combating the snow. Very seri- ous." The next day, "Drifting didn't stop until about 4:00 P.M. All roads in Nebr. shut. 12" snow in Omaha. Gov. Peterson said we have to realize that there might be more snows. No transportation in Nebr. No trains. Communities should organize to ration foods." By the fourth week in January, it was evident that some two million snow- bound cattle and sheep in Nebraska and the Dakotas westward to Nevada were in jeopardy. On January 21, the Tenth Air Force had dissolved its Domestic Emergency Relief Team, but as the weather continued to deteriorate, it was reestablished three days later. To feed stranded livestock the Air Force launched Operation Hayride, better known as Operation Haylift, using C-47 and C-82 cargo planes. Denver's Lowry Air Force Base was headquarters for Operation Haylift work in Nebraska and South Dakota. On the ground the Army was using Weasels to bring supplies and assistance to stranded people.= This Omaha World-Herald cartoon, titled "Another Pick Plan," plays on the ice picks From Lincoln, Governor Peterson used by soldiers attacking the blizzard monster, and alludes to the appointment of Maj. Gen. Lewis A. Pick as commander of the Fifth Army's Disaster Force Snowbound. asked county boards of commissioners Pick had earlier proposed a plan for development of Missouri River dams, later modi- how they were coping with storm fied and adopted as the Pick-Sloan Plan. Omaha World-Herald,Feb. 1, 1949 recovery. In response, he received many telegrams saying that county govem- the governor appealed to the U.S. Army give administrative responsibility to the ments lacked the money and equipment Corps of Engineers and the Fifth Army Adjutant General. With procedural rules to open roads; deep snow and drifts for aid. He also sought help from Federal suspended, the bills passed unanimously. kept cattle from getting to feed; and, in Works Administrator General Philip The Governor declared a state of emer- some cases, long-isolated rural people Fleming. The next day, following a gency in all of twenty-two counties and were exhausting food and fuel supplies.j5 meeting with Peterson, the budget com- parts of seven counties in northern It was obvious that more equipment mittee of the legislature offered bills to Nebraska. Under the direction of was needed to open the thousands of appropriate $500,000 for road clearing Brigadier General Guy N. Henninger miles of county roads, and on January 24 and other storm-related work and to the adjutant general, a command post Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

for "Operation Snowbound" relief Army assume control of relief efforts. der "all possible aid in the disaster activities was set up in the basement The Fifth Army was willing do what it area," a commitment that formalized of the capitol building. could, but such a costly task needed the crucial role of the military.j9 Governor Peterson also asked higher authori~ation.5~ At 11:OO A.M. Maj. Gen. Lewis A. Pick, President Harry S. Truman for federal On January 28, a group of senators Missouri River Division engineer, Army funds to match the state storm relief and representatives from Nebraska and Corps of Engineers, Omaha, received appropriation. The president quickly other affected states sought unsuccess- command of the Fifth Army's Disaster committed money to western storm fully to meet with President Truman to Force Snowbound. During World War 11, relief, and at his request, Congress plead for an Army takeover of relief General Pick had been in charge of the approved additional federal aid. activities. The request was denied, but a construction of the Ledo Road from In- Truman had implicitly rejected a dia to China. After the war, his leading matching funds approach, but as he role in Missouri River dam building gave later told Peterson, federal resources him a working relationship with civilian would be available through the duration contractors who had the equipment of the ~risis.5~ needed to plow the snow-clogged roads In the meantime, on January 27, in Nebraska and neighboring states. as another big storm continued in Indeed, General Pick was already Nebraska, Basil O'Connor, president organizing relief work before he officially of the American Red Cross, notified Val took charge of what he said "probably Peterson and the governors of seven will wind up as the next biggest bull- other western states that the ARC had dozer operation after the Ledo Road."60 funds for relief in the winterstricken By the second week in February, regi0n.5~The same day Maj. Gen. John P. Pick's Operation Snowbound command Lucas, deputy commander of the Fifth in the Farm Credit Building at Nine- Army, met with Governor Peterson in teenth and Douglas streets controlled Lincoln to consider the role of the Fifth operations in an area of 138,880 square Army in Nebraska. miles in Nebraska, South Dakota, and To emphasize the urgency of the Wyoming. Before Operation Snow- situation, the governor used figures bound demobilized in March, its area of compiled by Rufus Howard, Nebraska Operation Snowbound quickly became operation reached 193,193 square miles, director of agriculture, who estimated the world's largest bulldozer operation, including part of North Dakota. By then, that in the twenty-nine counties wholly surpassing even Gen. Pick's Ledo Road Snowbound had surpassed the Ledo or partly in the storm emergency area, operation from India to China during Road, becoming the largest bulldozer there were 1,684,440 cattle worth World War 11. Omaha World-Herald, operation in hist~ry.~' Feb. 4, 1949 $252,660,000or about $1.95 billion in As commander of Operation Snow- 2003 dollars, according to the online White House spokesperson said that the bound, General Pick became deputy calculator maintained by the Federal president was awaiting a report from his commander of the Fifth Army, and Bank of Minneapolis ("What is a Dollar blizzard relief coordinator, General officers and equipment of that Worth?,"

Frameworks of local support were critical to the work of state and federal authorities and the Red Cross. Even before Operation Snowbound began, local and county leaders had formed emergency teams to work with military and civilian agencies in directing bull- dozers, deploying Weasels and aircraft, and assisting Air Force Operation Haylift flights. County commissioners (or "supervisors" in some counties), played an important role in relief opera- tions, as did county extension agents and their networks of people who could be relied upon for information and other services. Local organizations, such as the county Red Cross, the American Legion and its auxiliary, and chambers of commerce, provided volunteer labor. In the Alliance area, the Veterans of For- eign Wars were prominent in early relief Army Weasels like this one in Broken Bow proved invaluable in the relief effort. efforts.'j6 They could haul up to a ton, tow a sled, and successfully negotiate the snowy terrain. At Bassett, the Lions Club designated . NSHS-RG3139-99 an Emergency Committee to work with other states in General Pick's command!" hungry as hell. Please toss her a bale of the Red Cross round the clock. In Early in the emergency, the Red hay when you go over."@ Ainsworth, the chamber of commerce, Cross coordinated its relief work from its During the last week of January and with help from the Brown County Midwestern Area office in St. Louis, but after, bulldozers, Weasels, and Nebraska Commissioners and local Bureau of when General Pick assumed command National Guard equipment were Reclamation staff, created a Citizen's of Operation Snowbound, he provided dispatched. Governor Peterson added Emergency committee to coordinate the Red Cross office space and support portions of nine south-central, south- relief work. To advise people about its services at his headquarters in Omaha. western, and southern Panhandle services, the committee placed a large For the duration of the emergency counties to the storm emergency area, front-page announcement in the local Donald W. Stout headed the Red Cross and the Army established a relief office newspaper, made a "general call" to all work at Omaha. Although the Red Cross in McCook. The services of the Army farms with telephones, and arranged for implemented an emergency organiza- and other federal agencies came in the information to be broadcast over tional structure similar to that of General addition to $150,000 in federal disaster radio stations WOW in Omaha and Pick's command, it left much operational funds, which the National Guard used WNAX in Yankton. A chamber of latitude to its county chapters.'j3 for blizzard relief, and the $500,000 in commerce leader, rural electrification Civilian and military officials who state aid appropriated to help counties. officials, county clerks, and the Bureau made aerial inspections of the snow- The Guard's Operation Snowbound, of Reclamation all helped Ainsworth Air bound area were impressed with the using 308 bulldozers, 49 Weasels, and 7 Service pilots locate specific farms and seriousness of the situation. Near the Sno-gos, also came under Gen. Pick's ranches. Bureau of Reclamation staff end of a flight over northcentral command, and private contractors also brought supplies to the airport and Nebraska, Assistant Secretary of the helped open roads. In early February helped load relief cargoes. Army Gordon Gray said "After what 250 guardsmen formed eight-man When a hay shortage developed in we've just seen in this last stretch, I "mercy teamsn in several snowbound the southern Panhandle, price gouging wouldn't be prepared to argue that there areas, and in Cherry and Thomas coun- became a possibility. To forestall it, was any one alive down there." However, ties, guardsmen from Lincoln operating County Agents William P. Bullock of a humorous perspective came to bulldozers and hay-laden military trucks Cheyenne County and Paul E. Miller of Governor Peterson in an amateur radio brought relief to some 150 ranchers, of- Kimball County, along with State Senator message from his home town of Elgin, ten leaving roads or trails and following Ray Babcock, arranged for hay and in hard-hit Antelope County: "My cow is a guide on h0rseback.6~ alfalfa to be shipped in. Bullock also Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska secured the release of a locally held supply of straw.'j7 A 1950 study by Wesley Calef of the University of Chicago denied that real shortages had existed: "At no stage in the later storm period were there any serious local shortages of livestock feed anywhere," the report contended. "The problem was not one of importing live stock feed into a particular area, but of distributing it within that area." Calef's basic point was probably valid, but he may have overstated his case.68 Holt County, because of its large size and the severe impact of the winter, was a center of blizzard relief activity. At O'Neill, the county seat, sixty inches of snow had fallen since the November storm. Since November pilots in O'Neill and other Holt County towns had provided some links to the outside and had been transporting necessities, and Army and National Guard bulldozers were joined by bulldozers belonging to private amateur radio operators also were contractors. Even these ~owerfulmachines encountered packed drifts they could not helpful, but increasing livestock losses penetrate. NSHS-RG3136-151 were a growing worry. Around 3:00 A.M. various needs, and planes would then information about the emergency in on January 23, Keamey Air Base snow- return to look for signals. The storm of Holt County, one of which was picked plows amved to clear the airport road January 27 delayed flights after the leaf- up by a national network. His office and the runway so a C-47 cargo plane lets were dropped, and the Red Cross received about eight hundred phone could land. Winds and a plow break- quickly added Boyd, Keya Paha, and calls in a month from farmers and down hampered the work, but it was Rock counties to its O'Neill relief work. ranchers in need of assistance. When finished in thenext few days. A key figure in Holt County emergency supplies were needed, Dawes made As the magnitude of the job of opening operations was Extension Agent A. Neil arrangements, including credit, with roads became more evident, the Holt Dawes, who contacted "key men" around local businesses, and he helped the Red County Board of Supervisors obtained the county for information about specific Cross find pilots and guides, and two bulldozers, and private operators needs and to help distribute relief performed liaison a~tivities.~~ brought in additional equipment. On supplies. The USDA Council, a group of In Valentine, the Cherry County Red January 25 and 26, the county board met extension service leaders in the county, Cross, working out of the office of the to determine what specific requests to created a base map of critical roads for chairman of the county board, coordi- make to the governor. On January 26, the Army to use as they dispatched bull- nated relief work. The county board relief headquarters were opened in the dozers. At first, the military commander also provided office space to Army courthouse basement with staffing in charge of Army relief activity may personnel who amved on January 29. provided round the clock by the have been disinclined to make full use Grtension Agent Robert B. Hemngton American Legion Auxiliary taking calls of the USDA Council, but he soon real- established a network of telephone on three telephones from people who ized they could help the Army best contacts to all areas of the county but needed fuel, food, medical help, or utilize its equipment and serve as a the southwest, which was to be Sewed assistance with livestock. "buffern between the military and the from Alliance and Mullen. Valentine's Glenn B. Custer, field director for the public, and he began having daily head phone operator assisted Hemngton St. Louis office of the Red Cross, worked meetings with the council. in determining switchboard routings, with the board of supervisors to develop Agent Dawes worked directly in and the Red Cross paid for long distance plans for an air assessment of four town- some air and ground relief activities, calls in Nebraska's largest county. A ships in southwestern Holt County. even running a bulldozer briefly to plow "telephone chairman" in each area Leaflets would be dropped, explaining a trail to a remote area. From his office he would inform Herrington about how signals to be made in the snow indicating made radio transcriptions that provided cattle were faring, the accessibility of Nebraska History -Fall/Winter 2002 haystacks, and other details. Dwight commissioners, County Judge Eben W. operations in Garfield, Loup, and Blaine Sloan, secretary of the Sandhills Cattle Moss, Extension Agent Willis Thurber, counties. When Air Force Operation Association, helped compile the data. and two other men were the local relief Haylift flights from Keamey Air Force The telephone chairmen also were coordinators. A special telephone was Base began on January 26, Wagner and instructed.io phone the Red Cross in installed in Judge Moss's office for others he enlisted provided directions Valentine if emergency assistance were handling requests for assistance. The for C-47 "Sky Trainnand C-82 "Flying needed. When bulldozers amved in day after the Garfield County emer- Boxcarn flights to drop hay. In arranging Cherry County, Hemngton's survey was gency organization was established, these details Wagner spent six thousand used to rout them to areas of greatest Thurber went to Taylor, the seat of Loup dollars of his own money for hay need. The county agent also surveyed County, where he talked to the chair- trucked or flown to Keamey, some of it animal feed supplies, which would be man of the county board and other key coming from as far away as Wichita. In the daily operations through the first week of February, Wagner also went on Haylift flights and spent considerable time on the telephone. In arranging Haylift assistance for Blaine County, Wagner phoned Blaine County Treasurer Dan Noms of Brewster, to inquire about stockmen in that county who needed help. Noms conducted a telephone survey, but to contact ranchers without phones he

sought the aid of Herb Hardin, a North . Platte pilot, who also flew Red Cross aid missions. Hardin flew over the ranches and dropped notes tied to lumps of coal, giving instructions how to signal if they needed hay. Some recipients did need Haylift drops. Noms said, "We saw much trouble from the air," including seven cows lying dead near one ranch house. The C-47s carried a payload of two and a half tons, the C-82s, four and a Operation Snowbound sub-area office in the Custer County courthouse, Broken Bow, half tons. Along with the crew on each January 31, 1949. Uniformed men are Capt. G. A. Schrader (facing camera) and flight was a spotter, as well as Air Force Maj. C. E. Cross, both of the Army Corps of Engineers. NSHS-RG3139-88 and civilian "kickersn-four or five on the C-47s, and seven or eight on the C- essential to the recovery of livestock men, and another coordinating body 82s-whose job it was to shove the hay once roads were opened, and he was soon created. When outside out the open cargo doors of the aircraft. worked with the American Legion and assistance amved Thurber routed Army Kickers were kept from falling out by Chamber of Commerce to organize trucks carrying feed, coal, and other straps secured to a bulkhead. The spot- snow-shoveling teams.jO supplies to destinations ordinary ter was a civilian familiar with the area, The job of coordinating relief work in vehicles could not reach. As Red Cross who guided the pilot to the ranch in Boone County went to Scout Smoyer, a home service chairman he also routed need. At the sound of a buzzer from the former Army captain and county sheriff. emergency flights. cockpit, the kickers shoved out the In Chadron, the Dawes County commis- As blizzard relief organizations were bales of hay, most of which broke apart sioners determined the road clearing created in Garfield and Blaine counties, on impact. priorities for the bulldozers contracted Burwell organizers arranged for airlifts Civilians on Haylift missions had to to the Army, and the Junior Chamber of of hay to ranches in neighboring Loup sign a waiver freeing the government of Commerce handled arrangements for County. One of the Burwell men, B. W. any liability. The also had to designate Operation Haylift drops. "Tiny" Wagner, would later be described next of kin. Nevertheless, the atmosphere In Burwell, the three Garfield County as "the civilian brains" for Haylift aboard Haylift flights was cheerful. The Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

