1888 was not a very good year weather wise.

[Tabonga | 2,345]

Given the current stormy winter I thought this was pretty interesting.  It was actually two really large storms - the first was in January in the west and midwest and was called the children's blizzard since so many children died in it as they tried to return home from schools.   The second devastated mucn of the east coast and inland in March of 1888.   The storms were the two deadliest winter storms in US history.  

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/the-blizzard-of-1888-americas-greatest-snow-disaster

Edited December 25, 2022 by Tabonga

[Link | 2,738]

I'm glad you made it home from school.

[Tabonga | 2,345]

27 minutes ago, Link said:

I'm glad you made it home from school.

I hibernated in an igloo I built.

[Sumez | 2,995]

I agree

[Daniel_Doyce | 477]

Theodore Roosevelt documented much of this. He almost went bankrupt as a rancher due to the blizzard and took more than a decade to pay off his creditors. I've read Edmund Morris' biography, but don't have it handy at the moment, but I remember a passage from a boy who remembered the blizzard and the mass death of cattle and bison and the gruesome sight of a plethora of animal carcasses blocking the river when the thaw came.

[RH | 4,980]

Ah, very interesting.  My family had been watching through Little House on the Prairie for a while (though my kids called it quits after four seasons because something dire happens every. single. episode.) and one of the plots during the 3/4th season was that the kids were sent home from school and very shortly after a blizzard blew in and the town had to rally and find them all. 

Yes, people died.

That show rarely posts dates, but knowing the age of Laura Ingles Wilder, yes, that episode was set around that time.  I had no clue it was inspired by an actual event.  Thanks for posting that.  It provides a good bit of context.

[Daniel_Doyce | 477]

On 12/27/2022 at 8:42 AM, RH said:

Ah, very interesting.  My family had been watching through Little House on the Prairie for a while (though my kids called it quits after four seasons because something dire happens every. single. episode.) and one of the plots during the 3/4th season was that the kids were sent home from school and very shortly after a blizzard blew in and the town had to rally and find them all. 

Yes, people died.

That show rarely posts dates, but knowing the age of Laura Ingles Wilder, yes, that episode was set around that time.  I had no clue it was inspired by an actual event.  Thanks for posting that.  It provides a good bit of context.

I don't remember that episode specifically, but in the original books, she tells a very similar story that must have actually happened and formed the genesis for that episode. Some children went home from the schoolhouse as a blizzard was starting to worsen and just missed touching the edge of their house and then got lost in the snowbanks and froze to death.

Life on the frontier was hard and unforgiving.