The Schoolhouse Blizzard, also known as the Schoolchildren's Blizzard or the Children's Blizzard, hit the U.S. plains states on January 12, 1888. The blizzard came unexpectedly on a warm day, and many people were caught unaware, including children in one-room schoolhouses.
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The blizzard of 1888
The blizzard was precipitated by the collision of an immense Arctic cold front with warm, moisture-laden air from the Gulf of Mexico. Within a few hours, the advancing cold front caused a temperature drop from a few degrees above freezing to –20 degrees Fahrenheit (–40 in some places). This wave of cold was accompanied by high winds and heavy snow. The fast-moving storm struck Montana in the early hours of January 12, swept through Dakota Territory from midmorning to early afternoon, and reached Lincoln, Nebraska at 3 p.m. What made the storm so deadly was the timing (during work hours), the suddenness, and the brief spell of balmy weather that preceded it. People ventured from the safety of their homes to do chores, go to town, attend school, or simply enjoy the unseasonable warmth. As a result, thousands of people – including a significant number of schoolchildren – got caught in the blizzard. Approximately 500 people died of hypothermia. Travel was severely impeded in the days following. Two months later, another severe blizzard hit the East Coast states: This blizzard was known as the Great Blizzard of 1888.
The stories
- Plainview, Nebraska: Lois Royce found herself trapped with three of her students in her schoolhouse. By 3pm, they had run out of heating fuel. Her boarding house was only 82 yards away, so she attempted to lead the children there. However, visibility was so poor that they became lost and all the children froze to death. The teacher survived, but her feet were frostbitten and had to be amputated.
- Holt County, Nebraska: Etta Shattuck got lost on her way home, and sought shelter in a haystack. She remained trapped there for three days and, although she was finally rescued, she soon died.
- In Great Plains, South Dakota, the children were rescued. Two men tied a rope to the closest house, and headed for the school. There, they tied off the other end of the rope, and led the children to safety.
- Mira Valley, Nebraska: Minnie Freeman safely led seventeen children from her schoolhouse to her home, one mile away. The rumor she used a rope to keep the children together during the blinding storm is widely circulated, but one of the children claims that is not true. She took them to the boarding house she lived at about a mile away and all of her pupils survived. Many children in similar conditions around the Great Plains were not so lucky, as 235 people were killed, most of them children who couldn't get home from school.
- Ted Kooser, Nebraska poet, has recorded many of the stories of the Schoolhouse Blizzard in his book of poetry, "The Blizzard Voices".
- In 1967 a haunting mosaic mural by Jeanne Reynal was created for the west wall of the north bay in the Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska. It captures much of the mood and drama of the storm. The mural, executed in a semi-abstract style, portrays an incident that occurred in which a school teacher, Minnie Freeman, is supposed to have tied her charges together with a clothes line and led them through the terrifying tempest to safety.
Affected states
Many of these states were just United States territories at the time:
Other names
- The Schoolhouse Blizzard
- The Schoolchildren's Blizzard
- The Big Brash Blizzard of 1888
Not to be confused with the Blizzard of 1888, which affected the East Coast later that year.
See also
References
- The Weather Notebook: Schoolhouse Blizzard
- Old Time Nebraska -- The Big Brash Blizzard
- The Blizzard of 1888 at Rootsweb
- David Laskin, The Children's Blizzard (2004) ISBN 0060520752
