Over the past several weeks I have enjoyed reading accounts of those who lived through the 1949 blizzard. I personally have no memories to share. I was only a few months old at that time, but I do recall my parents talking about my dad being stranded in the Sandhills, Valentine I think, during this time. He was a bank examiner and did not get home for weeks.

In 1991 Roy V. Alleman wrote an account to the blizzard aptly titled "Blizzard 1949". The book is now in its 5^th printing. Alleman began collecting stories of the impact of that winter even before it ended. These stories are from Nebraska as well as other states across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain West. Allow me to share a few of them with you today.

First of all, I did not fully realize until I read this book that in 1948 and 1949 a series of blizzards hit the West and Great Plains. The first storm arrived on November 18 & 19, 1948. D. O Durr lived along Highway 96 in west-central Kansas. (If you are like me, you will need a road atlas to read this book. I was unfamiliar with many of the locations.) She watched a drizzling rain turn into snowflakes and finally a raging blizzard. The weekend before Thanksgiving saw unusually heavy traffic on the road. All day drivers plowed through snowdrifts on the highway in front of her house until finally a car couldn’t make it and spun out on the road. She opened her house to a young couple and their baby. Mrs. Durr knew no one else would make it through the drift that day. Before the blizzard was over she opened her home to 39 people. So many people found refuge at her house that they either slept on the beds in shifts or stayed up all night, playing cards, talking and eventually sleeping on the floor. A cellar crammed full of canned vegetables, potatoes and hams fed all these people. Everyone helped out, shoveling snow, bringing in coal, tending the stove, peeling potatoes and cooking. Mrs. Durr refused to take any money for her hospitality.

The winter of 1948-1949 was a winter of contrasts. A tornado hit Warren, Arkansas, about the same time this early blizzard was ripping across the western states, killing 46 people and injuring nearly 200. The weather turned warm in December, and the snow melted, lulling people into complacency. Little did they realize that the November storm was just a prelude of things to come.

On January 1, 1949, KOA radio in Denver predicted, "…another nice day with a possibility of snow flurries." The forecast could not have been more wrong. Much like the School Children’s Blizzard of 1888, the day began with gorgeous weather. Near Cozad, Nebraska, Marvin and Norma Thinnes took a noonday stroll in the sun. Norma was expecting a baby soon, and they discussed whether or not to move into town to await the birth. With not a cloud in the sky and no hint of a storm, they decided to wait. Ultimately, a county road crew would get her to the hospital in time.

In northern Colorado between Cheyenne and Denver, the storm stranded 456 people in front of the Rockport Inn. They stayed either in the Inn or on two busses in front of the tavern.

The last passenger train in Alliance broke through drifts, which were ¼ to ½ miles long and 7’ to 15’deep. The engine stalled 100 yards from the Alliance Depot. No train would leave Alliance again until January 15^th.

In Gordon, Nebraska, 100 year old Harriet Brown, a former slave, froze to death when she opened her front door to watch the storm and could not close it.

Until the storms of 1948-1949, the most talked about blizzard was the School Children’s Blizzard of 1888. The 1948-1949 blasts covered a much larger area than the 1888 storm. Thirteen storms affected western states stretching from Canada to Mexico and from California and Washington to the Missouri River. If you are interested in more storm stories, check out "Blizzard 1949" at the Scottsbluff Public Library.

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