Well, I gave you the sermon last week. This week I will just talk about a book. This month the library’s Literary Book Club read "The Children’s Blizzard" by David Laskin. I remember being fascinated with the School Children’s Blizzard of 1888 from the first moment I studied Nebraska history in fourth grade. This blizzard gained its name because it struck the Dakotas, Nebraska and Minnesota while children were in school on January 12, 1888. Teacher’s decisions that day about whether to send students home or keep them at the school made the difference between life and death for many children. Families felt the enormous tragedy of this natural disaster for decades to come.

David Laskin does a thorough job of discussing this blizzard in all its complexities. Although weather forecasting in 1888 was capable of predicting a major winter storm, the weather forecaster in charge, Lt. Thomas Woodruff, failed to comprehend the devastating nature of the blizzard that his weather data indicated. Even if he had understood the danger, the inadequate communication systems of the time could not deliver the warnings quickly enough to save lives. The storm hit with a suddenness and ferocity that was almost indescribable.

January 12, 1888 began as a beautiful, warm day. Settlers on the Great Plains assumed they were experiencing the grace of a winter thaw after many weeks of frigid weather. Farmers rode out to round up stray cattle and do the chores they could not do during the cold weather. Children traveled to school without hats, gloves, jackets or boots because of the warmth. The frigid Arctic front that brought the blizzard hit Montana before dawn, North Dakota during early morning chores, South Dakota during morning recess, and Nebraska as school dismissed for the day. It moved at the mind-boggling rate of 60 to 70 miles per hour and caught teachers, parents and children unawares. In some cases, the temperature dropped an incredible 18 degrees in three minutes. The storm roared down on the prairie with a ferocity that was incomprehensible. A metallic gray cloud appeared in the northwest. After an eerie lull, the sky filled with a wall of ice dust. "Every crevice, every gap and orifice instantly filled with shattered crystals, blinding, smothering, suffocating, burying anything exposed to the wind." Woe to anyone caught unprotected on the prairie. Estimates put the death toll at over 500.

Author Laskin personalizes this human tragedy by focusing on five immigrant families and describing the fate of their children. They were drawn to this country by the promise of "free land", and the exaggerated claims of railroad agents and land speculators. On the Great Plains, promoters proclaimed, "rain followed the plow". This was no longer the "Great American Desert", but luxuriant grasslands just awaiting the settlers who would break the sod and reap the glory of this soil-rich paradise. And they came from Germany, Scandinavia, and the Ukraine—sometimes in communal groups—all in search of a better life. The vast, empty Great Plains awaited them with its scorching summers, winds, hail, tornadoes, prairie fires, grasshoppers, and blizzards. It was a "land they loved but didn’t really understand".

Often in excruciating detail, Laskin describes the horrors these children endured as the blizzard raged. Hypothermia took many children—frequently within reach of their homes. Parents found children frozen in one another’s arms, desperately trying to protect each other.

Some miraculously survived only to die later from infection or shock and cardiac arrest. Still others suffered ghastly amputations, done with little anesthesia and under the most primitive medical conditions.

There are days and moments that become stamped indelibly on the minds of people who experience those times. The dates—December 7, 1941—November 22, 1963—September 11, 2001—need no explanation for those who lived through those flashpoints of history. Such a date was January 12, 1888 for the pioneer families of Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Minnesota. It was a watershed moment on the prairie and a day frozen in time. I encourage you to read "The Children’s Blizzard" by David Laskin.

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