A Nebraska National Guard C-45 photographed through the open cargo door of another transport. Operation Hayliff dropped hundreds of tons of hay to stranded livestock. NSHS-RG3139-109 Air Force personnel enjoyed the low- Operation Haylift duty. The snowplows flown from Offutt Air Force Base near level flights, and the civilians were and their crews dispatched to O'Neill Omaha. thrilled by the novelty as well as feeling represented a peculiar contribution Not everyone was convinced the they were doing something useful. from Keamey Air Force Base. Haylift flights were useful. As the Obviously, there was some danger in Belying the base's imminent demise operation got underway on a large these missions: two C-47s-one from was the activity at its public information scale, Governor Peterson called the Kearney and the other from Lowry- office. Radio Station WOW in Omaha innovation "impractical" and apparently were seriously damaged when hay routinely used material from the base considered it a publicity stunt. In fact, bales struck their vertical stabilizers. in its evening newscasts, and the airmen the vast number of cattle needing feed Fortunately, both aircraft landed safely sent to O'Neill were filmed and inter- did render Haylift impractical com- at Keamey Air Force Base. viewed by Army newsreel units. pared to the relief that could be B. W. Wagner and his associates Operation Haylift was the topic of many supplied by ground-based operations. arranged fifty-four drops totaling about press releases from the Information Of- Haylift crews tried to drop bales as close 240 tons of hay. Each of the fifty-four fice, and the Air Force welcomed such to livestock as possible, but even if it ranchers in Garfield, Loup, and Blaine good publicity. In an internal report the landed within a hundred yards, animals counties received from 34 to 404 bales. office described a peak in the relief work caught in icecrusted drifts might not be The Haylift program coordinated by the as "the best weekly period that we have able to reach it. Sometimes cattle were Chadron Junior Chamber of Commerce covered," emerging from a situation frightened by the aircraft and bolted. dropped 1,854 bales to twenty-nine "that normally would not arise."72 Dan Norris probably put Operation local ranchers7' Even before the Haylift flights from Haylift in proper perspective when he Blizzard relief work was a final big Keamey, planes from Lowry Field in said, "No doubt the operation did a moment for the Keamey Air Force Base, Denver had been carrying hay to great deal of good in its way. It was a which was soon to close. One C-47 sent stranded cattle and sheep in western temporary measure, and kept cattle from Keamey to North Platte on January Nebraska. Some hay was brought to alive until they could be fed in the 10, made seventy-eight or more drops to Alliance for use by aircraft from Lowry, natural way.n73 towns and ranches. Thirteen planes from and some Haylift flights to the Sheridan On the ground Weasels, operated Kearney's Twentyseventh Fighter Group County and Pine Ridge Reservation area by the Army and the Air Force, were were used to search the countryside along the Nebraska-South Dakota crucial to relief activity. They could move for distress signals. By the last week of border came from Rapid City Air Force across deep snow at about six miles per January, eleven C-47s and ten C-82s Base. According to the Strategic Air hour and haul up to a ton, half of which from Keamey were available for Command, two Haylift missions were could be the load of a towed sled. Nebraska History - Fall~Winter2002

Lighter loads were more appropriate yeast cakes, evaporated milk, lard, and doctor to a rural patient. Weasel crews for operations in rugged terrain. soap.74 also took mail to areas where deliveries Weasels proved invaluable in Glenn Custer of the St. Louis Red had been sporadic. A Norden resident unplowed areas, such as the Table area Cross office, along with the Sioux remarked, "We were kneedeep in south of chadron, a high, wind-lashed County Red Cross chairman, the county reading on February 4th after the plain that was isolated by the blizzard. attorney, and a prominent local rancher Weasel brought our mail. We got eleven Through the initiative of the Chadron arranged to bring part of the 2151st Air State Journals, four county papers, four Chamber of Commerce and the Red Rescue contingent to Sioux County magazines and some letters." Through- Cross, an Air Force officer, a crew of six following their work near Chadron. out the blizzard area, the vehicles men, and two Weasels from the 2151st The Red Cross bore the cost of trucking reached many families whose plight was otherwise unknown. The arrival of a Weasel was a great event for snowbound families. On January 22, early in the relief work, a Chadron couple, having seen no one for thirty days, was so happy to welcome a Weasel crew that they ran outside without putting on their On Februaly 3, a Weasel arriving at Cal and Irene Westover's ranch and tem- poraly school near the western border of Cherry County brought a similar response. Irene wrote, An Army Weasel brought our mail and a load of groceries just at dark. Cal called us and we all ran out just as we were, Joe with a spoon and dish towel in his hands, Celia with paper and scissors, all of us with no coats and it was cold. We got coffee, bacon, breakfast food, beans, yeast and lard. Then Cal got a pound of dried prunes with the in- Road clearing crews soon discovered that redrifting of previously opened roads, like tention of having stewed prunes but this one near Emerson, Thurston County, was less likely when snow was plowed into he never had a chance. The kids sloped rather than vertical banks. NSHS-RG3139-14 had eaten that box of prunes before he got his chores done. Air Rescue Squadron, Lowry Field, came equipment and the expenses of the Air to Dawes County after finishing blizzard Force personnel, and the work proceeded Cargo totals of Red Cross supplies relief work in Colorado, Wyoming, and much like it had in Dawes County: A carried by Army Weasels from Spalding near Scottsbluff. Soon they were joined Weasel and cargo toboggan were hauled suggest the importance of those ve- by a Weasel from Lowry Field. The C. A. to the 33 Ranch southwest of Harrison, hicles in the blizzard relief operation. Hakanson home on the highway cross- which served as a supply center. By The Spalding Enterprise reported, ing the Table became an information February 3, after about two weeks work These figures reached the follow- center, the supply depot to which provi- in northwestern Nebraska, the 2151st ing totals: 28,550 pounds of coal; sions were trucked, and operations base Air Rescue Squadron had assisted 162 15,030 pounds of feed; 10,035 for the Weasels. On the Table, as else- families.j5 pounds of fuel; 2,870 pounds of where, a local person accompanied Around Gordon, an Army Weasel food; plus five trips for repairs and the Weasel crew as a guide. When the carried many loads of milk to dairies, in one trip in delivering medicine. Weasels reached homes lacking addition to hauling coal and groceries. provisions, each family was given a Red In one day, an Army Weasel brought Bulldozers and other equipment Cross package containing flour, sugar, two expectant women to Bloomfield, hired by the state or operated under salt, bacon, oatmeal, beans, coffee, and a Weasel from Burwell took a General Pick's command were the back- Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

Operation Snowbound bulldozers were the backbone of road work. Machines ran twenty hours straight, with four hours off for maintenance. NSHS-RG3139-151 bone of road clearing efforts. Although wetting their clothes you can Army agreements with private operators appreciate what kind of a job it was. provided for two daily shifts of ten hours with four hours off for maintenance, With exceptions, including the contractors commonly preferred to keep gravelsurfaced State Highway 29 south Snowbanks on the Dunning-Brewster of Harrison and U.S. Highway 183south road, Blaine County. As the road clearing their bulldozers running continuously progressed into early February, liberated to minimize restarting problems in the of Bassett, also graveled, the frequent rural residents flocked to towns, stocking severe cold. Work continued every day northerly winds left much more severe up on groceries, fuel, and feed. of the week.77 drifting over east-west roads than over NSHS-RG3139-103 Speed was essential, and contractors those running northsouth, and bull- [sic] possible to make the best time" to quickly rounded up equipment and dozer crews usually opened northsouth reach the Gibson School. Although one crews for blizzard work. In Denver, for roads first, allowing them to assault the machine failed en route, the thirteen- example, the Hutchinson Construction drifts on east-west roads from two direc- ton cargo reached its destination where Company received a request for its ser- tions. Crews found that redrifting was County Agent Dawes had arranged for vices on January 30, and was on the job less likely if snow was plowed into local help to distribute the provisions. near Antioch (east of Alliance) within sloped banks rather than into vertical Northeastern Holt County was two days. Like other outsiders unfamiliar windrows. Adding to the difficulty, particularly hard hit, and the school with the areas in which they were work- equipment weight sometimes exceeded became a focal point for Red Cross ing, "catskinners" (bulldozer operators) bridge capacities in remote areas, which relief work. As Dawes said, relied on local guides. Exceptionally might mean driving the machinery long hours in harsh conditions were around the source of a creek.78Operation The Gibson school in addition common, and the Alliance Times and Snowbound bulldozers not only opened to serving as a distribution point Herald quoted Vem Copsey, who worked roads and lanes, they also plowed-feed- served as a refuge for machine in Sheridan and Box Butte counties: lots and paths to haystacks, and operators, Weasel crews, stranded sometimes hauled heavy loads of relief persons, [and] truck drivers. Roads Catskinners are a rugged lot of supplies. For example, the USDA Council were opened to the school and men used to bad weather and tough in Holt County constructed three sleds supplies stock piled. Fuel trucks work, but this was just about the for hauling groceries, coal, oil, hay, and and bottled gas trucks were able to toughest assignment any of them protein supplement. In one instance, a fill up part of the patrons along the had ever had. Working throughout procession of three Army Caterpillars way. . . and also to meet the others the night with the weather around and four sleds made a twenty-threemile at the school house and fill barrels 20 below and the sharp snow and night trek to the northeast from O'Neill before the road was drifted shut ice beating them in the face and "across fields, meadows, and wherever again.jg Nebraska History -Fallwinter 2002

The arrival of snow-clearing equip- bulldozers and other equipment arrived marooned by another storm. As had ment and crews was probably an even at the Cal and Irene Westover ranch in been the case with rural people who greater symbol of the return of normal Cherry County, where Cecilia Sandoz had managed to get out earlier, most life for fal~and ranch families than was had been conducting school. "Celia just needed little prompting. In Chadron, the visit of a Weasel or an airdrop of dismissed school," said Irene Westover, one liberated rancher spent almost six mail. Around 5:00 P.M. on February 1, at adding, "There was no use of trying to hundred dollars for provisions including their ranch near Inman, Harvey and Lois study with something as interesting as canned, cured, and fresh meat costing Tompkins and their, daughter Linelle, bulldozers outside." Cal Westover and more than two hundred dollars. He also quickly prepared a supper of eggs, pan- his neighbors Norm Miller and Glen bought forty loaves of bread, which he cakes, and coffee for a bulldozer crew Jackson joined the newcomers as guides, planned to freeze outside; forty-eight of seven. "Very exciting evening" said and the snow clearing went on through pounds of coffee; twenty-four bottles of Lois Tompkins in her dialy entry. At the night. The cold but rewarding task catsup; many cases of canned goods; 5:00 A.M. on February 11, they served helped ease more than a month of hard- and thirty cartons of cigarettes. Adjusted breakfast to another crew. The four ship. As Irene Westover said, for 2003 values, his grocery spree would men, with two bulldozers and a truck, The Army truck took all of our cost about $4,600. At Ericson, in Wheeler plowed a new trail through a pasture fuel oil barrels and some of Norm's County, the opened roads meant a busy and opened six haystacks. and had them filled for us since Cal time for the post office, as people sent When bulldozers reached the and Norm were both busy and out their Christmas mail. Via Weasel Kendall ranch in the Niobrara River could not go. The dozers plowed and sled, the community of Star, in country north of Bassett about 6:00 A.M. out our corrals for us too so now northeastern Holt County, received on February 4, their crew members were Cal can quit carrying water to those twenty-five bags of mail in mid-February, happy to get out of the twenty-below-zero two bulls that have been in one of its first delivery since December 23. weather and have some coffee before the corrals all this time.80 The influx of people to the towns . clearing haystacks and side roads. As must have been a joy to businessmen. the local news correspondent said, Governor Peterson and others urged Broken Bow was on the southern edge "We were [as] pleased to see them as farmers and ranchers to get to town and of the storm area, but the local newspaper Columbus was to see the treasured land." acquire ample provisions as soon as editor estimated that the community On February 9, around 11:OO A.M., two their roads were opened, lest they be had lost half its business because of

As rail lines were opened, Operation Snowbound coordinators shipped in hundreds of bulldozers and other heavy equipment. This train, photographed at Broken Bow, was bound for Alliance. NSHS-RG3139-98 Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska blocked roads. To the north, the editor of the Ainsworth paper also spoke of the effects of the winter on business. The difficult gavel conditions for many rural Nebraskans also affected retail business in Omaha. January 1949 was a month of record snowfall, but no more blizzards hampered the work of the Fifth Army in Nebraska. A storm on the first weekend in February produced only brief drifting in parts of the state. Nevertheless, Gov. Peterson added four northeastern counties to the disaster area that now encompassed all of forty-four counties and parts of five others. After a week in charge of the Fifth Army's relief operations, General Pick said, "Operation Snowbound now is down to a job. The glamour is gone." On February 7, temperatures rose to the low 40s in much of the Panhandle, and on February 10, after temperatures below freezing and some new drifting, the mercury again reached the 40s in the west. The next day the temperature reached 50 degrees or higher. The thaw was less dramatic in the northeast, but in western Nebraska Chinook winds The handwritten caption for this photo of H. R. Holcomb of rural Chambers, melted the snow rapidly?' Holt County, expresses the relief most people felt at the arrival of the bulldozers. Nevertheless, Operation Snowbound continued. In the second week of February, in Perkins County, on the from private contractors. Of about 125 into Nebraska. Except in the Omaha southwestern edge of the problem area, men working for the Corps of Engineers area, the snow was not heavy, but new local snow-clearing crews were joined in Rock County, sixty-six were civil drifting and the bitter cold briefly by ten bulldozers and a rotary plow service employees, and the remainder slowed the latter stages of Operation from the federal operation. The news- construction company workers. Snowbound. In two or three days, mild paper commented that the work of a In other northcentral and northeastern weather returned, once again followed bulldozer in the Lone Star neighbor- counties, the work went on with equal by temperatures that fell to zero and hood in rural Perkins County made it vigor. In the Panhandle, the thaw below. However, the second half of possible for people to be "once again helped Operation Snowbound move February was distinctly milder than the driving down the road instead of cross- ahead rapidly, despite new drifting on first two weeks. High temperatures ing fields and ditches." On February 14, February 9. In fact, in twenty-four hours above freezing became the norm in the a bulldozer cleared the streets of (February 9-10), 840 miles of Panhandle central and western parts of the state's Grainton, some of which had not been roads were opened. With the roads open, blizzard area, and while the moderation open since the big November storm. the Rushville Chamber of Commerce was again less pronounced in the north- By February 9, there were 132 bull- and the American Legion post held a east, that section enjoyed from five to dozers at work in Holt County, although free dance "to celebrate the fine job nine days when the mercury rose above ground blizzards briefly halted plowing. completed by 'Operation Snowbound."' 32 degrees?? On February 10, twenty-four bulldozers, On February 7-8, strong winds blowing For the Tompkins family near Inman, twelve trucks, and four other machines across bare fields brought heavy drifts Sunday, February 20, brought a feeling were working in Rock County. The of dust to the western section of Gering. that life was returning to normal, and Army owned half of the bulldozers On February 12, the brief thaw ended Lois Tompkins remarked in her diary, working Rock County; the rest were hired as a cold wave and strong winds moved "Went to church! First time since Dec. 19." Nebraska History -Fallminter 2002

