The Schoolhouse Blizzard, also known as the Schoolchildren's Blizzard, School Children's Blizzard,
or Children's Blizzard,
hit the U.S.
plains states
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
on January 12, 1888. The
blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling b ...
came unexpectedly on a relatively warm day, and many people were caught unaware, including children in
one-room school
One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...
houses.
The Schoolhouse/Children's Blizzard of 1888
The blizzard was preceded by a snowstorm from January 6 through January 11, which dropped snow on the northern and central plains and was followed by an outbreak of brutal cold from January 7 to 11.
The weather prediction for the day was issued by the
Weather Bureau
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the p ...
, which at the time was managed by Brigadier General
Adolphus Greely
Adolphus Washington Greely (March 27, 1844 – October 20, 1935) was a United States Army officer and polar explorer. He attained the rank of Major general (United States), major general and was a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
A native o ...
.The indications officer(forecaster) Lieutenant Thomas Mayhew Woodruff in St. Paul Minnesota said: "A cold wave is indicated for Dakota and Nebraska tonight and tomorrow; the snow will drift heavily today and tomorrow in Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin."
On January 11, a strengthening surface low dropped south-southeastward out of
Alberta, Canada
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to t ...
into central
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
and then into northeastern
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
by the morning of January 12. The temperatures in advance of the low increased some 20–40 degrees in the central plains (for example,
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
recorded a temperature of at 7 a.m. on January 11, while the temperature had increased to by 7 a.m. on January 12). The strong surface low rapidly moved into southeastern Nebraska by 3 p.m. on January 12 and finally into southwestern
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
by 11 p.m. that same day. On January 11, the massive cold air mass that had formed around January 8 around
Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, ...
, Alberta, and
Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan
Qu'Appelle () is a town in Saskatchewan, located on Saskatchewan Highway 35, Highway 35 approximately east of the provincial capital (political), capital of Regina, Saskatchewan, Regina.
Qu'Appelle was for a time the terminus of the Canadian Pa ...
, had reached a spread of over .
The blizzard was precipitated by the collision of an immense Arctic
cold front
A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface trough of low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropical cyclone (to the west in the Norther ...
with warm moisture-laden air from the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
. Within a few hours, the advancing cold front caused a
temperature
Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer.
Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...
drop from a few degrees above freezing to −20 degrees
Fahrenheit
The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his ...
(-29 degrees
Celsius
The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...
)
in some places This wave of cold was accompanied by high winds and heavy
snow
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
. The fast-moving storm first struck Montana in the early hours of January 12, swept through
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of No ...
from midmorning to early afternoon, and reached
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
at 3 p.m.
Many who were caught unaware misjudged the weather due to a warm spell. Carl Saltee, a teenage Norwegian immigrant in Fortier, Minnesota remembered that "...on the 12th of January 1888 around noontime it was so warm it melted snow and ice from the window until after 1 p.m." This changed rapidly for the teenager who continued that by 3:30 p.m. "A dark and heavy wall built up around the northwest coming fast, coming like those heavy
icthunderstorms, like a shot. In a few moments, we had the severest snowstorm I ever saw in my life with a terrible hard wind, like a
Hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
, snow so thick we could not see more than 3 steps from the door at times."
The ''Boston Daily Advertiser'' reported under the headline "Midnight at Noon" that "At Fargo....mercury 47° below zero and a hurricane blowing...At Neche, Dak. the thermometer is 58° below zero."
What made the storm so deadly was the timing (during work and school hours), the suddenness of the storm, and the brief spell of warmer weather that preceded it. In addition, the very strong wind fields behind the cold front and the powdery nature of the snow reduced visibilities on the open plains to zero. People ventured from the safety of their homes to do chores, go to town, attend school, or simply enjoy the relative warmth of the day. As a result, thousands of people—including many schoolchildren—got caught in the blizzard. The death toll was 235, though some estimate 1000. Teachers generally kept children in their schoolrooms. Exceptions nearly always resulted in disaster.
