Home * January 1, 1949 * Cattle * Interviews
Our Experience in the 1949 Blizzard
--W. Gall
Sunday morning January 2 while getting ready for Sunday School and church at Haxtun, Colo. where we were visiting with Harold's, Dorothy suggested we had better start for home in Cheyenne since the weather appeared a bit unsettled. She feared it may snow before evening however, since we had not been back to Haxtun for a visit since we left in October. We decided to remain for church services and Haxel agreed to stay at home and have dinner ready as soon as we returned from church.
It was about 2:00 pm. when we finally finished packing and were ready to leave Harold's . However, we noticed that two of the tires appeared a bit low so we stopped in Paoli, to get air in these tires. Then to since we hadn't seen aunt Minnie for some time and she is now almost bedfast we decided to pay her a short visit before leaving. After all these stops it was almost three p.m. before we finally left Paoli on a trip long to be remembered.
We kept our radio on for reports of the storm since Hazel told us at noon that snow flurries were reported in Cheyenne, and that warnings were given to notify stockmen. We progressed nicely and saw the first flurries when driving between Sterling and Sidney. However, this snow was only light and little did we fear driving into this weather since we were cozy and warm in our Nash. We continued on our trip at full speed until we were about ten miles past Kimball, Nebr. There the snow seemed to be coming down in fine flakes and due to the heavy wind was starting a ground blizzard. Driving was not difficult however during the daylight hours since one could see out the side window and see the ditch of the road. It was difficult to see forward past the radiator of our car except that we could see the red taillights of cars ahead which were now driving very slowly.
As we reached Pine Bluffs we first decided to stop but just then the storm seemed to be breaking and it became possible to drive near 40 miles per hour again even with lights in the snow. So we continued hoping to get through the remaining 40 miles to Cheyenne within another hour. The break in the storm lasted for about ten miles when it began worse than before. This time it was no longer possible to see ahead even with lights on the center strip in the road I could see that strip by keeping my head out of the window. Hardly had I driven two miles when all of a sudden I saw a man standing almost at my open window for now I was driving only about 3 or 4 miles per hour being able to get my bearings only between gusts of wind. This man whose car I noticed after stopping, had unfortunately slid into the ditch. He told us his story and asked that we at least take his wife and two small children along, for they were only ten months and two years of age. His car had one broken window now facing the storm and snow was getting in the car already beginning to cover them. Without hesitation we invited the whole group of five to accompany us in our car making ten in our car and we proceeded at a very slow rate of speed sometimes stopping entirely to get our bearing for already the snow was covering the center strip in the road that I was using as a guide.
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