The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-12-18
SOME UTAH WINTERS.
The Pioneer Talks About Deep Shows
in These Valleys.
In go It showed for Seven Days Straight
-sieighing in the Good
Old Days.

"Looks like hard winter,'' observed
HERALD reporter, as he met the Pho
neer.
''Good gracious, my boy, this is moth
ing. Setting in little early, but view
had lots harder winters than this. Why,
in the winter of $50 it commenced to snow
about Christmas and it showed for seven
days straight. The snow was piled up in
the mountains to tremendous depth.
On New Year. day it commenced to rain.
That rain storm swept from the coast
clear over these mountains here and clear
up to British Columbia. The conse-
quence was that the rain melted the snow
off and we had most terrific flood. Why,
all the bottoms over the Jordan and
where North Salt Lake is built were from
three to five feet under water. That was
a tremendous flood.
But in the winter of 1862 there was
not snow enough here to run a sled on all
winter. 1 remember we had just one
evening OF coasting. Joseph A. Young
got his cutter out but he couldn't make
it 60
The winter of ;63 was pretty tolerable
hard one, but we had no snow at all until
the 18th of December. On the night OF
St. Johns Day, Brigham Young gave a
grand ball at Social hall That was big
affair. Every Gentle of note was invited.
The tickets were SO. supper and all, and
we had Jolly supper that night. The
weather was SO fine that the ladies pre-
ferred walking home, although the car
riages were there and paid for. On the
following day IT commenced to snow and
we had magnificent sleighing. 1t must
have been two feet deep.
THE HARDEST OF xv1NTErs
''TaIk about hard winters, - unused the
pioneer, ''why, my boy, you ought to
have been here in '64-65-that was the
hardest winter we have had in thirty
years. My, gracious, it was rough enc,
we had six weeks of good sleighing. The
snow in the southern part of
the town was over the tops OF
the fences. 1t was singing cold, too.
tell you. The great drive in those days
was down West Temple street for two
miles, and every afternoon ali the teams
IN town would get out. We would start
at Temple block, get up full speed by the
time we reached the Townsend house,
and lordy, how we would go. The snow
was SO deep that people had TO stand on
tptoe to see over the snow banks on each
side of the paths that had been shoveled
out. The cutters in those days were
mostly home made. A fancy cutter that
you can get for $50 now cost 500 then.
SOME DEEP SNOW.
On the 26th of March, 1866, was the
heaviest snow that ever fell here in one
night. It commenced at six O'Clock in
the evening and by morning if was two
feet deep on level. My, but it made a
terrific food when it melted off. In that
winter the snow was ten feet deep mp in
the canyon. In Echo canyon the stage
stations were completely buried, couldn't
see anything but the smoke coming out
of the chimneys. The snow was thirty
feet deep on Quaking Asp ridge.
4 think that was the winter that
stage driver froze to death. and another
had his legs frozen off. If the stage
horses got off the beaten TRACK in the
deep snow the passengers had to get out
and help lift them back. The snow was
six feet deep all the way to Denver. l
don't think we were ever without mail
more than week, though
IT WAS PRETTY COLD.
But the coolest weather we ever had
here was in the seventies can't recollect
the exact year. l remember one night
when the wind blew about ninety miles
an hour. l went to q ball that evening
in Richards hall. 1t was so cold that the
ladies danced with their wraps on and the
men wore their overcoats.
sit was only six or seven years ago that
the mercury got down to IS below zero.
That was pretty cold, too