he improving weather in TNebraska allowed Operation Snow- bound to concentrate on North Dakota and Wyoming, where severe conditions persisted. On February 13,Weasels from Ainsworth were flown to North Dakota. Within the next few days the bulldozers left several northcentral counties. "Army Crews Win 'Baffle Of Drifts,'" proclaimed a large headline in the Alliance Times and Herald on February 18. The next day, General Pick's headquarters issued orders for demobilization in the eleven counties of the Panhandle, and in the third and fourth weeks of February, Operation Snowbound gradually drew to a close throughout the state. Inevitably, a few people were critical of Operation Snowbound and the earlier snowclearing efforts. In Washington, Senator Wayne Morse, an Oregon Republican, contended that "Army red tape" had slowed the work. From Clinton in Sheridan County, Nebraska, came the A relief worker explains Operation Snowbound details to Gov. Peterson (center) as a complaint that the Operation Snowbound Fifth Army officer looks on. NSHS-RG3139-115 plowing had been very meager. There were some complaints about the priori- thought was the restroom door at the Nebraskans saw the practicality of ties for plowing. A few farmers in Keya local cafe. Ironically, he was a decorated this energetic, sensible approach to a Paha County objected to minor property veteran of World War I1 campaigns in problem that they generally recognized damage from bulldozers cutting across Africa and Europe.@ could not be solved on their own. One their land. Individualism characterized life in scholar described General Pick as the Most Nebraskans, however, took a the hard-hit areas of Nebraska and sur- hero of the moment, adding, "What positive view. Indeed, Operation Snow- rounding states. In Nebraska, the sense happens in emergencies, of course, is bound drew praise from the people of of self-sufficiency had been evident that the hero battling nature, though the blizzard area. As the Cheyenne through the previous decade in the he be a federal hero, neutralizes the County commissioners said, the Army triumph of a fiscally conservative expectation of self-relian~e."~ had done a "tremendous and effective Republicanism, which portrayed the The military and civilian personnel job." When crews arrived at farms and liberal policies of the Democratic who spent long, cold hours day and ranches, they received generous hospi- administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt night in the countryside shared this tality and, as a sergeant from Fort Riley, and Harry S. Truman as assaults upon heroic mantle. Key to the clearing work Kansas, working in the Rushville area, American individualism. But in late were the bulldozers and "catskinners" said, "Boy do they feed January, political ideology temporarily who ran them, opening country roads, The ground operation had its dangers, gave way to the huge snowdrifts that lanes, farmyards, and haystacks. But the and there were some casualties. On threatened lives and a significant relationship between General Pick and February 4, the proprietor of the Dunlap portion of the state's economy. From bulldozers predated the emergency, store between Alliance and Chadron Operation Snowbound's outset, Gen. having been built to a large degree was killed when he accidentally . Lewis A. Pick made it clear that the Fifth upon the huge Pick-Sloan plan of 1944 engaged a lever on a machine that he Army was waging all-out combat against for building dams on the Missouri Ri~er.~ was adjusting. A sergeant from Camp the snowdrifts, and daily reports of Work on the first of these dams in Carson, Colorado, assigned .to Opera- people and livestock liberated were not the Dakotas had begun at Fort Randall, tion Snowbound duty at Mullen, unlike the exhilarating news of Allied South Dakota in 1946.8' From his Omaha Nebraska, fell to his death in a base- advances in the latter days of the recent Division Headquarters of the U.S. Army ment when he walked through what he World War 11. Corps of Engineers, General Pick had Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

4,985 civilians. At this point, 1,252 mem- bers of the armed forces were assigned to Operation Snowbound. Their numbers included 807 from the Army; 293 from the Air Force; 136 members of the National Guard; and 16 in the Navy. Of course, additional people were under Operation Snowbound command at other times. For example, the total naval contingent included 35 persons, and, as noted earlier, some 250 mem- bers of the Nebraska National Guard were on duty in early February. Sugges- tive of Snowbound's variable personnel needs was the Fifth Army's observation that, "The demobilization phase com- menced before the termination of the operational phase."89 Mindful of public relations, the Snowbound command routinely released figures on miles of road cleared and people and livestock freed. The final compilation demonstrated the magnitude of the undertaking: Operation 'Snowbound' had operated in an area of 193,193 square miles in four states populated by 1,214,592people. Estimates by the field forces during the operation showed that 4,011,184 cattle had been saved from possible starvation, and 243,780 people had been freed from the clutches of the storm. To achieve this end, 115,138miles of road had been cleared of snow by Gov. Peterson (center),in Alliance, receives a briefing from the city manager, Roberts some 1,600 major pieces of equip- W. Laing (left),and an unidentified man in uniform. NSHS-RG3139-110 ment operated and supervised by 6,000 men?O developed the relationships with civil- extending from the earliest settlement ian contractors who, among other to the resent.^ These figures imply the tremendous contributions, provided the equipment The number of people employed in administrative challenge that made needed in massive earth-moving Operation Snowbound between its Operation Snowbound possible. Paper- projects. In short, implementing the Pick- formal creation on January 29 and the work had to be done to engage more Sloan plan gave General Pick and the start of "final demobilization" on March 15 than a thousand contractors, many of Corps of Engineers exceptional contacts varied, but the "peak of operation" came whom had to be paid often. Accordingly, with contractors whose personnel and on Februaiy 9-10 when 6,237 persons Operation Snowbound was prepared to equipment would be at the heart of were counted. This figure included 4,008 render weekly compensation. In a Operation Snowbound. Put in the private contract workers, eighteen comment that belied the stereotype of broadest perspective, the assistance employees of the National Red Cross, government bureaucracy, Snowbound's that the Army and other federal agencies and 959 civil service employees of the official report noted, "In special cases, provided to Nebraska and other winter- Missouri River Division of the Army payments to contractors were made plagued states in January and February Corps of Engineers. In sum, Operation upon a maximum of two hours notice. 1949 was but one such contribution Snowbound employed a maximum of Payrolls and per diem claims were Nebraska History - FalllWinter 2002 received, processed and checks drawn "Observations and Lessons," the Army "Contrary to general belief, a light thaw therefore within a 24-hour period. did point to minor problems relevant to crusting the snow to a depth of two or Delivery thereof was usually made such a winter mission. For example, the three inches will not prevent drifting." immediately by Government vehicle."g1 lights on some bulldozers were mounted Winds above thirty-five miles per hour Aside from working with contractors so low that snow crossing the blade eroded the crust, and an advancing large and small, Operation Snowbound broke them, and operating the other- "pulverizing effect" led to a "'ground had to supervise the deployment of wise excellent two-and-one-half-ton, blizzard.'u95 military personnel from many posts six-bysix Army trucks for too long in Anecdotal evidence implies that around the country. Bulldozerj, Weasels, deep snow proved hard on clutches. low-income rural people generally were and other govemment-owned equip- The report concluded that winter cloth- more affected by the emergency than ment had to be routed to initial and ing was generally adequate. Although were the more affluent. This was obvious subsequent designations. Although some winter eyewear had been issued, in the difficulties of the off-reservation contractors "having more than three there had been cases of snow blinding; Indians around Alliance and Gordon, machines" were responsible for the and the report advised that snow glasses but Native farmers also seem to have maintenance of their own machinery, should be required for similar future had an especially hard time. Theodore Operation Snowbound sometimes missions.% Martel, an official involved in Indian obtained and delivered parts for them. For its work in Nebraska, Operation Snowbound deployed twenty-one civilian mechanics. A civilian employee of the Corp of Engineers in Omaha "devoted his entire time to the making of local purchases of spare parts and accessories for Caterpillar and Allis Chalmers Tractors." Corps engineer maintenance teams from the Kansas City Engineer District were sent to Nebraska subareas of Operation Snowbound and "heavy equipment specialistsn were brought in from various p~ints.~' 243,780 snowbound people freed In mid to late'February, Operation Snowbound shifted its focus from 115,138 miles of road cleared - - Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming to North Dakota. On March 4, Brig. Gen. 1,600 pieces of heavy equipment George C. Stewart, who had taken com- mand of Operation Snowbound when 6,000-man workforce General Pick became Chief of the Corps Fifth Army, Disasfer Operation Snowbound, 1949 of Engineers, moved Snowbound's headquarters to Fort Lincoln in Bismarck, NSHS-RG3 139-82 "leaving only a small rear echelon in Omaha.n93 The report also made some important agriculture.., said. "Nebraska's Indians Nevertheless, Omaha had served as points about coping with winter wind are forced to let'their livestock starve the command center for the heart of on the Plains. It declared, "Snow fences because of the lack of feed or money to Operation Snowbound's work, and the in this area were built for the volume of purchase it." Through the sponsorship massive operation highlighted the city's snow expected during a normal year. of the Aubum Junior Chamber of central location, a point that would be The snow during this season was so Commerce, Nemaha County farmers underscored a few years later when the heavy that the capacity of the snow gave more than two truckloads of hay Army CorIjs of Engineers developed its fences was completely inadequate." to assist Indian farmers in Knox County. massive system of dams on the upper The report went on to make two curious The Red Cross provided the contact Missouri River. points about icecrusted snow. Although between the Aubum group and H. E. In retrospect, the Fifth Army found it noted instances in which crusted, Bruce, superintendent of the Winnebago no major flaws in the functioning of wind-compacted drifts did not break Indian Agency, who directed the hay to Operation Snowbound. In its under the weight of bulldozers, it said the Niobrara area?6 Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

Direct Red Cross assistance to Indians had been especially timely. All told, the organization spent $3,257.06 to help 635 Native people who were stranded in northwestern Nebraska. In the Niobrara country, the Red Cross also spent $378.53 to aid twenty-seven Santee families. Most of the Red Cross expenditures for Indian relief went for food and Indeed, the work of the Red Cross throughout the blizzard area exemplified the melding of local and external human, material, and financial resources in meeting the emergency. On February 28, 1949, the Red Cross reported that it had spent or committed $67,464 for blizzard relief in Nebraska. However, two years later, the American Red Cross completed a final report showing that Nebraska's Red Cross chapters had spent $77,953.08 for storm-related relief. Of this sum, $20,456.53 came from the chapters them- selves, supplemented by $339.73 from "individuals and organizations." The remaining $57,156.82 came from American Red Cross National Headquarters. Red Cross National Headquarters spent an additional $10,432.38, of which $7,139.82 was administrative expense. From this total of $88,385.46, rescue and transpor- tation work consumed $50,356.98,while the other principal categories included $20,070.30 for "food, clothing, and other maintenance," and $5,478.65 for medical -. ( activity. In 2003 dollars, the grand total - would be about $683,300. Of course, Bulldozers not only cleared roads like this one in Box Butte County, they also towed money was only part of the story, for sleds packed with groceries, animal feed, fuel, and other supplies to isolated farms and ranches, evacuated people in distress and, on at least one occasion in Brown hundreds of volunteers did Red Cross County, hauled a load of hogs to market. NSHS-RG3139-108 work in Nebraska?'? Most notable was the total of 3,310 entirely their own money, and some were the most prominent relief organi- Nebraska families who received "Food, funded their work from both ~ources?~ zations, other agencies and individuals Fuel, and Medicines" with Red Cross help. Not surprisingly, some of the heaviest also made notable contributions. In addition, the Red Cross evacuated 104 Red Cross expenditures occurred in the Although it was a fighter squadron, the persons by ground and 156 by air, some northcentral counties that bore the brunt Nebraska Air National Guard reported of them in combined air and ground of the winter. Holt County, the largest in more than 120 hours of emergency- missions. At the grass-roots level, forty this core area, led the state in number of related flying, primarily in reconnais- Red Cross chapters did relief work in families receiving Red Cross assistance, sance and support for other missions. thirty-nine counties, providing assistance ARC funds expended, and local Red Eight of the eleven Nebraska Civil Air ranging from aid to military personnel Cross assistance. The neighboring Rock Patrol units engaged in Red Cross work stranded in Omaha to a host of services County chapter paid the full cost of flew 300 missions or about 400 hours. to rural Nebraskans. Some county chapters local Red Cross airborne relief activity.lw Two CAP aviators also flew 114 mis- received all of their blizzard relief funds Although the Army, Air Force, sions, or 238 hours, for the Red Cross from national headquarters; others used Nebraska National Guard, and Red Cross "at commercial rates." Io1 Nebraska History -FaUlWinter 2002

