Blizzard of 1949
Cattle
Mabell
Cox, a Mullen Nebraska resident, remembers losing around 30 to 40 cows in
the aftermath of the storm. Most area ranchers suffered heavy losses. Mabell
said they carried hay and water daily to the cattle on a sled made of wood,
that would go through the drifts.
With
cattle numbers down,
cattle prices went way up.
The January 6, 1949, issue
of the Lincoln Journal stated that “Some
stockmen were seeking to check their losses, others to find out where their
herds were driven by the blinding storm. Drifts in the area, as in many parts
of the state’s grasslands, were too deep to reach by foot, by car or on horseback.”
Another problem facing ranchers was the extremely cold temperature
that froze lakes, limiting the water supply to cattle.
The North Platte Telegraph
on Wednesday, December 12, 1994, states “it has been estimated that the overall
loss in the Blizzard of ’49 was $190,000. The livestock loss was insurmountable
with low estimates that 119,000 cattle and 134,000 sheep had perished and
millions more had been endangered. The property damage alone was at $10.7
million and the railroad suffered $50 million in damages and estimated that
76 people died in storm-related accidents or froze to death.”