Odd Wisconsin Archive
Here in southern Wisconsin, December began with a new snowfall every 72 hours, just like last year. Snow shovels and sidewalk salt are lined up outside hardware stores, plows and tow trucks wake us at dawn, and casts are already starting to sprout on wrists, elbows, and ankles. If the snowfall maintains this pace, we're in for another record-setting winter.*
Of course, it could be worse.
The winter of 1880-1881 was recalled for decades as the worst winter ever, for the ferocity with which it descended, the amount of snow it dropped, and the seeming eternity that it lasted. Here's what happened in Sturgeon Bay:
"November 17th, 1880, the steam ferry Ark, that plies between Sturgeon Bay and Bay View, made its last trip for the season. On the morning of the 18th foot passengers could cross the bay. By many, a break-up was looked for, but the weather continued 'snug,' and in a couple of days teams crossed with perfect safety… nine days after the bay was froze over, it wore a crystal covering averaging from 9 to 11 inches… A moderate amount of snow fell from date to date, and though the total was but from 3 to 4 inches, sleighing was excellent."
In February a spring thaw arrived, but it was just a tease -- a massive blizzard descended at the end of the month: "For eleven days (from Saturday February 27th, to Wednesday, March 9th,) no Green Bay mails were received [in Sturgeon Bay], so extensively were the roads blocked. March 20th another blizzard swept the country, and if possible further blocked the roads. The Green Bay mail was again behind time four days."
In late March, "Once more the winter broke out in fresh spots, and the clouds that had scattered and disappeared, came back loaded with the "beautiful" and dumped a coating of snow several inches deep all over the northwest." Drifts from six to fifteen feet were common and on the first of April there was still two feet of snow in the neighboring woods.
Elsewhere in the state conditions were equally bad. This 1922 article from the Milwaukee Journal looks back on the autumn storm that began the winter of 1880-1881 by claiming more than 70 lives on Lake Michigan. It concludes with memories of the awesome blizzard of the following March, when farmers burned their fences to keep warm. That storm's effect is plainly visible in this photo of the streets of Whitewater filled to the second story with snow. Another article describes how the drifts blanketed Waukesha until May.
With any luck, we'll escape that fate. Until spring we can relive our ancestors' winters vicariously, with a mug of coffee and a laptop, here at wisconsinhistory.org., or in person at the midwinter programs hosted by the Society's historic sites.
* In Madison, the 2007 snowfall through Dec. 10th totaled 17.3 inches; this year, following Tuesday's storm, it's officially 16.3. I you like to track this sort of misery, the National Weather Service publishes monthly and daily summaries for Wisconsin.
:: Posted in Curiosities on December 7, 2008
Did You Know?
The Wisconsin Historical Museum is currently featuring Odd Wisconsin objects in the latest exhibit: Odd Wisconsin. And don't miss the Odd Wisconsin book by author Erika Janik published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
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