Big Horn Historical Society Program on the Storm of the Century

The Storm of the Century is often used to describe the Blizzard of 1949, when heavy snows, strong winds and cold temperatures lead to extreme livestock and wildlife losses, and even loss of human life. The major blizzard happened Jan. 2-5 of 1949.

The Big Horn Historical Society program held on Sunday, March 23, featured a viewing of the Wyoming PBS Documentary The “Storm of the Century: The Blizzard of ’49” which tells the story of the blizzard, and the hard winter that preceded it. Twelve people died in Wyoming, and 76 died throughout the region where the storm hit.

The blizzard hit on Jan 2, with the weather forecast calling for, “Scattered Snow Showers.” An unexpected Arctic cold front swept down, bringing snow, winds and subzero temperatures. The hardest hit states were Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska. Winds gusted to 66 mph, blowing and drifting snow for three days, burying cars, sheds, fences and house.

The documentary featured several people who were affected by the blizzard, one man’s aunt, uncle and cousins died in the blizzard. Cattle and sheep died by the thousands; many deaths caused by the tiny particles of snow which suffocated the animals as they tried to breathe.

After the documentary, was a short interview with Vic Garber on KROE’s Public Pulse in 2014. Garber talked about being stranded in Nebraska during the storm. They were snowed into the Alvin Miller ranch near Belmont, Nebraska for 19 days before the Army came in and plowed out the road. He said that in some of the deep canyons on the ranch, the snow was so deep that the tops of big pine trees, as tall as 30 feet, looked like Christmas trees. The snowplow on the railroad came through and hit a frozen horse on the track and had to be returned for repairs.

The photo on the cover of the Bizzard of 1949 book is Garber herding a cow through a snow drift.

After the program, attendees were asked to share their stories about the blizzard.

Paul Garber, Vic’s son, was five years old at the time of the storm. He remembered a deal was made with the train, that the families along the tracks could bag up some coal to use for heat. His grandfather, father and uncle rode along on the train, and gathered coal to help them keep warm.

“That was scary,” Garber added. He remembered there was a lot of worry and misery during the blizzard.

Mona Brown said she didn’t remember much about the blizzard, except for being home schooled for two weeks because they were snowed in and couldn’t get to school. Other students, out Big Goose way, didn’t get to school for another two weeks after that. “It must have been pretty bad.”

Big Horn Historical Society President Mike Kuzara shared memories of the storm as well, saying he was about10 years old, and he said that they gave shelter to two guys from the highway department who got stuck in a drift and couldn’t go forward or backward. “They weren’t too unhappy, Mom was a good cook, and we had coal heat.”

He added they had to shovel out by hand. He said that telephone and telegraph lines continued to transmit during the storm. People were stranded in homes, in cars, and on trains while the blizzard raged, or while they were waiting for roads to clear after the storm.

He also had photos of the 1984 spring storm, and talked about where he was during that storm.

Dennis Reher, who was two-years old at the time, of the ’49 blizzard, shared a story of his family when many family members were snowed into a two-bedroom house.

After the weather cleared some, his father walked through the snow 12 miles to his farm to feed his livestock. It took him two days to make the trek, spending the night with another family along the way.

When he got to his farm, he went into the dugout where the cattle and hogs were kept, he discovered the hogs had pulled the chicken wire off of one wall that was made of hay bales, and the animals fared very well. “Better than I did,” he said.

When the storm ended, the U.S. Government sent aid to the rural residents, plowing out the roads and train tracks, and sending airplanes to drop hay to starving and stranded livestock and wildlife, and delivering medication and food to families.

The documentary about the blizzard is available on YouTube. There are also several books about the blizzard.