U.S. Highway 20 near McLean, Pierce County, like many highways and rural roads in the blizzard area, had to be reopened several times. The hiah banks of snow left from multiple. .plowinns - remained well into spring. courtesyNeil Becker, 0maha- On the ground, personnel and hauled thirty-nine of his hogs to market. the military, including the Omaha-based equipment from the Hastings Naval Bulldozerdrawn sleds hauled some Missouri River Division of the Corps of Ammunition Depot helped clear roads twenty tons of cotton cake (pressed Engineers and the Air Force, cast them from Holdregel0 McCook, and Naval cottonseeds used as cattle feed), fuel, in a favorable light, and the military Reservists from Lincoln and Omaha and food from Ainsworth to the Elsmere services were mindful of that fact.IM were sent to North Platte and Ainsworth store, where ranchers picked up the Despite the organizational diversity to establish emergency radio communi- supplies. of the relief efforts, the various agencies cations serving with other military and Bulldozers and operators from Soil worked together efficiently. In its assess- civilian personnel as part of a Conservation Service districts, including ment of Operation Snowbound, the special Operation Snowbound radio districts in southeastern South Dakota Fifth Army called the undertaking "a network. Sixty-eight amateur radio and areas of Nebraska outside the storm classic of harmonious teamwork operators were ready to provide back- zone, joined Operation Snowbound, between the Army and the Air Force." up service if this system failed.'" and SCS personnel served as spotters on Nine officers and enlisted men from A bulldozer from the Bureau of Haylift flights. The Iowa Legislature the Tenth Air Force including Team Reclamation project at Mirage Flats in provided assistance and rotary plows to Commander Lt. Col. Joe K. McNay Sheridan County was used to plow the Cornhusker State. Within Nebraska, served at General Pick's Headquarters. Sandhills roads, and to the east, a bull- the Lancaster County Board sent two "Under this arrangement," said the Fifth dozer and crew from the Nebraska bulldozers to help plow roads in Garfield Army's report, "decisions as to what mis- National Forest (Bessey Reserve) County. Of course, local people did sions were to be flown were made by cleared roads and plowed trails to hay- much to help themselves, and snow the disaster force commander while stacks near Elsmere in southeastern removal expenses for municipal and command and administrative functions Cheny County. At Ainsworth, four large county governments in the blizzard area of Air Force personnel and equipment sleds, built thorough the efforts of the were ex~eptional.'~~ remained with the Air Force."lo5 Brown County Commission, the Bureau Operations Haylift and Snowbound An exceptionally important of Reclamation, and a construction demonstrated that federal agencies with cooperative effort was that of the Red company, served rural residents. When the financial resources, equipment, and Cross and General Pick's command. a farmer south of town exhausted his organizational capacity were essential The American Red Cross and the Army supply of feed, one of these sleds to a massive relief effort. The work of Corps of Engineers had an established Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska relationship in flood relief work, a fact Elsewhere the slowly melting snow that undoubtedly facilitated their drifts flooded lowlands, impairing local association during Operation Snow- travel. Some Rock County people had to bound. When General Pick ended his use hill roads to avoid flooded terrain. Operation Snowbound command to As one person reported on March 2, become Chief of the Army Engineers, there were still drifts twenty feet high, and he highly praised the contributions of some meadows were covered by upwards the national Red Cross and its local of six feet of water. The following week, chapters.'06 postman Ivan Deweese noted that drifts Like most Americans, the most as high as twenty feet still could be seen routine relationship Nebraskans in the along his route southeast of Bassett. blizzard area usually had with the federal Some rural residents resorted to using government was through the postal their tractors to pull their cars to and system. Although rural mail service was from a passable road or highway-an severely disrupted, mail camers were ex~edientsimilar to what some of them sometimes key people in the battle to ha; done in the dead of winter. maintain a semblance of normal life. As the snow gave way to mud, Lois One such person was Harley Smith, who Tompkins must have summarized the served the rural McLean area in north- experience of thousands of people in eastern Pierce County that was hammered the blizzard area when she wrote in her by storms from November onward. diary, "Roads Awful." Smith ordinarily used a Model-A Ford Any protracted winter brings expense for deliveries, but when that was no and inconvenience in street mainte longer possible, he used a horse. When nance. It took nearly two weeks to clear he could no longer get through with a Sidney's streets after the January bliz- horse, he walked. Neil Becker, who lived zard, and garbage collection was on a farm on Smith's route, described delayed until machinery suitable for him as "a great mail man." clearing the alleys could be obtained. By late January, Grant had spent seven ilder weather by mid-February hundred dollars to clear its business M brought some ranchers the grim The March 30-31 snowstorm left eighteen area-a significant burden for a small job of skinning winter-killed animals. inches on the H. R. Holcornb farm in Holt community. About a month later, as At Alliance, a new rendering plant pro- County. Mrs. Holcornb had long since winter's muddy decline brought awful cessed carcasses, which brought some learned to carry a scoop shovel at all driving conditions to unpaved roads in times and bring it into the house at night economic return to stockmen. From the in case she once again had to "shovel Perkins County, Grant's merchants felt Kimball area, the frozen carcasses of out in the morning." NSHS-RG3139-78 the effects of the latest obstruction to sheep and cattle were pulled from drifts travel. Some people contended that the and trucked to rendering plants in snow clearing equipment forming State Highway Department had long Cheyenne and Denver.'07 large puddles that are at times failed to meet its road maintenance Even though the emergency was over, impassable. duties in Perkins County, but town bad road conditions, especially mud, The clearing of State Highway 29, streets also presented a dismal scene. burdened winter-weary Nebraskans. On which linked Hamson with the Mitchell- "Here in Grant," said the local paper, February 24, the Hawison Sun observed: Scottsbluff area, had been very difficult, the streets are just quagmires of mud, Warm weather the past week has and, as the Sun noted, warmer weather with ruts where people have driven turned Sioux County's dirt surfaced created a new challenge: cars. The blacktop paving on Central roads into rutted quagmires making Avenue is fast breaking up." Reports from those who travel Com~laintsfrom civic leaders in travel almost impossible at times: Highway 29, south of Hamson, Melting of [a] considerable amount Bassett &ring January and February report the road turned into a canal about deficiencies in state maintenance snow. . . is causing a rapid runoff of with water three to four feet deep in water. In many places the water is of highways in Rock County illustrate places. Those normally using that the timeless localism in highway politics. trapped in the roads by the drifts road are forced to take to the and windrows thrown up by the Earlier, Rock County Leader publisher prairie and hunt trails. Clifford Buckendorf had complained Nebraska History -Fall/Winter 2002 that the highway north from Ainsworth Missouri did not materialize, some tribu- Albion. Although there were ice jams and was receiving more attention than was taries caused minor problems. In the some flooding in the upper reaches of the U.S. 183 that ran north and south through Chadron area, the White River flooded Elkhorn River, a study of the snow pack Bassett. In, 1949, both roads were gravel, at the end of February and early March. in and around shelterbelts in Holt County joining north of Bassett at Springview. The Raben family from near Crawford led Bob Hill of the Soil Conservation However, Highway 7, the road north made a dinner outing to Chadron in Service in O'Neill to conclude that from Ainsworth, was a state highway, their brand-new automobile, although shelterbelts had greatly eased the flood not a federal route like U.S. 183. the White River was rising rapidly. potential. Although Buckendorf did not note When they were ready to go home the Nebraskans outside the blizzard area this point, the federal status of Highway road was impassable, and what would also experienced the effects of the hard 183 might imply that it should have normally have been a thirty-minute winter. Snow melt and ice blockage received equal, or higher priority. How- journey ended up as a sevenhour contributed to late February flooding ever, aside from the problem of getting supplies to Norden, traffic volume may have been heavier on State Highway 7, and it is noteworthy that as Nebraska's highway system evolved, the designa- tions of the highways north from the Bassett-Ainsworth area were reversed- State Highway 7 now runs north from Bassett and U.S. 183 runs north from a point five miles east of Ainsworth.'OB In a mid-January letter to Governor Peterson signed "Just a farmer's wife," Mrs. J. Fred Christensen, who lived three miles away from a highway in the Creighton area of Knox County, described the difficulty of getting children to school and other problems of isolation during the exceptionally hard winter. She'believed that the county and state were lax in plowing By the first week of April 1949, Ben Feulberth of rural Pierce County wanted to disc local roads. "There isn't anything done cornstalks, but first he had to call in Ed Huey's wrecker from Osmond to pull the disc to these roads winter or summer," she out of a snow bank fifty feet long and five feet deep. NSHS-RG3139-70 said. "There's a month each fall &spring [children] can't hardly get to school for roundabout odyssey "through water, along the lower reaches of the Big and mud. There's two to three months every ice and mud" via Hot Springs, South Little Nemaha rivers. An estimated winter our mail doesn't get to our box. " Dakota. 15,500 acres were flooded in the Salem, Clearly, her lament looked beyond the However, gradual melting and the Falls City, and Rulo areas, and major current situation to more routine hard- fact that the ground had not frozen in damage to bridges occurred in ships for some Plains people.Iog areas covered by the heavy snowfall Richardson County. In early March, As the winter of 1948-49 wore on, from the November storm eased the floodwaters hit the Seward, Crete and the heavy snow and ice cover on the situation. There were minor floods and Beatrice areas on the Big Blue River. Plains brought the prospect of serious ice jams along the Niobrara and Middle A storm on March 24 brought eight flooding. Accordingly, the Corps of Loup rivers. For a time in early March, inches of snow to Sidney, and people in Engineers curtailed water release from the Union Pacific and Chicago and the Ogallala area welcomed a mixture the Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River North Western branch lines were the of rain and snow as a blessing for winter in Montana to minimize downstream only surface routes in and out of Albion wheat. But winter was not over. At her ice buildup. However, General Pick as mud and snowmelt brought a halt to ranch home near Inman, Lois Tompkins remarked, "There are just two things the road travel. Bob Logsdon, a Boone recorded in her diary that Wednesday, Lord hasn't told us. They are what he's County employee, was killed and three March 30, was an "Awful day. Snowed going to do, and when he's going to do it." other men were injured while dynamit- all day & night. About 18 in. on ground. Although major flooding on the ing an ice jam on the Beaver River near . . . No school and phone out." Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

The March 30-31 storm left a path of heavy, wet snow from southwestern to northeastern Nebraska. McCook recorded.thirteen inches, and the Hayes Center area reported depths of nineteen to twenty-three inches with winds reach- ing sixty miles per hour, piling up drifts from five to fifteen feet high. North Platte received fifteen inches, and the Springview area twelve to sixteen inches. Drifts, sometimes twelve feet deep, blocked Holt County roads. From the Sybrant area southeast of Bassett came word that the storm "left a good 23 inches of wet snow." Between Bassett and Long Pine drifts stopped a Chicago and North Western freight train, and three cars derailed. This latest onslaught brought electricity and telephone outages reminiscent of November. The Springview paper called it the worst storm since early January. Near Atkinson, brothers Adam and Paul Dohman, ages 68 and 66, died while The August Hennig farm near Pender, Thurston County. The winter of 1948-49 placed tending calves. According to the the hardships of rural life in bold relief. Even routine tasks such as keeping a path open Weather Bureau, this blow did some between the house and the barn took extra effort and sapped both physical and $500,000 in damage around North Platte. emotional strength. NSHS-RG3139-21 The late season snow melted quickly, causing new flooding on the Elkhom one point in southern Rock County were Nebraskans. At Gordon, young people River, and mud brought a reemergence forced to detour through a pasture roared about town in their automobiles, of the all-too-familiar road travel prob- because "several feet of watern still a pastime marked by "raucous horn lems. "To town with tractor & trailer," covered the highway. Well into May, a tootings," reported the Gordon Journal. remarked Lois Tompkins on Saturday, family in that area found enough snow On a more pastoral note, a Springview April 2, "All roads impassable for cars. to freeze two batches of ice cream. In area resident noted "It is a beautiful Streets awful. Our barnyard awful. We the protection of a few shelterbelts in drive now along the Niobrara River with sink through snow into water." Antelope County, where drifts had once its green fields, alfalfa, and all kinds of This day brought another insight into reached upwards of thirty feet, it was wild flower and the lilac bushes covered Plains life from the Niobrara River country nearly June 1 before the last patches of with bloom." south of Springview. In the words of the snow were gone. It is probably impossible to give an local newspaper, "Every man along the accurate monetary cost figure for the river went to Riverview Saturday with n April 1, Lois Tompkins noted winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska. their tractors, jeeps and on horseback to 0in her diary, "Have had 90 in. of According to data received in the take their produce and to get groceries. snow this winter," and similar reports governor's office in July 1949, the total Also to meet the assessor, Duane C~ok.""~came from other parts of north-central expense for "snow removaln was On April 14, winter made its last Nebraska. Bassett, on the fringe of the $1 1,104,750.Of this sum, cities and stand, as sleet and snow hit south- November storm, had a total snowfall of counties spent $1,865,500and the central Nebraska and points east. . nearly seventy-nine inches; in southern Nebraska Department of Roads and Twelve inches of snow fell at Gibbon, Rock County snowfall from autumn Irrigation spent $1,239,250, four times east of Kearney, and the wet snow and through spring was estimated at 105 to the previous record cost. The remaining ice disrupted telephone service. Spring 112 inches. $8,000,000was the contribution of the brought good pastures, but reminders The mere recitation of such numbers U.S. government."' of the long winter lingered. In the third suggests that the arrival of spring in 1949 A 1994 Sunday World-Herald (Omaha) week of April, motorists on U.S. 183 at must have brought particular joy to article on the state's costliest natural Nebraska History -FalllWinter 2002 disasters, reported "published estimates Wife." After discussing the awful trek to For Charles "Skinny" and Lois Imm at the time put the losses at $42 million- the outhouse, the isolation, the hungry the winter on their ranch between $259.8 million in 1994 dollars." If the $42 cattle that might wander away over Spalding and Bartlett was a long ordeal. million figure-about $324.7 million in buried fences, she noted the stress that As a relative, Jo Eberly, now of Lincoln, 2003 dollars-is reasonably valid, and the situation had placed upon individuals recalled, allowing for inflation, the winter of and upon family relationships. "Wives Their mail was delivered by small 1948-49was one of the costliest natural know when their husbands act grumpy, plane. Their cattle scattered every- events in the state's history. cross, and make sharp retorts that they where because the snow drifted Data on weather-related fatalities in are only overworked, overwomed indi- over their fence lines. At times the Nebraska during the winter of 1948-49 viduals, with dreams dying inside them." only feed was treetops and then is also uncertain. The Dunlap man who Meeting the winter's hardships also the trees were under snow. . .Lois was killed in a bulldozer mishap on probably blurred traditional rural gender made the best of what she had but February 4 was then reported to have roles. Near Amelia, Holt County, Mrs. it was a temble stress on the entire been the state's twenty-fourth weather- Leon Thompson helped her husband family. I don't think my Uncle related fatality, but other storm-related shovel snow from haystacks. Joe and Skinny ever got over the humbling deaths followed. According to a later Lillian Urbanovsky, about sixty-two and experience. American Red Cross report fourteen fifty years of age, with no children, lived people died in Nebraska from storm- north of Hemingford. On February 19, In January, when the local school ran related causes in the early months of Mrs. Urbanovsky wrote: out of heating oil, classes were moved 1949. Adding the six fatalities arising I worked right along with Joe to the Imm residence, but in time the from the November 1948 storm brings every day as he could not possibly Imms exhausted their fuel supply. Some the total to twenty deaths for the winter, stand it alone. It was too much for how, their plight was discovered, and a more conservative figure. The Red us both. Joe and I both lost lots of one evening, Spalding oil dealer Oliver Cross reported that 404 people suffered weight through this struggle and Cox, accompanied by three helpers, storm-related injuries.lI3But as dangerous worry, as we do have a nice bunch drove his fuel truck "under great diffi- as a Plains winter can be, it is noteworthy of cows and we were so afraid of culties," including much shoveling, to that while the great January blizzard losing them. within half a mile of the Imm's lane. was pounding the region, a news head- Charles Imm with a team of horses line proclaimed "Southern Twisters Kill To reach their haystacks and get feed helped the truck get as far as his lane 47," referring to tornadoes in Arkansas for their cattle, the Urbanovskys wrestled where he had brought out his oil tank large logs from the snow, dragged them and Louisiana.Il4 on skids. It was 5:00 A.M. when Cox The seemingly endless winter of on foot, with ropes, to a place where and his crew finally got back to town. 1948-49 placed the hardships of rural they could move them with their tractor. When Imm's daughter, Sandra, a high life in bold relief. For example, adverse They then made a sled with board school student in Bartlett, became ill, weather interfered with routine house- flooring with which to make the half- contacting the family was an involved hold tasks such as doing the laundry. mile trek to the stacks and, as Mrs. task. An amateur radio operator in With only enough fuel oil to operate Urbanovsky put it, "away we went after Bartlett reached an operator in Omaha, one stove in the dining room, this was a some feed." She added, who then telephoned the message to particular challenge at the Moody fam- We have been doing that for Elgin. An airplane from Elgin flew to the ily ranch north of Crawford. As Jeanette almost a month now, as we could Imm home, picked up Lois, then flew to Moody Parsons recalled, only haul some days as it would blow Bartlett to pick up Sandra, and took her Dad brought in enough snow every and be blizzarding almost-every to the Spalding hospital. She recovered 10 days or so to melt and heat to be other day, so it was tough going. in a few days and was flown home. This used to do the laundry. He rigged a I was out working and feeding, episode, an amalgam of frontier-like rope clothesline in the living room scooping and everything else at 24 isolation and modem spacevanquishing in order for the clothes to dry. below zero. technology, epitomized the amazing It took many hours with no source. My eyes froze many times[.] So contrasts of life in the blizzard area. of heat in the room. did Joe's. We would work a while, Some people coped with the stress go in the house, warm up and go and physical hardship of this arduous A woman in the Ord and Burwell out again. I was going to take some winter better than others, but one great area gave her perspective in an pictures of these 20 foot snow banks lesson of the winter was the value of unsigned essay in the Burwell Tribune, we have here all over the place. But preparedness and adaptation to the "Snowbound Musings of a Rancher's I haven't got around to it yet."' Plains environment.Il6 Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

