Semi-weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings Co., S.D.) 1894-1898, 1898-10-21
EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO.
The Unparalleled storm of 1880 and Ii,
Long Blockade.

The Unparalleled storm of 1880 and It's
Long Blockade.
Old timers in Brookngs county need
no reminder of the winter of lSS0-Sl.
The writer had made preparations to
| leave Wisconsin, for BrOOkingS on
Monday, October 18th Of that year but
was Informed by telegram from G..
| w. Hopp not to come on account Of
| the blockade, and the road was not
| opened to this point for nearly three
weeks after that date. Trains were
running here at intervals until about
| the 26th Of January and then all COM
munication was shut off until the 3rd
or 4th of May. In speaking of that
memorable winter in comparison to
the date Of the present heavy snow
storm the Sioux City journal says:
The unreasonable snowfall which op-
ened the winter Of 1880. and which is
recalled by the present furry on ac-
count Of the practical coincidence in
dates, commenced little after noon
on Friday, October 10. Early in the
day there was raw wind with spat-
ters Of ram, but about o'clock il hail
ed for time and then snowfall began.
1t was accompanied by thunder and
lightning and the clouds were so heavy
that lamps had to be lighted early in
the afternoon. The storm was so Sc
we're that business was practically
suspended BY midnight it had de-
veloped into raging blizzard, with
gale blowing from the northwest, but
the four inches of snow that had fall.
en- at that hour was too damp to drift.
On Saturday morning there was hur-
ricaue prevailing throughout the CEN
ter Of the continent, reaching from
the Rocky Mountains on the west to
Michigan and Indiana on the east,
and from Duluth on the north to
Little Rock, Ark, on the south.
Throughout all this extensive region
telegraph lines were blown down, and
in many sections railway traffic was
suspended. In the northwest the
snow was especially heavy, and as the
temperature lowered it became 6rier
and was piled in drifts in some cases
as high as eight and ten feet. There
was normal fall Of only about six
inches. Some of the snow that fell in
that storm did not melt until the first
of May the next year. All the winter
long there were heavy deposits and
the earth was not entirely clear until
the big breakup in the spring Of 1881,
which produced such disastrous floods.
THE LONG BLOCKADE.
For months at a stretch during the
winter in the section of the country
northwest Of Sioux City, there was no
communication whatever with the
outside world. OF course, the usual
supplies of groceries and fuel were ex-
hausted early in many localities and
the people were compelled to resort to
ali kinds of makeshifts to supply the
deficiency. The railway companies
spent fortunes striving to raise the
blockade, but as fast as a section of
road was cleared the snow would I'LL it
in again, and there were many places
where the drifts were piled forty or
fifty feet on either side Of the track.
There never has been such another
winter In this latitude and 1t is not
likely there ever will be. Such
blockade is scarcely possible with the
present facilities which the railroads
possess for breaking drifts,
EARLY sNow FALL.
The Journal gives the following
data as recorded by It's weather bureau
since It's establishment In 1885, "The
recurd fDr 1901 Is octoher . The ors