This cold front was so self-reinforced that it dropped temperatures all the way down in Veracruz, Mexico before dissapating.
Travel was severely impeded in the days following.
Two months later, yet another severe blizzard hit the
East Coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
states: This blizzard was known as the
Great Blizzard of 1888
The Great Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great Blizzard of '88 or the Great White Hurricane (March 11–14, 1888), was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history. The storm paralyzed the East Coast from the Chesapeake Ba ...
. It severely affected the east coast, in states like New York and Massachusetts.
The stories
*
Plainview, Nebraska
Plainview is a city in Pierce County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Norfolk, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,246 at the 2010 census.
History
The area of Plainview was first settled by William B. Chilver ...
: Lois Royce found herself trapped with three of her students in her schoolhouse. By 3 p.m., they had run out of heating
fuel
A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...
. Her
boarding house was only away, so she attempted to lead the children there. However, visibility was so poor that they became lost and the children, two nine-year-old boys, and a six-year-old girl,
froze to death. The teacher survived, but her feet were
frostbitten and had to be
amputated
Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indivi ...
.
*
Seward County, Nebraska
Seward County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 16,750. Its county seat is Seward. The county was formed in 1855, and was organized in 1867. It was originally called Greene County, ...
: Etta Shattuck, a nineteen-year-old schoolteacher, got lost on her way home and sought shelter in a
hay
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticated ...
stack. She remained trapped there until her rescue 78 hours later by Daniel D. Murphy and his hired men. She died on February 6 (an early account to February 7) around 9 A.M. due to complications from surgery to remove her frostbitten feet and legs.
* Near
Zeona, South Dakota
Zeona is an extinct town in Perkins County, South Dakota, Perkins County, in the U.S. state of South Dakota. The GNIS classifies it as a populated place.
History
Zeona was laid out in 1910, close to Spring Creek and the Moreau River (South Dakot ...
: The children at the local school 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 thirteen children from her schoolhouse to her home, away. The rumor she used a rope to keep the children together during the blinding storm is widely circulated, but one of the children claimed it was not true. All of her pupils survived. That year, "Song of the Great Blizzard: Thirteen Were Saved" or "Nebraska's Fearless Maid", was written and recorded in her honor by William Vincent and published by
Lyon & Healy
Lyon & Healy Harps, Inc. is an American musical instrument manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois and is a subsidiary of Salvi Harps. Today best known for concert harps, the company's Chicago headquarters and manufacturing facility contains a ...
.
** In 1967, a Venetian glass mural of The Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888 by
Jeanne Reynal
Jeanne Reynal (1903–1983) is a mosaicist and a significant figure of the New York School group of artists. She showed with Betty Parsons Gallery. Her work is in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Fran ...
was installed on the west wall of the north bay in the
Nebraska State Capitol
The Nebraska State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Nebraska and is located in downtown Lincoln. Designed by New York architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in 1920, it was constructed of Indiana limestone from 1922 to 193 ...
building in
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
, for the 1967 Centennial Celebration. The mural, in a semi-abstract style, portrays a purported incident in which a schoolteacher, Minnie Freeman, tied her children together with a clothesline and led them through the storm to safety.
*
Ted Kooser
Theodore J. Kooser (born 25 April 1939) is an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2005. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006. Kooser was one of the first poets laureate selec ...
, Nebraska poet, has recorded many of the stories of the Schoolhouse Blizzard in his book of poetry "The Blizzard Voices."
*
Ron Hansen, a Nebraska-born author, follows the experience of the Blizzard from a variety of perspectives in his short story "Wickedness," featured in the collections ''Nebraska'' and ''She Loves Me Not''.
* A 36 year old Scottish immigrant farmer, James Jackson, just outside of
Woodstock, Minnesota, discovered his cattle herd frozen to death in a stretch.