In February, Nebraska Agriculture Director Rufus Howard had said that livestock losses came to some 3.5 percent in the fifteen most severely afflicted counties. Although losses varied widely and were highly localized, in general they do not seem to have exceeded Howard's figure. The worst numerical loss reported was more than thirteen thousand sheep in Kimball County. Neighboring Cheyenne County also had high sheep mortality. Cattle losses in those two southern Panhandle counties were light. The worst cattle losses seem to have been in Momll and Sioux coun- ties, where an estimated 5 percent of the stock perished in the January storms. William R. Main, extension agent in Garden County, found that smallscale cattlemen willingly reported losses, but the big cattlemen did not want to reveal that information. By contacting ranch foremen and other workers, Main pieced together data suggesting that storm mortality in Garden County was 2 to 3 percent. The spring calf crop was poor in Garden County, but neighboring Momll County had an "exceptionally goodn calf crop, given the hard winter. Bloat, a sometimes-fatal condition that arises in ruminants when fermenta- tion gasses cannot escape the digestive system, sometimes became a problem [. >/ when starving animals at last had access to feed. Cattle also sometimes suffered I.:-. from exposure, and afflictions including A romantic greeting-card image in other circumstances, a horse-drawn wagon blindness and frozen scrotums were became a necessity-and yet one more inconvenience-for the August Hennig family reported. Weight loss and extraordinary of rural Thurston County during the seemingly endless winter of 1948-49. NSHS-RG3139-23 feed requirements also were a significant expense for ~attlemen."~ Evidence suggested that farmers and counterparts. Professor Demck also and Extraordinary livestock mortality may ranchers with well-placed shelterbelts generally had lower livestock losses. have been the result of poor manage and windbreaks avoided some of the As James E. Lawrence, editor of the ment or negligence. The huge loss of problem of drifting snow. However, the Lincoln Star, and others noted, hay often sheep in Kimball County, for example, huge snowdrifts wrought much damage was unavailable to cattle because stock- may have occurred because the stock- upon existing shelterbelts, indicating men left their hay in windrows, rather man-apparently a nonresident who the value of placing evergreens on the than stacking it, a practice that avoided was grazing the animals in the county- outside rows of new plantings."' the labor and cost of stacking. But those did not provide proper shelter or W. W. Derrick, a beef cattle specialist who gambled on a mild winter and left adequate supplemental feed.'Ig at the University of Nebraska College of their hay in windrows on the ground Good planning-and good luck- Agriculture, concluded that experience lost in 194849. Lawrence contended, undoubtedly helped some operators, had made older ranchers more mindful "The older and large operator was not as Irene Westover in western Cherry of winter's perils than their younger caught in this fashion generally." County implied in her diary entry five Nebraska History -FalllWinter 2002 weeks after the storm: Indeed, proximity of livestock to fared well, but "2 or 3 market size hogs Now that we have been out and feed, water, and shelter was critical. had smothered to death." Road clearing around and had a chance to talk Neil Becker, then a farm youth near in the Hemingford area revealed one with other people and hear how McLean, Pierce County, recalled that operator's loss of eighty-three hogs. bad this storm was and how deep their livestock had shelter in a large The late March snowstorms, like such some people's buildings were cov- barn well stocked with feed, but keeping storms in any year, were a menace at ered with snow, we are beginning the animals supplied with water was a calving time, and southwestern Cherry to realize that we were unusually challenge. Rachel Greenfield, on a County reported very high calf mortality."' lucky in having good hills for ranch east of Newport, Rock County, The innate hardiness of livestock was protection and good windbreaks of noted that their small herd of cattle had crucial to enduring the winter. Many trees to stop the snow too. Also [we ample shelter, including a corral and a Brahma cattle, their genetic roots in India had] hay and water that we could cedar grove. Stacked hay was readily and Brazil, perished in Lincoln County, get to altho' part of the time we available, and her husband used a sled but cattle breeds traditional to the area must shovel snow to get it. Our drawn by three horses to bring in hay. were much more likely to survive.n2 place must have been ideally Of course, fortune is a twoedged The January blizzard proved less located for that storm. sword. Although cattle sometimes devastating to livestock than might have crossed fences buried under hard drifts, been the case, but the snow, ice, and Bob and Stan Moreland worked uncovered fences could be death traps bitter cold brought horrible examples of strenuously to care for the livestock for animals drifting with the wind. Such suffering and death that mere statistics on their ranch near Merriman. Bob was the experience of a neighbor of the do not convey. In the Sandhills near concluded, "We were lucky that our Morelands who lost calves during the Alliance and Antioch, cattle drifted onto cattle happened to be close to home January blizzard.'20 frozen lakes, lost their footing, and died where we had hills and a big cotton- At the Raben family farm north of struggling on the ice. Photographs of the wood grove on the north and quite a Crawford, a horse died by falling into animals are a dreadful portrait of the bit of man-made shelter. We had water the White River. The Cerny family near tragedy of this exceptional winter.123 available in the corrals and not as many Rushville worried about cows that could The effects of the winter on Nebraska's cattle to worry about as most of our not be milked, but when they dug out 1949 wheat crop were varied. Despite neighbors." they found their livestock generally had the heavy snowfall, fields in the southern

A note on the back of this photograph from the C. H. Greenwood ranch near Whiteclay, Sheridan County, reads, "Our cattle taken on Wed. after they had been trapped in a small gulch since Sun. Was snowing very hard when this was taken." NSHS-RG3139-45 Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

Near Ashby, Grant County, about 150 head of Hereford cattle drifting with the wind wandered onto a frozen lake. Unable to stand on the wind- and snow-polished ice, they fell and froze to death.

Panhandle blew dry, leaving wheat of the milk that military aircraft had borliness and kind spirit of these people subject to winterkill and the land dropped in the wake of the great January in these hills who will do anything to prone to erosion. In the northern storm. Residents became understand- help a neighbor in distress." Indeed, a Panhandle the wheat crop benefited ably angered, and in a short time the common courtesy among those who from snow remaining on the fields. proprietor departed. It was probably no could get to town for supplies was to In some eastern counties outside the surprise that when the bulldozers of bring back necessities for neighbors blizzard area, heavy ice cover in late Operation Snowbound came to an area, who could not get out. "When a farmer January may have affected the wheat, some rural residents clamored for pref- was able to make it into town," said the but subsequent thawing followed by erence in being dug out. The military, Elsie news correspondent, "he would a sudden return of low temperatures wishing to avoid favoritism, insisted that take several of his neighbors' mail with probably was more responsible for anyone in need of clearing work go him, which was very much appreciated reduced yield^."^ through "proper channelsn-the local by all." In mid-February, Ernest Lanz, The heavy snowmelt brought good soil civilian disaster ~rganization.'?~ who had not been to town in eight moisture, an obvious benefit for crops, However, such conduct appears to weeks, wrote to the Rock Counly Leader, hay production, and gardens in 1949. have been insignificant compared to the "I don't know what we would have However, in some areas, the ground overall spirit of helpfulness that pervaded done if you good people in Bassett had not frozen before the heavy insulat- the state, and sharing a common experi- hadn't come to our aid as we were out ing snows came, apparently allowing ence fostered concern for other people's of groceries, fuel and feed . . .Please insect larvae and eggs to survive, leading welfare. In an era when not all rural accept my thanks. . . We will never to a bountiful supply of agricultural pests people had telephones or when those forget your kindness." the following summer.'25 phones might not be working, Ann Van The winter of 1948-49 also was a The emergency brought stories not Hoff remembered that Verdigre towns- media event, the emergency situation only of heroism and selflessness, but people organized treks to the countryside and the bizarre aspects of the weather also of mean and selfish behavior. Frank to check on the well-being of people providing excellent material for newspa- Bataillon, a resident worker at the Sioux who had not seen or contacted lately. per stories. In early February, Alliance Ordnance Depot near Sidney, recalled To the west in the Sandhills, Brewster hotels were packed with reporters, print that the proprietor of the small store area resident Mrs. Dan Norris remarked, and newsreel photographers, and at the depot tried to charge for some "We are daily impressed by the neigh- technicians. A Life magazine "Picture Nebraska History -FallIWinter 2002 of the Week" featured the snow-covered Alliance airport. Nebraska did not yet have television, but images of its snow- bound landscape flashed on TV screens in parts of'ihe country that were in the vanguard of the new medium.

ecause the winter of 1948-49 Bblocked railroads, highways, and other roads, disrupted communication, jeopardized agriculture, isolated people, and impaired commerce, it offers a means for understanding the web of activities that characterized life in mid- twentieth century rural and small-town Nebraska, and reflecting on those details can help us see how key aspects of daily life changed in half a century. For the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, the Chicago and North Western, and the Union Pacific railroads, and other lines serving blizzardstricken areas of the West, the seven weeks from the first of January through the third week of February brought monumental challenges. Despite problems on the main line between Sidney and Cheyenne in the first week of January and the death of a crewman working to open its Stapleton branch, the difficulties C. H. Greenwood of rural Whiteclay, Sheridan County, dug a polled Hereford out of a facing the Union Pacific in Nebraska fifteen-foot drift. Livestock losses averaged 3.5 percent in the fiffeen most severely were less obvious than those confronting affected counties. The worst losses. about 5 percent, were in Morrill and Sioux counties. the Burlington and North Western lines. But that appearance is deceiving, for in the month and a half after the early died in Utah and one in Wy~ming.'?~ been pulled up since 1949 as the trend January storm, the Union Pacific with its The company's concern for the safety, toward highway transport-already well operational headquarters in Omaha comfort, and convenience of delayed along at midcentury-continues. One faced severe challenges in Idaho, Utah, and stranded passengers is evident in need only drive along US. Highway 20 and Wyoming from repeated blizzards the internal memoranda written by parallel to the former Chicago and North and drifting snow. The company later personnel who rode trains and reported Western line across northern Nebraska, described this period as "the most trying on service. Such high quality service now being developed as a hikebike trail, and difficult seven weeks ever experi- would bring envy to many air travelers to see evidence of the drastic decline in enced by the Union Pacific Railroad in of more recent times.Izg rail service. Since the opening of the its eighty year history since the driving The Union Pacific estimated its total Oregon Trail, Nebraska has been on the of the Golden Spike." These problems weather-related expenses at seven route to elsewhere, but the Kimball were at their worst in the second and million dollars, and its revenue loss at sojourn of the snowbound passengers of third weeks of February on the main an additional ten million. By the winter the Union Pacific's Cify ofSon Francisco line in the Laramie, Rawlins, and Rock of 1948-49, George F. Ashby's presi- is a reminder that for generations trans- Springs areas of Wyoming. Iz7 dency of the railroad was becoming continental travelers could not avoid Across the Union Pacific system, insecure, and storm-related problems Nebraska and the Plains region. some fourteen thousand employees probably contributed to his retirement At midcentury most Americans still took part in this battle, and in addition in February. I3O traveled across the country by surface to the Nebraska fatality, three workers Many miles of railroad track have transportation, and the Union Pacific Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

