The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-03-11
OUT IN A BLIZZARD.
The Trying Experience of a Gov
ernment Contractor
Forced to Camp on a Cold Dakota Bluff
Whistling Winds and Howling Wolves
Made Life Miserable-A Memoir
able Ride in the Night.

In the winter of 1871 a contract tina
had entered into with the Unite
states quartermaster's department fo
supplying wood to certain militar
posts on the upper Missouri rendered
necessary that 1 should spend tn
greater portion of the time in tn
camps of my choppers, which wer,
scattered along the river between Fort
Benton and Abraham Lincoln.
On the Goth day of January, while
Was in camp eighty miles above For
Lincoln, warm snowstorm set in tha
lasted for three days This storm wa.
followed by 'cold wave" that sem
the shivering cattle to the corrals. the
choppers 20 the warmth of their camp
fires and hardened the surface of the
snow until it would bear up the weight
OF light horse anywhere.
Over this hard, smooth surface. |
fGund myself skimming one morning
early in February on a light sled,
drawn by two of the widest bronehos
III the whole territory of "Whoop-up. -
Us that section of country was then
iacetiously called
IT was a glorious sunrise thai I
turned my face toward that morning.
Iar away to the eastward. the great
I"nd-billows, white to the crest as the
veil Of bride, glistened and grew
tremulous TO the gaze, under the daz-
zlng burst of sunlight. The choppers
were at work and the sturdy blows
that they dealt the tough elms RANG
out on the still air with a sound like
that of a scattering slirmish fire and
invoke the mapping echoes far up and
down stream. Up hill and down, the
free-going bronchos logged along, un-
TIL about four hours of daylight re-
mained, enough to show me the way to
Bill Mcekers road ranch, twenty miles
away.
/ had just begun the ascent of the
western slope of a great divide, the
summit of which was fully four miles
away, when, happening to glance to
the northward, | was startled to be-
mold II dense mass of leaden clouds
rolling up from the horizon. resi-
dence of eleven years in the north
western corner of Dakota had familiar
lied me with the local sign language of
the heavens, and one glance toward
this surging cloud-mass told me that a
blizzard was loose on the plains. Be-
fore had completed one-half of the
ascent, tattered cloud streamers-
shorn off the front of the storm by the
Iury of the wind-wcre driving across
the face of the sun, changing the
warmth and glow on the eastern hill
SUBMITS to the chill and pallor of
death. | had watched the advancing
front of many a blizzard, but never
had seen one whose dark wings bore
it so swiftly onward as this was borne.
Away to the left the snowy cone of
lofty butte stood full against the
storms front, and the effect of con-
trast was simply APPALLING. AS looked |
toward this well-linown landmark its |
outlines grew blurred and indistinct, |
and in twin king it had disappeared |
from view as completely as if the earth
had swallowed it up. Then there
came distinctly to the ear dull, hol-
low roar, such as the mariner some |
times hears at midnight, when be-
Gained in West India seas, in the front |
of hurricane. The bronchos heard |
the ominous sound and broke into a |
run, as l slackened the reins invol-
while listening
In order to avoid the deep coulees
which, on the eastern bank of the
Great Bend of the Missouri, run well
back from the river, the road curved
sharply to the left, at the summit of
she divide, which point l reached just
n time TO catch the full force of the
irst rush of the blizzard. The trend of
he road sent me straight into the
-eeth OF the tempest. | had small
iopes of being able to face the storm
lor any considerable length of time.
)pe minute OF it was enough. That
ny team was still running knew by
he tugging at the reins and the bound-
ng OF The sled, for the rising blast
out every sound and the
singing ice-needles that filed the air
limited my range of vision to the
ength of the sled. Respiration, at first
'ifficult. soon became we'll nigh impos-
ible. so TO avoid being suffocated out
light l brought the bropchos around,
all to the storm, and narrowly escaped
'apsizing the sled in doing so. / knew
hat down in the Missouri bottom,
lbout five miles away, lay Bob Flavin's
)eef ranch, and while the prospect of
hiding it under present circumstances
vas slim enough, determined to make
he attempt 1t was SIMPLY impossible