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 and snow accumulation of more than 11 feet in some areas. Somewhat accurate details and many of the names of the townspeople who endured this long winter season of frequent blizzards can be found in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novel The Long Winter.

Here in New England, it’s hard to forget the 2011 Halloween nor’easter that slammed the area with so much snow, so early in the season, that it destroyed the most trees in the entire recorded history of Connecticut storms.

The following Ohio newspaper article reported that the storm that started in October 1880 was “the worst storm ever known in Southern Minnesota and Eastern Dakota and is still raging.”

The storm blocked passenger and freight trains “in snow drifts from ten to twelve feet deep and teams with provisions have been dispatched to their relief.”

Read the account of the start of the storm in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Many people lost their lives in these terrible blizzards. Farmers had to burn their fences to keep warm.

Did you have any ancestors who survived “The Snow Winter?” Share with us in the comments.