more than 23 percent of the mid-twentieth route and the adjoining US. Highway- - 30, cantly erode localism in education. What- both crossing almost the full length of century population of a large portion of ever the benefits of school consolidation, Nebraska, comprised the nation's the state. however, challenges for education- corridor. The next generation brought The twenty-nine counties covered environmental and, especially, spatial- the development of the Interstate High- 37,734 square miles-just over 49 percent in the lightly populated areas of the way system, including 1-80 through of the state's total area. At the end of the Plains have not vanished. Perhaps, how- Nebraska-again emphasizing the state's century, as in 1949, the largest towns ever, the use of the telephone for giving central role in the nation's surface trans- were North Platte, Alliance, and Chadron. class assignments to some rural students portation. The 2000 census revealed that Nebraska's in snowbound areas in 1949 heralded Today, however, only freight trains average population density was 22.3 the use of vastly more sophisticated rumble along the main line of the Union persons per square mile, but fourteen electronic technology to reduce similar Pacific between Sidney and Cheyenne, of the twenty-nine counties in the 1949 environmental problems in the twenty- where the great blizzard of 1949 stalled blizzard core area had population first famous passenger trains like the City of densities of less than two persons per Although many Nebraska farms and San Francisco. Tremendous increases square mile in 2OOO.I3" ranches still lacked centrally supplied in air travel and the near demise of In 1949, an infrastructure of neighbors, electric power in 1948, the November transcontinental passenger rail service country schools and their teachers, storm revealed a negative side of tech- created an image of ~ebraskaand townspeople, county commissioners, nological progress to some rural people much of the Midwest and Great Plains disaster relief committees, Red Cross who had electrical service. Heralding the regions as "flyover land."I3l chapters, county extension agents, future were the discomfort and inconve- Speedier transportation, both air service organizations, and local pilots niences that rural power outages brought andground, and the opportunity for helped rural Nebraskans cope with to some Grant County residents. At the Americans to gain more cosmopolitan winter's onslaughts. The cooperation same time, F. M. Weitzel, who wrote a perspectives on the various parts of of individuals and institutions reaching weather column for the Albion News, their country have not necessarily made through the county, its townships, noted that an elderly farmer told him, Nebraska a better known place. The hamlets, villages, and towns was "We live too easy, just have to turn a curious stories of prominent New Yorkers essential to the work of Operation button or push a switch." Of course, the snowbound in Kimball, Nebraska, Snowbound and other external sources power outages arising from the November unlikely in 1949, would be virtually of relief. storm brought inconvenience and inconceivable two generations later. A At the end of the century, agriculture discomfort to many townspeople, too, snowbound transcontinental air traveler and allied industries remained basic to and Weitzel stressed the dependence in a later time would find a dull but Nebraska's livelihood, but the "family of modem society upon technology, comfortable refuge at a terminal in farmn and agriculture as a "way of lifen especially e1e~tricity.l~~ Chicago, Denver, or Omaha, but would are far less evident than at midcentury. In the years following the winter of not come away with memories of the The infrastructure of rural societv has 1948-49 came the completion of rural kindly people in a small town. endured, but population decline and electrification and a deepening reliance The rural population of the blizzard the attendant economic and political of all Americans upon electrical service. area-like the rural population else realities pose a growing challenge for Rural people became even more where in the state and region-has maintaining essential services and the dependent upon centrally generated dropped markedly over five decades. amenities of life for a small number of electricity than are town and city folk. Understandably, rural residents tradi- people spread over a vast landscape. If Today, power outages pose problems tionally have borne the brunt of severe a widearea emergency like the winter for many rural Nebraskans that were winters in the central and northern of 1948-49 were to occur again, a solid nonexistent in 1948-49. Neil Becker, Great Plains. and the core of Nebraska's social infrastructure in rural areas would who lived on a Pierce County farm that blizzardstridken area in 1949 was not be critical. did not yet have electricity, recalled that only rural, but included the state's most To some extent, technology is his family had a battery-powered radio lightly populated counties. According answering the challenges. Travel to and and relied upon Stations WJAG in to the 1950 census, the total population from literally thousands of rural schools Norfolk and WNAX in Yankton for of the twenty-nine counties for which a was a key part of life's routine in the weather information. Looking back on state of emergency had been declared Nebraska countryside at midcentury. his experiences in rural Custer County was 195,364. The 2000 census enumer- For good and ill, school consolidation, in January 1949, Harold George said, ated only 149,988 people in the area. which was barely underway in 1948-49, "The major plumbing item was the out- The loss of 45,376 residents represented would in the coming decades signifi- house and it worked fine as long as the Nebraska History - Fall/Winter 2002 door was scooped out. The radio was and a half weeks of isolation in December more powerful tractors with heated battery operated and we got along with and January. During much of this time, cabs and snow-clearing equipment have that. As a result we were not tembly their telephone was inoperative, and eased that burden, and advances in inconvenienced." Today the heavy when neighbors reached them, they weather forecasting have given rural reliance on a steady electrical supply were short of fuel and food. The experi- people more time to prepare for winter requires that many farmers and ranchers ence led them to 1948-49 their last storms. Better road maintenance equip- have back-up generators, and because winter in the countryside.136 ment and more surfaced roads also of the consequences of electrical out- Of course, leaving a rural home was have been a boon to travelers in rural ages, Olive Raben, who lived near not an option for many families, and Nebraska. So, too, have been better- Crawford in 1948-49, said that getting they took downed telephone lines and graded highways. In evaluating rid of windmills has been unfortunate. other challenges more in stride. Probably Operation Snowbound, the Fifth Army Indeed, time would reveal the perils exceptional even then was the situation report noted, "Where the surface of the of a major long-term electrical outage in Perkins County where in mid-February road was at an elevation above that of for Nebraska agriculture. One of the local men restored a phone line to the adjacent fields and subject to wind most dramatic changes in the state in service that the news correspondent for erosion the surface was usually covered the second half of the twentieth century Woodson Precinct matter-of-factly with little or no snow."137 was the westward thrust of the Corn Belt declared "had been broken since Reflecting upon farm life near Crawford into semi-arid regions, a movement harvest time." in 1949, Mrs. Olive Raben said, "Our made possible by massive pumping of Radio broadcasts, subject to the road . . . was just gravel and not well groundwater through center-pivot imga- limitations of power supply and severe elevated as it is now. That is why it filled tion systems. Some pumps ran on diesel interference, which occurred during the up so bad." fuel, natural gas, or propane, but by the big January storm, provided essential The use of Jeeps in the blizzard 1990s about a third were electric. information to snow-blocked rural region in 1949 heralded the traction . The storms of November 18-19,1948, people and probably helped ease their advantages of four-wheel-drive and and March 30-31,1949, had shown the sense of isolation. Although two-way front-wheeldrive vehicles, which in damage to a power system that heavy, radio communication was much less time became common.138Operation wet snow and ice from winddriven common than in later years, it was helpful Snowbound's use of Weasels demon- autumn and spring storms could do. On in relief activities. Byron Appleby, an strated the value of tracked vehicles in April 11, 1994;such a storm left a trail of aviator from Blair, was a key figure in deep snow. In early February, Consumers broken poles and downed wires across relief work around Bassett, and using a Public Power District approved the twenty-one counties from southwestern radio in his airplane he communicated acquisition of two Weasels for use in to central Nebraska. Within nine days, to a radio-equipped pickup truck to power line inspection and repair. By electrical service to towns was fully direct fuel delivery vehicles to bull- that time, Consumers also was using a restored, but the task of installing dozer-cleared roads. By the end of the snowmobile, and in the Whitrnan area thousands of poles before the beginning twentieth century the widespread use the Monahan Cattle Company had of the imgation season was a major of cellular telephones would become acquired such a vehicle. However, the challenge for utilities.I3j extremely important as people coped snowmobiles so familiar in later genera- Although telephone service in remote with distance, the great denominator of tions would not become common until rural areas was more common than the Plains environment. the 1960s. centrally supplied electricity in 1949, it Mid-twentieth century rural Toward the end of the emergency still had not reached some farm and Nebraskans were more than a generation period, an Ainsworth flyer looking for ranch homes in the Plains. As with into the transition from horses to tractors distress signals near Brownlee in south- electricity, the lack of phone service powered by gasoline engines, but the eastern Cherry County saw a man pointed to a lingering, albeit dwindling, winter of 1948-49 revealed that the waving urgently. When he landed, the disparity in the conveniences shared by newer motive power was not always rancher offered to buy the new ski- urban and rural people. More immedi- better. This point was well made in equipped plane and told the pilot that ately important, the lack of telephones February, when Bassett newspaper he had just bought a bulldozer. As the in some locales added to the problem publisher Clifford Buckendorf wrote, rancher said, "I'm never going to be of ascertaining the welfare of snow- "Lots of ranchers have sold all or nearly snowbound again." Either a 1949 bound families. For those who had all of their horses, and are depending vintage map-or a contemporary one- telephones, outages could be a problem. solely on tractors and hay sleds, and of will help a reader unfamiliar with the Two sisters who lived on a farm eight course they don't work too hot in 30 area understand the isolation of the miles from Albion endured about two inches of snow." Since midcentury, north-central portions of the state that Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

bore the brunt of the 1948-49 winter, and the rancher's new-found enthusiasm for such equipment. Probably most people's decision to upgrade their machinery was less dramatic, but the episode illustrates the ongoing adjustment of Plains residents to their environment. Social and economic changes have made rural people more dependent on routine travel, and in this respect more vulnerable to winter weather. More rural people have town jobs than was the case in 1948-49, and ranch homes in more recent times are likely to be less self-sufficient than a typical farmstead at midcentury, which had milk cows and chickens. Laying in a winter's supply of homecanned goods seems much less the practice than at midcentury, but rural people with town jobs may prefer an array of frozen convenience foods, most of which were not available in 1949. As Olive Raben said, "Women don't can like they did. .. I used to put up 700 to 800 quarts of stuff, now many of them don't can a thing. Many do not even have gardens. In other words they would not be as self-sufficient as we were."'39 As Frederick C. Luebke wrote in an outstanding essay on Nebraska's devel- opment, "How a people responds to stress is the stuff of history.n140Clearly, the response of Nebraskans, other Plains residents, and the people who helped them meet the challenge of the winter of 1948-49 was exemplary. Looking back over half a century, it is clear that technological advances have created a measure of convenience, comfort, and safety that make enduring an exceptionally hard winter much less an ordeal than in 1948-49. Yet the depopulation of rural Plains country and the urbanization of rural life have brought a vulnerability to protracted severe winter weather that was far less evident in 1948-49. Environmental The haunting image of Lois Boerger, peering out of the tunnel she dug to the back adaptation is a continuing process, and door after climbing out an attic window to escape the drift-buried house, suggests the the story of the winter of 1948-49 raises courage and self-sufficiency with which most Nebraskans met the challenges of the 1948-49 winter. Herman Boerger ranch near Rose, Rock County. Courtesy of Rachel this question: Faced with a similar Greenfield, Omaha situation, how well would present-day Nebraskans fare?I4l Nebraska History -FaIllWinter 2002

Notes held views and brief references are not identified. See also Alleman. Blimrd 1949. 120. In neither case are the sources individually cited: lo Ibid., 70. 'From November 1948 through March 1949. interview by authorwith Frank Bataillon and Jean Nebraska and regional newspapers gave extensive Bataillon, Hamburg, Iowa, Feb. 1,1992; Interview " Arthur C. Strong, meteorologist in charge, coverage to the succession of winter storms, their by author with Neil Becker, at his home, Omaha, National Weather Service. Omaha, Nebr., May 11, consequences, and the experiences of people in Apr. 9, 1999; Robert W. Buchan, Rushville, Nebr., 1990, from newspaper weather maps for Jan. 3-5, their coverage areas. I have depended heavily on to author, enclosing 'Some Memories of the 1949 1949. Strong emphasized that other meteorologists them for information about local conditions and Blizzard," Jan. 20, 1992; Richmond B. Case, making retrospective analyses of the January events. In addition to standard news stories, the Annandale, Va., to author, Jan. 18, 1992; Carroll D. 1949 blizzard might arrive at a variety of other rural neighborhood columns in weekly newspa- Cerny to author, Jan. 29, 1992; Patricia L. Coble, explanations. For a technical explanation see pers provided valuable details and perspectives Alliance. to author, May 1, 1992 enclosing letter Fred McMullen, "The Blizzard of 1949," National on the local impact of the winter. All the Nebraska from Mrs. J. H. Urbanovsky to Mrs. Frank R. Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, newspapers are in the microfilm collection of the Molacek, Colfm County Call (Schuyler), Feb. 24. National Weather Service, Central Region Head- Nebraska State Historical Society. 1949; Jo Eberly, Lincoln, Nebr., to author, Dec. 16, quarters, ~http:llwww.crh.noaa.govllbf/ 1991, Jan. 1, 1992; Harold George, Dixon, Nebr., to pasteventslblizpaper.htm> (Jan. 29.2003). Most references to and brief quotations from the author, Dec. 8, 1991; interview by author with following newspapers have been woven into the I? Harl A. Dalstrom and Kay CalamC Dalstrom, Rachel Greenfield, Jan. 8, 1992; Art Henrickson to article's narrative, and are not individually cited: "'It's Going Down in History': The Blizzards of author, April 11,1992, enclosing 'Storms Spread Ainsworth Star-Journal, Albion News, Alliance 1949," South Dakota History 29 (Winter 1999), 265, Death Through Midwest," Life 26 (Jan. 17, 1949). Times and Herald, Burwell Tribune, Chadron 269,270. Dean Constanteau, National Weather 21-25; interview by author with Col. Don E. Record. Cheny County News (Valentine), Gordon Service, Valley, Nebr., May 11, 1994, using North Kahley, USAF (Ret.), San Diego, Calif., Mar. 25, Journal. Hamson Sun. Holt County Independent American Surface Charts for the period Jan. 2-5, 1988; Linelle Tompkins Kelley, Inman, Nebr., to (O'Neill), Hooker County Tribune (Mullen), 1949, obtained by author from the National author, Feb. 6, 1992; Bob Moreland, Meniman, McCook Daily Gazette, Morning World-Herald Climatic Data Center. Asheville. N. C., provided Nebr., "1949 Blizzard," (typed recollections dated (Omaha), Sunday World-Herald (Omaha), another meteorological interpretation of the Mar. 7, 1984, enclosed with letter, Bob Moreland Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln), Rock County storm; Strong interview. See also Calef, "The to author); Jeanette Moody Parsons, Northglenn, Leader (Bassett), Sargent Leader. Sheridon County Winter of 1948-49 in the Great Plains," 271-72; Colo., to author, Nov. 26,1991; Margaret Pruss, Star (Rushville). Spalding Enterprise. Springuiew Alleman, Blizzard 1949,190-91. "Memories of the 1948-1949 Winter" (typescript), Herald, Sunday Journal and Star (Lincoln), The courtesy of Margaret Pruss and Lois L. Tompkins, l3 See also Alleman, Blizzard 1949,3645. Monitor (Bloomfield), The Telegraph (Sidney), Inman, Nebr.; telephone interview by author with Thomas County HeraldClipper medford). Tribune- l4 Telegrams, F. W. Charske to G. F. Ashby, Jan. Sentinel (Grant),and the Western Nebraska Mrs. Rolland Quintard. Harrison, Nebr., Dec. 2, 6; Ashby to Charske, Jan. 7, 1949; letters, E. Roland 1991; Mrs. Rolland Quintard to author, Nov. 22, Obseruer (Kimball). Haniman to A. J. Seitz and A. Perry Osborn, Feb. 1991; Olive Raben, Chadron, Nebr., to author, Dec. 18, 1949, File No. UX-27, Union Pacific I also made limited use of the following news- 16, 1991; interview by author with Arthur C. Secretary's Office. Union Pacific Museum, Council papers: Daily Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, S. Dak.). Strong, meteorologist in charge, National Weather Bluffs (hereafter cited as UPRR Papers); Maury Edgemont Tribune (Edgemont, S. Dak.) Duluth Service, Omaha, Nebr., May 11. 1990; Helen Klein, Union Pacific: The Rebirth 18941969 (New News-Tribune, (Duluth, Minn.), and the Minneapo- Swanson to "Everyone," Feb. 19,1949, courtesy York: Doubleday, 1989). 453. lis Moming Tribune (Minneapolis, Minn.). Rachel Greenfield, Omaha; Lois L. Tompkins, 'The l5Life 26 (Jan. 17, 1949). 21-25; telegrams, A copy of the unedited version of this work con- Blizzards of 1948-49: Excerpts from the diary of Lois L. Tompkins of Tompkins Comers, Inman, Ne George F. Ashby, Jan. 5.8.1949, File No. UX27, taining complete newspaper citations is available "Snow Storm Conditions," UPRR Papers. at the Nebraska State Historical Society. bmska," enclosed with Tompkins to author, Jan. 28, 1992; Alice Young Compton Tompkins, O'Neill, l6For another episode along the Kimball- 'John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life On The Nebr., to author, Dec. 15,1992; Interview by author Scottsbluff highway, see Alleman, Blizzard 1949, lllinois Prairie (New Haven: Yale University Press, with Ann Van Hoff, Clarkson College, Omaha, Jan. 31-32,69. 1986). 97,201,222; R. Carlyle Buley, The Old 22, 1992; lrene Westover, Ashby, Nebr., "The Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815-1840 Blizzard, 1949," enclosed with Westover to author, Ii Ann Van Hoff, who was a high school student (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1950 Jan. 16,1992;lrene Westover to author, Feb. 3,1992. in Verdigre during the winter of 1948-49, also [I978 reissue]) vol.l,201-02; John E. Miller, Laura recalled that some rural people in that area had Ingalls Wilder's Little Town (Lawrence: 4SundayJournal and Star (Lincoln), Dec. 27, to use their furniture for fuel. University Press of Kansas, 1994), 12; 0. E. 1970, courtesy Ralph A. Medina, Nebraska Civil Defense Agency, Lincoln. l8Telephone Report From Henry Eichman, Mid- Rolvaag, Giants In The Earth (New York: Harper western Area, 12:15 P.M., Jan. 25, 1949, American Torchbook edition, 1964). 426ff.; W. H. O'Gara U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Weather National Red Cross, Red Cross Central File, 1947- comp., and Ora A. Clement ed., In All Its Fury: Bureau, Climatological Data: Nebraska, Vol. Llll 64 (Group 4). RG 200, National Archives and A History Of The Blizzard OfJanuary 12, 1888 (Nov. 1948), 122, 124-25. Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. (Lincoln: J&L Lee Books, 1988 reprint). Climatological Data: Nebraska (Nov. 1948). 122 (Hereafter cited as ARC, NARACP. All ARC, The following individuals provided information (general summary), 133-35 (Table 5); For more NARA-CP materials cited are in Boxes 1681-1683.) and recollections from the 1948-49 storms on this storm, see also Wesley Calef, "The Winter l9See also Alleman, Blizzard 1949.17-23. through in-person and telephone interviews, of 1948-49 in the Great Plains," Annals of the letters, and written accounts. Their contributions Association ofAmerican Geographers XL (Dec. 2o Edgemont Tribune (Edgemont, S. Dak.), Jan. have been woven through the article to provide 1950). 267-70, and Roy V. Alleman, Blizzard 1949 12, 1949. factual background, first-person experience, and (St. Louis: Patrice Press, 1991), 1-11,10647. 21 Climatological Data: Nebraska (Jan., 1949), descriptions of conditions. The sources of direct Climatological Datar Nebraska (Dec., 1948), 14-16 (Table 5). quotes and any paraphrased material that 142 (general summary), 152-54 (Table 5). expresses unique perspectives are identified in the "Herbert Eby, State Assistance Field Supervisor, text. The specific sources for examples of broadly Ibid., 14245. Alliance, to Neil C. Vandemoer, State Assistance Winter of 194849 in Nebraska

