Little Egypt Heritage Articles eduda tsunogisdi © Bill Oliver 3 December 2006 Vol 5 Issue: #39 ISBN: pending O’siyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, “Severe Weather” When Mom and her sisters’ families would get together, the men would form a circle and get into ‘discussions’. This week’s weather got me to remembering ‘discussions’ on who had it the toughest getting to school in winter. As my ‘Sainted’ Father oft said to me, “I know not how the truth may be, but I tell the tale as ‘twas happen to me.” For some of us living in the ‘Good Ole USA’ Mother Nature has given us a change of pace when it comes to our weather. Last week it was rather balmy in many parts of the country. A day or so ago there were a few spots in the ‘mid-west’ which were experiencing dropping temperatures and rain making for layers of ice. On Friday morning as I was traveling about twenty miles south of my home, it had been raining for the night hours and apparently the skies had opened and let much water fall upon the earth. Traveling my four lane roadway south it felt as if the road was paved on a strip of barely high ground across a gigantic lake. Water in the fields was nearly to the road. Inexperienced drivers in their SUVs were taking to skimming [hydroplaning] on the road surfaces, falling into ditches and taking out trees instead of coming to a standstill on the road surfaces. By afternoon snow had begun to fall in some places west and east, north and south of the tear duct of Lake Erie, leaving only the damage from high winds for us to suffer. Kansas City, Missouri, friends were reporting layers of ice before their snow began to fall, and they received some inches of the white stuff. Nebraska has some real stories about snow that frequented that state. For an interesting read about the legendary snow of 1888 in Nebraska go to the second URL listed in the Post Script following this article. Northwestern Ohioans will remember the ‘Blizzard of 1978' when the Ohio National Guardsmen plowed over vehicles because they couldn’t tell the difference between snow drifts and snow covered vehicles. However, this article will concentrate on material that is remembered from one of the writings of Jon Musgrave of Southern Illinois [Marion, Williamson County, I believe]. In 1967 enough snow fell in Chicago to paralyze the economic life in that great city – 23 inches of the white stuff. Enough snow to get Uncles George, Chuck and Paul and my Dad to telling ever greater stories about walking to school through snow like that of the Nebraska snow storm of 1888 referred to above. However, the Granddaddy of all snow storms that have crossed my reading eyes was labeled the ‘Winter of the Deep Snow’. Long before there was a US Weather Bureau to verify the facts – 1830/32 – snow was so deep, the cold so intense, lasting the longest since the retreat of the last glacier. Yet, even there, there is a debate about the bitter winter of 1777/78 at Valley Forge. This debate was instigated by Revolutionary War Veterans who sat around remembering that winter. At any rate, the ‘Winter of the Deep Snow’ in Southern Illinois laid a blanket of snow three feet with six foot drifts. Enough snow to make bear claw marks on the trees seem nearly fifteen feet from the ground. The storm lasted two months and the high winds shut families indoors and travelers were snowbound wherever they got caught. Locals used the memory of this storm as qualification for membership in ‘Old Settlers’ organizations and the designation as ‘Snow Bird’. Stories of this storm were repeated all the way to the Pacific Ocean and the ‘Snow Bird Badge’ was said to be so highly prized that it couldn’t be bought for a ‘hundred turkeys’ in Oregon. Among the ‘Old Settlers’ was none other than Abraham Lincoln who ‘celebrated’ that ‘Deep Snow’ about ten miles southeast of Decatur, Illinois. Reportedly, a cold rain began five days prior to Christmas 1830, then alternating to sleet or snow until the day following Christmas. At this point accumulation was reported to be six inches. A wild and furious wind [gale probably] piled snow drifts up to a man’s waist. Then it rained some more, freezing and forming a crust of ice before a few more inches of light snow. The surface was discribed as strong enough to hold ‘team and sled’. [This is how a bear could appear to be as tall as fifteen feet in these neck of the woods.] The North Wind, night and day, blew ‘heavy for weeks’ [a couple anyway] and the temperature never rose above ten below zero. Blowing snow stung the eyes and face and the cold wind stopped the breath of anyone who dared to go outside. Chunks of wind driven snow went through the chinks of cabins [so ‘twas said]. Those who didn’t have firewood cut and stacked close by, or corn and wheat for food for beast and man had problems figuring how to retrieve these things because any path made in the snow was filled in, in a matter of minutes. The sharpness of deer hoofs could cut through the crust and entrap the animals. Buffalo also were trapped in the snow and perished. It is ‘said’ that this ‘Winter of the Deep Snow’ finished the buffalo east of the Mississippi. Hunters and wolves found it easy pickings. Now that was a winter to tell stories about. e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-WI NV-WA-do-hi-ya NV-WA-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- 902 PostScript: "Myths are universal and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives ..." Alexander McCall Smith, Dream Angus http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/disasters/snowstorms.html http://www.olden-times.com/oldtimenebraska/n-dtaylor/blizzard.html Jon Musgrave has a web presence called ‘illinoishistory’