Fur traders and explorers recount the brutalities of winter

The earliest account of a Wisconsin winter was recorded by fur traders who wintered near Lac Court Oreilles in 1659-60. When severe weather made hunting impossible, the entire community of exiled Hurons and Ottawas began to starve. "Those that have any life seeketh out for roots," one of them later wrote (slightly modernized here), "which could not be done without great difficulty, the earth being frozen 2 or 3 feet deep, and the snow 5 or 6 above it."

After hundreds of people starved, more snow and cold followed. This crusted the deep drifts and unexpectedly proved to be their salvation: "The snow falls, the forest clears itself ... The weather continued so [cold] 3 dayes that we needed no racketts [snowshoes] more, for the snow hardened much. The small staggs [deer] are as if they were stakes in it, after they made 7 or 8 capers. It's an easy matter for us to take them and cutt their throats with our knives."

Ten years later, Father Claude Allouez spent the winter visiting various Indian tribes to see if they would welcome a missionary. In late February 1670, he left a Potawatomi village near the current site of the University of Wiscoknsin-Green Bay, later recalling: "On the twenty-third, we set out to return thence; but the wind, which froze our faces, and the snow, compelled us to halt, after we had gone two leagues [five miles], and to pass the night on the lake. On the following day, the severity of the cold having diminished, although very little, we continued our journey with much suffering. On my part, I had my nose frozen, and I had a fainting fit that compelled me to sit down on the ice, where I should have remained, my companions having gone on ahead, if, by a divine providence, I had not found in my handkerchief a clove, which gave me strength enough to reach the settlement."

In 1680, associates of the French explorer LaSalle made a famous winter trek up the shore of Lake Michigan. It was a brutal winter. Snow blinded the party, low temperatures froze their extremities, and crusted snow lacerated their bare feet. Their story was assembled from widely scattered original sources and appeared in the March 1924 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

In it for the long haul: settlers' diaries describe winter on the frontier

Permanent settlers succeeded the fur traders, missionary priests, and French explorers by the early 19th century.

In December 1836, the first surveyors of Madison "found the snow very deep, and after a hard day's work wading in the snow, we camped at night between the Third Lake (Monona) and Dead Lake (Wingra), where we found some thick timber and a sheltered spot. With a good deal of difficulty we made a log heap fire and eat our snack, and after the fire had thawed the snow and warmed the ground, we removed the fire to a little distance and made our bed on the ashes where the fire had warmed the ground. The weather was extremely cold but we slept warm and the next morning ... the weather extremely cold we returned to Mineral Point to wait for milder weather."

When they returned in February 1837, conditions were no better: "We found that the snow still covered the ground and we stuck the [survey] stakes in the snow, the ground being too deeply frozen in most places to receive the stakes. We camped in the timber in the low grounds under the hill of the Fourth Lake (Mendota) and were compelled to abandon our work by a severe snow storm that so blinded us that it was with great difficulty we found our way across the Fourth Lake to the cabin of St. Cyr, where we stayed two days until the storm was over."

In time, settlers built cabins and eventually frame or brick buildings that were heated by open hearths or wood stoves. They also began to keep records of the climate. For example, Madison's first systematic weather observations were recorded in the early 1850s at the University of Wisconsin - Madison's North Hall. Professors enlisted the help of students (including UW student and naturalist John Muir) to make notes.

In 1869, observers started to record formal readings of temperature and precipitation. They also made written notes of other weather features like clouds and ice in weather diaries. On days of notable weather events like blizzards, destructive winds, or the northern lights, the weather diaries included clippings of newspaper articles. These clippings are available at Turning Points in Wisconsin History.

To learn more about the history of Wisconsin winters, simply enter the word "winter" (or "snow" or "frozen") in the search boxes at the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Wisconsin Historical Collections, or Turning Points in Wisconsin History. Try the same terms at Wisconsin Historical Images to discover historical pictures of Wisconsin blizzards and snowstorms.