Director, Report on Indians, by telephone, Jan. 17, Leader, Feb. 10, 1949. Jan. 24, 1949 (wire); [Eugene] O'Sullivan [Member 1949, RG 1, Box 60, Folder 627, Papers of Governor of Congress] to Peterson, Jan. 27, 1949 (wire); 36 Weaver Cole to Peterson, Jan. 18, 1949 (wire), Val Peterson, Nebraska State Historical Society, Peterson to Ralph Budd, President, Chicago. Senator Kenneth S. Wherry to Peterson, Jan. 29, Lincoln. (Hereafter cited as Peterson Papers). 1949 (wire); C. H. Powers, Superintendent, Pine Burlington and Quincy, Sam Fee, General Manager, Ridge, S. Dak. to Peterson, Jan. 29, 1949 (wire); " Fifth ~rr;~,Disaster Operation Snowbound, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and Julius Alms, Karl Stefan, Member of Congress, to Peterson, Jan. Nebraska. Wyoming. South Dakota, and North Traffic Manager, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Dakota, 29 Jan.-Mar. 1949. Appendix L-i, docu- Jan. 19,1949 (typed copies, wires); Ralph Budd to 31, 1949 (wire); Peterson to Julius A. Krug, Secre ment courtesy of the United States Army Corps Peterson, Jan. 19.21, 1949 (wires); S. L. Fee to tary of the Interior, Feb. 3, 1949, (wire); Krug to of Engineers. Omaha. Peterson, Jan. 18, 1949 (wire); J. J. Alms to Peterson, Feb. 16, 1949, RG 1. Box 60, Folder 627; Peterson, Jan. 19, 1949; Box 60, Folder 627; Peterson to C. H. Powers, Jan. 28,1949 (press- " Art Auserod to Governor Val Peterson.[no release copy of wire), RG 1, Box 60, Folder 626, Charles L. Cooper to Peterson, Jan. 19, 1949; date], RG 1, Box 60, Folder 626, Peterson Papers Peterson Papers. (A typed log of relief activities by private aircraft, Willard G. Sheldon to Peterson, Jan. 22, 1949, Jan. 28-30, 1949, around Bartlett and in neighbor- Box 48, Folder 491, Peterson Papers. Harl and Kay Dalstrom, "'It's Going Down in History*,"282-92.309-1 1.319-20.324. See also ing areas). 37 S. L. Fee to Peterson, Jan. 18, 1949 (wire), Box Sunday Journal and Star, Jan. 16. 60. Folder 627. Peterson Papers. ?5 A story in the Alliance Times and Herald, Jan. " A. Neil Dawes and Mrs. Viola Damkroger, 21, 1949, implied that the youth was flown to Alli- 38 Memo, phone call from Samuel Fee, Jan. 20, ance in a military helicopter on Thursday, Jan. 20. 1948 [sic], attached to S. L. Fee to Peterson, Jan. "Annual Report, Extension Work, Holt County," This was two days after the date of Quintard's 20,1949 (wire), Box 60, Folder 627, Peterson Papers. 1949.52. flight as reported in the Hamkon Sun. 52 ClimatologicaI Data: Nebraska (Jan., 1949, 2 39 S. L. Fee to Peterson, Feb. 3, [1949], Box 60, (general summary), 14-16 uable 5). 26 See also Alleman, Blizzard 1949, 118-21. Folder 627, Box 60, Folder 627, Peterson Papers.

j3 (WB ?7 For a similar comment about ~ralpeople 'O S. S. [sic] Fee to Peterson, Jan. 29, 1949 (typed Monthly Climatological Summary Form returning from town with supplies for their neigh- copy, wire), Box 60, Folder 627, Peterson Papers. 1030). Omaha (Airport). Jan. 1949, 1; Monthly Cli- bors, see the Tribune-Sentinel(Grant), Jan. 13,1949. matological Summary (WB Form 1030), Lincoln " Memorandum, Col. J. S. Seybold to Peterson, (Airport), January, 1949.1; Climatological Data: %C. H. Dewitt and Keith A. Long, Cooperative Feb. 7,1949; S. L. Fee to Peterson, Feb. 18, 1949 Nebraska, (January, 1949), 2 (general summary), Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics, (wire), Box 60, Folder 627, Peterson Papers; S. L. 6-7 (Table 3). Sheridan [County], State of Nebraska, 1949,18 Fee to Peterson, Feb. 25, 1949 (wire), Box 60, (This and other annual reports of county extension Folder 627, Peterson Papers; also Sunday Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, work cited cover the period Dec. 1,1948 to Nov. Journal andstar, Feb. 20, 1949. Appendix L-i. 30.1949. These reports are available in the C. Y. '? See also Alleman, Blizzard 1949, 132-35. j' Peterson to Garfield County Clerk (copy, wire Thompson Library, University of Nebraska-Lincoln). Holt County Independent, Feb. 17,1949. The [Jan. 24, 19491); Wires to Peterson from: Elvin 29 Ibid. Fickel. County Commissioner, Dawes County, Jan. article is especially good in relating the blizzard 24.1949; C. J. Tomek, County Clerk, Boyd County, 30 US. Weather Bureau, Climatological Data; experiences of rural teachers. Nebraska, Vol. LIV (Jan., 1949),14-16 (Table 5); Jan. 24, 1949; County Clerk [Sioux County], Jan. +.IMari Sandoz, Wnler Thunder (Lincoln: University Fifth Amy. Disaster Operation Snowbound: 24, 1949; R. K. Haskell, Clerk [Logan County], for of Nebraska Press, Bison Books reprint, 1986). My Nebraska, 20. County Commissioners, Jan. 24,1949; Ernest narrative follows Irene Westovefs accounts. Press Hoefener, County Commissioner, Wheeler County, 31 Mrs. Marvin Fuller to Val Peterson, Jan. 12, reports originated with a US. Army Corps of Jan. 25,1949; W. A. Summers, County Commis- 1949, Box 48, Folder 491, Peterson Papers. A Engineers official who led a snowclearing team sioner, Wheeler County, Jan. 25, 1949 (copy); R. F. correction line is an east-west jog in a northsouth that reached the Westover ranch the second week Long, Hooker County Commissioner, Jan. 25. road. Correction lines are used in the rectangular of February. According to his report, Cecilia 1949; M. M. Baker, Chairman, County Board, survey system to keep northsouth survey lines Sandoz was driving her pupils to school in a Lincoln County, Jan. 24 [or 251,1949, RG 1, Box from converging. Rural roads typically follow school bus when the vehicle was stranded in a 60, Folder 627, Peterson Papers. See also press survey lines. drift. She then led the children to the Westover release, Jan. 25, 1949,5:30 P.M. for text of ranch. However, Irene Westover said, "There was See also press releases, copies of wires, Val governor's declaration of a state of emergency, " no school bus," adding that errors in reporting Peterson to W. L. Mueller, General Superintendent, RG 1, Box 59, Folder 625, Peterson Papers. Not all may have stemmed from the commotion attending C&NW, and R. Williams, President, C&NW, Feb. counties in northcentral and western Nebraska L. the arrival of the relief crew. 3, 1949; R. L. Williams to Peterson, Feb. 3, 1949; W. reported hardship. See wires to Peterson from: L. B. Harrison, County Clerk [Scotts Bluff County], L. Mueller to Peterson, Feb. 3, 1949, Box 60, Folder "Harl and Kay Dalstrom, "'It's Going Down in 626, Peterson Papers; Fifth Army, Disaster History'," 288-89; Eby, Report on Indians, Jan. 17, Jan. 24,1949; County Commissioner, Deuel Operation Snowbound, 23-24. 1949, Peterson Papers. County, Jan. 24, 1949; 1. L. Pindell, County Clerk, Cheyenne County, Jan. 24,1949; John McCord, f3 S. L. Fee to Peterson, Feb. 25,1949 (wire), Box 46 Eby, Report on Indians, Jan. 17,1949, Peterson County Clerk [Garden County], Jan. 25,1949, and 60, Folder 627, Peterson Papers. Papers. letter from Margaret Simpson, County Clerk, %I25S. S. [sics. L.] Fee to Val Peterson, Jan. 29, '' Harl and Kay Dalstrom, "'It's Going Down in Sherman County, Jan. 24,1949, RG 1, Box 60, Folder 627, Peterson Papers. 1949, (typed copy, wire), Box 60, Folder 627, History'," 288-89. Peterson Papers; Census of Population, 1950, Ibid., 288. j6Hany S. Truman to Peterson, Feb. 4, 1949, RG 1, Nebraska, 27-19 (Table 7); Rand McNally Box 59, folder 625, Peterson Papers. Commercial Atlas and Marketing Guide, Seuenty- L. M. Morgan to Peterson, Jan. 12, 1949 (wire); Sixth Edition (1945). 245 (map). H. R. Partridge, Disaster Chairman, Box Butte 57 Basil O'Connor to Peterson and governors of County, to Peterson, Jan. 23, 1949 (wire); Senator Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming 3j S. L. Fee to Val Peterson, Feb. 3, 1949 (wire), Hugh Butler to Peterson, Jan. 24, 1949 (wire); Montana, Nevada, and Utah (wire, copies), Jan. Box 60, Folder 627, Peterson Papers; Sargent Peterson to C. R. Whitlock, Rosebud, S. Dak., 27,1949, ARC, NARACP. Nebraska History - Fall/Winter 2002

js Val Peterson to Commanding General, Fifth liaison with local citizens. the Holt County Soil Conservation District with the Army. Jan. 27.1949 (press release); Maj. Gen. John "Herrington, "Annual Report, Extension Work, building of the cargo sleds. In his extension report, P. Lucas to Peterson, nd, Peterson to President Cheny County, 1949." 45-47. cited above, Dawes said that the cargo taken to Hany S. Truman [draft], Jan. 28 [1949], RG 1, Box the Gibson School was about fifteen tons. 59. Folder 625. Peterson Papers. 'I United States Air Force, "History of the Kearney Air Force Base and Twenty-Seventh So For another account noting the importance of j9Hany S. Truman to Peterson, Feb. 4, 1949, Fighter Wing (TE), Jan., 1949" (document courtesy local people as guides for bulldozer operators, see RG 1, Box 59, Folder 625, Peterson Papers. Lt. Col. Alan H. Clair, Inquiries Division, USAF His- Boyd and Ella Boelter, Inman, Nebr., "Experiences in the 48-49 Blizzards." 60 Fifth Army. Disaster Operation Snowbound, 1; torical Research Center, Maxwell AFB, Alabama); Appendix A. interview by author with Col. Don E. Kahley, USAF 'I Climatological Data: Nebraska (Feb. 1949). 61John C. Wilson, Vice President, Area Manager, (Ret.), San Diego, Calif., Mar. 25, 1988. Kahley was 30-32 (Table 5). stationed at Offutt Air Force Base (Omaha) and American National Red Cross, Midwestern Area, "Ibid. St. Louis, to Mr. Eaton, Feb. 10, 1949, enclosing was aboard one Haylift flight. Fifth Army. Disaster copy of report to Mr. [Basil] O'Connor, President, Operation Snowbound, 9, briefly details *Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, 22, American National Red Cross, Western Plains procedures for the airlifts. Appendix LL. States Snow Stom DR-386 and Operations Snow- " 'History of Kearney Air Force Base, Jan. 1949." a Ibid., Appendix Z. Bound, Feb. 9, 1949, ARC, NARA-CP; Fifth Army, Air Force data on tonnage of hay drops from Disaster Operation Snowbound, 2, 5. planes flying from Kearney Air Base is confusing. pi Henry Hart, The Dark Missouri (Madison: Compare figures in 'History Kearney Air Force University of Wisconsin Press, 1957), 71. 6? Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, 4, 8-9; Appendices A, B, C, K, L, M, 0,W, and map of Base, Jan. 1949,"with data in United States Air 86 See Hart, The Dark Missouri,l20-35, and Rob- Snowbound command areas and sub-areas, inside Force, "Operation Haylift 1949: SAC Participation," ert Kelley Schneiders. Unruly River Two Centuries back cover. tables 11,13 (latter document courtesy Dr. Henry of Life Along the Missouri (Lawrence: University Narducci, HQ SAC, Offutt AFB). Press of Kansas. 1999). 162-86. a John C. Wilson, Vice President, Area Manager, American National Red Cross, Midwestern Area, 'jKahley, interview, March 25, 1988, noted '' Schneiders, Unruly River, 181. Haylift missions from Offutt. Numerical data on St. Louis, to Mr. Eaton, Feb. 10, 1949, enclosing 88 See Michael L. Tate, The Frontier Amy in the memorandum to [Basil] O'Connor, Feb. 9,1949, the Offutt flights is found in USAF, Operation Settlement of the West (Norman: University of 'Haylift" 1949: SAC Participation, table, 11. For DR 386, ARC, NARA-CP; Fifth Army, Disaster Oklahoma Press, 1999). Operation Snowbound, Appendix N. comments supporting Governor Peterson's reservations about Operation Haylift, see Orval G. 89 Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, 8, Broady [no first name] to Peterson, Jan. 28, Martin to Peterson, Jan. 25,1949, RG 1, Box 48, 9, 11; Appendices W, JJ. 1949 (wire, transcription of amateur radio broad- Folder 491, Peterson Papers; Fifth Army, Disaster Ibid., 2. cast), Peterson Papers. Operation Snowbound, 18. 9' Ibid., Appendix AA-ii. 6j Guy N. Henninger, Adjutant General, to " Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, 26. Peterson, Feb. 1,4; 7, 11, 1949, RG, Box 60, Folder 92 Ibid., 5, 11, Appendices Q-i, ii, iv, R-i, T. 628. Peterson Papers. Adjutant General Henninger Ibid., Disaster Operation Snowbound, 8, and 93 Ibid., 2-3. submitted detailed daily reports to Governor Appendices L and W-ii, summarize Air Force Peterson on Operation Snowbound and Nebraska participation on the Plains but do not mention the Ibid., 15, 16, 27.29. National Guard activities, including specific work of the 2151st Air Rescue Squadron. 95 Ibid., 17.20 (narrative). deployment of equipment. The number of '"Chadron Record, Jan. 26, 1949, 1. Guardsmen on duty varied from day to day. "H. E. Bruce to Vernon H. Zimmerman, Feb. 16, " Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, 5,25. 1949; memo of telephone conversation, Don Stout Dawes and Damkroger, "Annual Report, and Henry Eichman, Midwestern Area, American Extension Work, Holt County, 1949," 4,20,53,55-57, i8Hammond's Highway and Railway Mop of National Red Cross, Feb. 24, 1949, ARC-NARA-CP. 79-82; Robert B. Herrington, "Annual Report, Ex- Nebraska, ca. 1950; Fifth Army. Disaster Operation tension Work, Cheny County, 1949," 45-47; Willis Snowbound, 20-22; meteorologist Arthur C. Strong 9' C. F. Rowland, Assistant Administrator, Disaster R. Thurber, "Annual Report, Extension Work, agreed that east-west roads would have been Services, American National Red Cross, Emergency Garfield, Loup and Wheeler Counties,,l949," 48- much more prone to blockage than those running Assistance to Indians: Snowstorm Disaster Jan.- 49. The foregoing extension reports show the role northsouth (interview, May 11, 1990). So, too, did Feb., 1949, Feb. 24, 1949, ARC, NARACP. of county agents in relief work. In addition to their Neil Becker, recalling the east-west road that went past his family's Pierce County farm (interview, 98 John C. Wilson, Vice President, Area Manager, liaison work with the Army and Red Cross, County American National Red Cross, Midwestern Area, Agents Dawes, Herrington, and Thurber Apr. 9, 1999). Rachel Greenfield, whose two sisters lived offthe frequently blocked Highway 183 in St. Louis, to Chapter Chairmen, Feb. 28, 1949, performed other relief services. enclosing "Highlights and Statistics of American southern Rock County, understandably did not Red Cross Blizzard Operations From January 2 " William P. Bullock, Kenneth Van Skike, and concur (interview, Jan. 8, 1992). Highway 183 Through February 24, 1949," ARC, NARACP; "Final Viola Shepherd, "Annual Report, Extension Work, would not receive a hard surface until 1963, when Financial Report, Nebraska, Western Plains States Cheyenne County, 1949," 2-9.56-57; Paul E. the route also was shortened (See Centennial Snowstorm," 190-01-386, Feb. 26, 1951, ARC, Miller, "Annual Report, Extension Work, Kimball Book Committee, Rock County Centennial 1888- NARACP. According to Robert C. Edson to Gor- County, 1949," 3.46. 1998 [Bassett: Rock County Historical Society, don Stone, 190-01-386, Mar. 15, 1949, there were 1987],37). Such improvements undoubtedly 68 Calef, "The Winter of 1948-49 in the Great 1,128 "Volunteers Regularly Assigned" in ARC Plains," 280-81.284. rendered the route less vulnerable to extreme winter conditions. work in Nebraska. However, the ARC'S Reports and 69 Dawes and Damkroger, "Annual Report, Exten- Analysis Division, Office of Statistical and Refer- sion Work, Holt County, 1949," 4,20,53,55-57, 'gDawes and Damkroger, "Extension Work, Holt ence Information, in its "Nebraska Consolidated 79-82. Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, County, 1949," 55; The Holt County Independent, Chapter Disaster Relief Report, Snowstorms" strongly emphasized the importance of military Feb. 3, 19.19, credited County Agent Dawes and (Western Plains States Snowstorms), dated July 17, Winter of 1948-49 in Nebraska