* Newspaperman Charles Morse, founder of the Lake Benton News recounted, "My sleeping quarters were on the second floor leading off a hallway at the head of the stairs...On arriving home I found the wind had forced open the door and the stairway was packed with snow, and when I reached my room I found my bed covered with several inches of snow which had filtered over the threshold and through my keyhole."
* Pioneers William and Kate Kampen, who lived in a small sod house in Marion, South Dakota territory were caught ill-prepared for such a blizzard. They had run out of coal for their fire, so William was forced to leave for the town of
Parker, South Dakota
Parker is a city in Turner County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,194 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Turner County. Parker is bordered on its eastern side by South Dakota State Highway 19. Its northern side is b ...
some away to buy more coal and supplies. He took two of his horses with him. While William was gone, 19-year-old Kate gave birth alone to their first son, Henry Royal Kampen, on January 8, 1888. While in town, the blizzard hit and several of William's friends tried to persuade him to stay in town, but he knew he had to get back home to Kate not knowing she had given birth to their son. The storm was severe and raged on as he tried to make his way back home. He stayed with his horses, but eventually, both of them died because the wind was so strong that both the horses suffocated. William was able to find a barn with pigs in it and so he crawled in with them to try to keep warm. Meanwhile, Kate kept herself and the baby warm by staying in bed. William finally made it back home to Kate and the baby after spending three days and nights out on the prairie alone.
[From the letters and articles of the Kampen family archive as recorded by Ardyth Johnston of Watertown, SD for the "County History Book". Additional information was obtained from a handwritten letter to Ardyth Johnston written by Henry Royal Kampen before his death on October 18, 1976.]
*
Lauren Tarshis published a book in February 2018 about the Children's Blizzard in her
I Survived (book series)
Lauren Tarshis is an author of children's books, with several series of fiction, non-fiction and historical fiction works found in thousands of libraries and translated into several languages.
She is the author of the '' New York Times '' Bestse ...
, focusing on a character under the name of John.
Memorial book
In the 1940s a group organized the Greater Nebraska Blizzard Club to write a book about the storm. The resulting book, ''In All Its Fury: A History of the Blizzard of Jan. 12, 1888, With Stories and Reminiscences'', was edited by W.H. O'Gara.
Affected states and territories
Many of these states were
United States territories
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and tribal reservations as they are not sover ...
at the time:
*
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...
(territory)
*
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
(territory)
*
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
*
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
*
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
*
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
(territory)
*
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
(territory)
*
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
(territory)
See also
*
1888 Northwest United States cold wave
*
List of Minnesota weather records
The following is a list of Minnesota weather records Surface weather observation, observed at various stations across the state during the Over 160 years. Minnesota is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. Due ...
*
1920 North Dakota blizzard The 1920 North Dakota blizzard was a severe blizzard that killed 34 people from March 15–18, 1920 in the state of North Dakota. It is considered among the worst blizzards on record in North Dakota.
High winds and an eight-inch (20 cm) snowfa ...
*
Pleasant Hill bus tragedy
The Pleasant Hill bus tragedy happened on March 26, 1931, near Towner, Colorado, United States, when a spring blizzard caused the death of five school children and their bus driver, while the rest of the students had to wait 33 hours for rescu ...
References
References
*
The Weather Notebook: Schoolhouse BlizzardTodayshistorylesson.wordpress.com/ Children's Blizzard of 1888*
David Laskin, ''The Children's Blizzard'' (2004)
* Reader's Digest, ''Discovering America's Past'' (1993)
* W. H. O'Gara, ''In All Its Fury: A History of the Blizzard of January 12, 1888'' (1947)
{{United States winter storms
1888-1
Pacific Northwest storms
1888 meteorology
1888 natural disasters in the United States
Disasters in schools
Natural disasters in Kansas
Natural disasters in Minnesota
Natural disasters in Montana
Natural disasters in Nebraska
Natural disasters in North Dakota
Natural disasters in South Dakota
Natural disasters in Omaha, Nebraska
January 1888 events