October 1880 Snowstorm Began ‘The Snow Winter’

This photograph was taken in March 1881 of a train passing through snow-covered Minnesota in the worst snow season ever recorded there. The snow season started with a storm in October 1880 and it just kept on snowing until March of 1881. It was one of the Midwest’s worst-ever snow seasons, with multiple blizzards... (Read More)

It’s Wild Bill Hickok’s Day ….

Wild Bill Hickok – James Butler Hickok – was born on May 27, 1837 in Troy Grove, Illinois. Famous in movies, films and hundreds of newspaper articles – he is central to the legends of the Old West. Newspapers serialized his story and pictured him fighting bears, outlaws and Confederate agents. Images by Van... (Read More)

A soldier’s last letter ….

“What have I done I asked myself, to deserve to be remembered by strangers in a town in which I had never been…” You can almost hear him ask that now, over 100 years later as we remember him. Corporal Wilson Mcpherson Osbon (1877-1899) wrote the letter on 28 Dec 1898, in gratitude for... (Read More)