1950, stated that there were thirteen volunteer 'I? Memorandum, James S. Pittenger to Gover- Extension Work, 1949: Bullock, Van Skike, and nurses and 456 "other" volunteers. This document nor, July 29, 1949, Box 60, Folder 626, Peterson Shepherd, Cheyenne County, 49; Miller, Kimball gave the ARC'S "Number of Paid Workers" in Ne- Papers; Calef, 'Winter of 194849 in the Great County, 7; Scriven, Momll County, 11. For damage braska as two nurses and fifty-two "otheT persons. Plains," 286. to wheat in eastern Nebraska, see the following DR 386, ARC; NARACP. Perhaps the higher figure Annual Reports, Extension Work, 1949: Clyde D. 'I3 Nebraska State Journal, Feb. 5, 1949; American included persons who did not work regularly. Red Cross, "Nebraska Consolidated Chapter Disaster Claussen, Colfax County, 8; W. R. Wicks, Arnold See Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, Relief Report," July 17, 1950, DR 386, ARC, NARACP. W. Peterson, and Clara Noyes, Douglas County, 8, Appendix N-iii. 64; Philip S. Sutton, Gage County, 3; Verdon H. 'I4 See also Alleman, Blizzard 1949, 11. Peterson and Francis J. Runty, Annual Report, 99 Robert C. Edson to Gordon Stone, Mar. 15, 1949; Statistics, "Western Plains States Snowstorms," 'I5 Patricia L. Coble, Alliance, to author, May 1, Lancaster County, 11-12. 19041386; Author's compilation of final Nebraska 1992, enclosing letter from Mrs. J. H. Urbanovsky '" See the following Annual Reports, Extension chapter financial reports, "Western Plains States to Mrs. Frank R. Molacek, published in Colfax Work, 1949: Elvin Lawrence and Eleanor Jane Snowstorms, Jan.-Feb., 1949," American National County Call (Schuyler), Feb. 24, 1949. Stall, Boone County, 7; M. L. Gould, Custer County, Red Cross. Code 386. Feb. 26. 1951; "Disaster 'I6 For excellent examples of people who 8; Walter G. Sire, Boyd County, 29; Spilker and Relief Report," Douglas County, DR 386, Ibid. endured the isolation and hardship with fortitude Bruce, Lincoln County, 7; Renard, Pierce County, IW ARC, "Disaster Relief Report, Holt County. see Morning World-Herald, Feb. 5; Sunday World- 7; Milton R. Stafford, Thomas, Blaine, Grant, and Nebr.," "Western Plains States Snowstorms, Jan.- Herald, Feb. 6, 1949; Holt County Independent, Feb. Hooker counties. 37; C. C. Dale and Katherine Feb., 1949." including "Corrected Copy," Mar. 18, 10, 1949 (letter from Floyd E. Crawford, dated Feb. 1, Helzer, Valley County, 2. 1949; "Final Financial Report, Holt County, Feb. 1949); Bumell Tribune, Feb. 10, 1949 (editorial). Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, 18. 26, 1951," DR386, Ibid. 'R.F.D.," by Max Coffey in the Morning World- Herald, Feb. 9,1949, has an excellent anecdote I?' Union Pacific Railroad, "The Blizzard of '49," lo' Brig. Gen. Guy N. Henninger, Biennial Report about being prepared. circular enclosed with dividend mailing, Apr. 1, of the Adjutant General of the State of Nebraska 1949, File No. U8C27A. UP Secretary's Office, 'I7 See the following "Annual Reports, Extension 1949-1950 (Lincoln. 1950). 21-23; AFCAP Liaison UPRR Papers; Clippings, New York Herald-Tribune, Office, Omaha, to Headquarters and Headquarters Work, 1949"; W. A. Buchanan, Antelope County, Feb. 9, 10, 14, 1949; Wyoming State Tribune Squadron, Civil Air Patrol. United States Air Force, 39; J. F. Decker and Margaret E. Schluckebier, Box (Cheyenne), Feb. 10.11, 1949; Wyoming Eagle Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C., Feb. 24, Butte County, 38; Robert A. Pollard, Harold J. (Cheyenne), Feb. 12, 1949, File No U8C27, tele- Foster, and Mrs. Doris Huffaker, Greeley County. 1949, ARC, NARACP. grams, George F. Ashby, Feb. 8.9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 6.31; Russell Hughes and Mrs. Lucille Erlewine, 16,1949; Memorandum, DOC to Ashby, Feb. 15, I" Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound. Keith, Arthur counties, 26; Hugh M. Renard, Pierce 10; Appendix 0. 1949, "Snow Storm Conditions," UPRR Papers; County. 44; Harold Ingalls, Sioux County, 21. Calef. "Winter of 1948-49 in the Great Plains," 285. lo3 0, Ibid., 9-10, Appendices N-ii, U, HH, 11. 'I8 See the following Annual Reports, Extension Union Pacific Railroad Company, "The Work, 1949: Eugene Newton and Dorothy Shetler, IMValPeterson to Harry S. Truman (draft, no Blizzard of '49," and "Union Pacific's 'Operation Brown, Rock, and Keya Paha counties, 143; date), RG 1, Box 59, Folder 625, Peterson Papers, Snowbound,'" circulars enclosed with dividend Hemngton, Cherry County, 43,44,47; William R. Department of the Air Force, History of Kearney mailing, Apr. 1, 1949; press release, Steve Main, Garden County, 1.37; Miller, Kimball County, Air Force Base and 27th Fighter Wing (TE), 1 Janu- Hannagan Assoc., New York, datelined Omaha, 34.47; Francis L. Scriven, Momll County, 13; ary [-] 31 January 1949.2, courtesy, Headquarters, Feb. 23,1949, File No USC27A. UP Secretary's Ingalls, Sioux County, 10, 19. A news story United Air Force Research Center, Maxwell Air Office, UPRR Papers. Force Base (Alabama). estimated 18,000sheep had perished in Cheyenne County, but this loss was not mentioned in the For example, see the following memoranda Io5FifthArmy, Disaster Operation Snowbound, 9, county extension report. Frank Bataillon, inter- G. I. Giles, "Train 402 from Cheyenne 2:30 A.M. Appendices K, M. viewed Feb. 1, 1992, said a rancher grazing 10,000 January 6th en route to Chicago (Held at Chey- Io6 John C. Wilson to Mr. Eaton, Feb. 10, 1949, sheep on Sioux Ordnance Depot land lost the enne account [of] Blizzard Jan. 3-4-5.1949);" A. J. enclosing report to Mr. O'Connor, "Western Plains entire herd. Johnson, Omaha, to W. Conrey, Feb. 9, 1949; R. R. Chamberlain, Salt Lake City, to W. J. Thomas, Feb. States Snowstorms DR-386 and Operations Snow- 'I9 Annual Reports, Extension Work, 1949: Newton Bound, Feb. 9, 1949"; Press release, Gen. Lewis and Shetler, Brown, Rock, and Keya Paha counties, 12, 1949; R. S. Farley, Omaha, to W. Conrey, Feb. Pick, Feb. 28, 1949, ARC, NARACP. 143; Bullock, Van Skike, and Shepherd, Cheyenne 15,1949, MS 3761, SG 22, S26- 27, Box 34, UPRR Papers. '''See also Alleman, Blizzard 1949, 186-87. County, 56; Miller, Kimball County, 34. Miller's Kimball County report said that there was "no A. E. Stoddard to E. G. Smith, May 14, 1949, Io8 State of Nebraska, Department of Roads and shelter" for the sheep lost to the unidentified File No. U-8- C27A, "Comments Re 'Blizzard of-'49," Imgation, Official Map Nebraska Highways, July 1, stockman. A Texas stockman who sustained the Secretary's Office, UPRR Papers; Klein, 1949, NSHS; Department of Roads, Nebraska: heaviest losses in Kimball County told the Western Union Pacific, Vol. 11,437-58. 1991-1992 Slate Highway Map. Nebraska Obseruer that his sheep had drifted with 13' See Annette Atkins, "Minnesota: Left of Center IW Mr. and Mrs. J. Fred Christensen to Val the wind from corrals. and Out of Place," in James H. Madison, ed., Peterson, Jan. 13, 1949, Box48, Folder 491, I?' See also Alleman, Blizzard 1949, 91. Heartland: Comparative Histories of the Midwestern Peterson Papers. I?' Hemngton, "Annual Report, Extension Work, States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 'I0 Weather Bureau, Climatological Data: Cherry County," 1949.48. 1988). 9. Nebraska, Vol. LIV (Mar. 1949). 36,38-39. '"Walter E. Spilker and Charlotte Bruce, "Annual 13? Blizzard emergency area map and caption, "'112 Dawes and Damkroger, 'Annual Report, Report, Extension Work, Lincoln County," 1949.7. Morning World-Herald, Jan. 28, 1949; Nebraska Extension Work, Holt County," 1949.82; Climato- State Data Center, Center for Public Affairs logical Data: Nebraska, Vol. LIV (1949 Summary), '"Alleman, Blizzard 1949.73. Research, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 206; W. A. Buchanan, "Annual Report, Extension I?' For winter-killing of wheat in the southern Report 2A.1, "Population of Nebraska Coun- Work, Antelope County," 1949.39. Panhandle, see the following Annual Reports, ties:1950 to 1990"; http://quickfacts.census.govl Nebraska History -FallIWinter 2002 qfd/states131/31003.html;US. Census, 2000. electricity. See Rock Counly Leader, Dec. 2,1948,6. production since the 1950s, see Deborah Fink, Open Counhy, Iowa: Rural Women, Tradition and 133 For interesting details on midcentury educa- Omaha World-Herald, Apr. 22, Apr, 23, 1994; Chonge (Albany: State University of New York tion in rural Nebraska, see Ainsworth Star-Journal, Sunday World-Herald, Apr. 24, 1994. Press, 1986). 135-59. Jan. 20,1949, 1 ("Rural School Notes"), and Wayne 0. Reed, Nebraska Education: The Annual 136Mrs. Marvin Fuller to Val Peterson, Jan. 12, Frederick C. Luebke, "Nebraska: Time, Place, Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to 1949, Box 48, Folder 491, Peterson Papers. and Culture," in Madison, ed., Heartland, 244. the Governor of the Slate of Nebraska for the Year 13' Fifth Army, Disaster Operation Snowbound, 21. 141 This topic is discussed in the author's paper, Ending December 31, 1949 (Lincoln, 1950), 56-63. 'Coping wiih Winter in South Dakota, 1948% 13See also Harl and K~~ Dalstrom, eoing '31Don Cunningham, columnist for rural Down in History'," 300. and 19961997: A Comparison," presented at the Nebraska papers, also declared that the storm had Northern Great Plains Historv Conference. Sioux shown the negative side of the dependence on 139On the decline of farm poultry and egg Falls, South Dakota, Oct. 2, i998.

- -- --A -- - . - -- Scotia, Greeley County. In the winter of 1948-49, with towns covered in deep, silent snow, travel at a standstill, and businesses closed, a vast area of the state seemed virtually deserted. NSHS-RG3139-134 Administration: Tenth Air Force” “Domestic Emergency Relief Team” “Operation Hayride” “Operation Haylift” “Sno-gos” “Fifth Army’s Disaster Force Snowbound” “American Legion” “Pick-Sloan Plan” “U S Army Corps of Engineers”

Photographs: Ernest Kiel home, Lewellen, Garden County; H R Holcomb home, Chambers, Holt County; Road near H R Holcomb farm; Louis Vap farm, Glenville, Clay County; bulldozers from Council Bluffs, Iowa, near McLean, Pierce County; Ray Mickels, Gene Mickels, Donald Mickels, Madrid, Perkins County; Herman Boerger ranch brooder house near Rose, Rock County; Chadron with forty-one inches of snow; Chicago and North Western locomotive; Frank Battaillion on apartment roof; Freed cow, Eldon Miller farm near Belmont, Dawes County; rotary plow and two locomotives on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy line; Chicago and North Western line crew near Chadron; Darrell Holmes, a relief pilot; Vehicle tracks near a snowbound Greeley County farm; Civil Air Patrol airplane crash near Alliance; helicopter in the relief effort; sleigh and wagon, Anselmo, Custer County; Farm tractor pulling wagon, Anselmo, Custer County; curious dog and buried pickup near Thedford; Lillian Cunningham and two brothers with dirty dust layer atop snow in Bayard; Ben Fuelberth family, Pierce County, on sled; crew clearing forty-one inches of snow; Chicago and North Western locomotive 2320 makes slow progress; District 156 returning schools; Jerry and Lorraine Greenwood, Whiteclay, Sheridan County; drifted road at Lester Broadfoot ranch near Halsey, Thomas County; aircraft cockpit January 24, 1949; Omaha World-Herald cartoon, “Another Pick Plan”; “Omaha World-Herald Operation Snowbound cartoon; Army Weasel