Thank you....extremely well organized and narrated. This was the winter that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in THE LONG WINTER. We have a family joke about ''burning the furniture for heat''....no joke for those folks.
If I'm not mistaken you had a major super volcano located in Indonesia that erupted back in the 1870's which emitted mega tons of volcanic ash and sulphur dioxide that was released into the earth's atmosphere, in which cause significant cooling off and lasted for a couple of decades.
Thanks for the interesting post. I'm somewhat of a history buff. I've lived through some weather disasters myself, although none was as bad as this, so I can relate to what these people had to endure. It taught me to always keep some emergency supplies on hand.
Growing up on a dairy farm in Minnesota not many winters went by without a good few snow storms. The worse I was in was in the early seventies in sterns county. We couldn’t get to the barn for over two days. It was a complete white out and couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Many others but that was the worse I went thru.
Imagine living in Minnesota during the 1800s and not having an excess of wood stacked in preparation for a bad winter... The level of shortsightedness a lot of the people had is concerning, considering I am probably related to some of them. This is a very well narrated video. Nicely done.
I actually live 30 min. from Walnut Grove where they have Laura Ingalls Wilder sod house from Little House on the Prairie and they have a pageant as well and I’ve never gone lol
I grew up in Mankato. My parents grew up on farms in Hendricks (30 miles West of Marshal). The Hendricks Centennial book has stories about Winter there-I believe about that Winter. When I joined the Army, I was asked where I wanted to be stationed: I said any place warm. I retired in a Alabama.
Laura Ingalls Wilder spoke of this winter in her book , "The Long Winter".. She lived further west in Desmet South Dakota.. The continual blizzards forced the railroads to shut down operations until spring.. In a letter Laura has written yrs later , she described the brutal winter & just how near they came to starvation... Twisted hay was their only source of heat & at dark they went to bed to save on hay burning... Hundreds starved & froze to death in Mn. & S.D. If you were caught out in a blizzard it meant almost certain death... I read this hand written letter at her home in Missouri... Its hard to imagine the severity of that winter..
I watched the tv show pretty regularly, and I think there was an episode pertaining to this, I remember a young man who Laura was sweet on, going to the next town to get flour, and was near froze to death upon his return, that show really gave me the idea of how tough it was to survive, and how hard the pioneers had it in real life.
@@benscoles5085 In her book , which is fictional, she writes of a trip Almonzo & her father took to buy wheat for the starving town during the hard winter... It may have very well made it into the show. In truth , the family nearly starved to death.. Laura spoke in later life of not having the energy to get out of bed... And of being lathargic & dull to the point she could no longer read or keep up with the school ciriculum.. In fact the school was closed because they didnt have coal to heat the building.. When the trains finally did come thru she told of the town breaking into rail cars meant for towns further west to find anything to eat... Many starved & many froze to death in the county where she lived..
I worked a job in Red Wing Minnesota one time for two months January & February tons of snow and 10 below every morning when I got up to go to work. never again.
I agree 100%. I REALLY Enjoyed this video, but I was disappointed in the end because it was cut short before addressing those anticipated floods. On the other hand, this video already documented enough Human Suffering, didn't it ???
Another excellent and very interesting video - it must have taken you hours to put in all the little graphic details, let alone carry out the research for the info they were illuminating. Thank you. It did make me wonder whether if one knew from the beginning how very long the winter was going to be, then could you bear to grind it out when it was already became so hard quite early on..? Perhaps there is hope in not knowing and just dealing with things day-to-day as they come; alternatively, there might be comfort in the knowledge that all such things do, at last, pass - and summer does come again.
Men and boys worked for hours to shovel snow from the train tracks, often having three sets of men to raise it up beyond the 15 foot snowbanks (moving the same snow 3 times). Then, almost as soon as the snow was cleared, another storm brought new snow or enough cold winds to move the snow into new snowdrifts. So, the work was begun again in the same place. Some of the storms of The Long Winter were so brutal that pickaxes were required to break up the snow. If they were lucky, hot tea or coffee was available from time to time for the snow shovelers. But, no Gatorade or Red Bull or any of the fancy energy drinks we have today. Most of the time, I am sure the shovelers worked on empty stomachs, too, as the people in homes along the tracks were short of food themselves, so feeding armies of snow shovelers (with or without compensation) may have deprived the home dwellers of their own meals. All of this work for rather small pay and, perhaps if the crew boss was nice, a bucket of coal or an armful of firewood to take home -- if you had the energy or ability to even GET home. The financial losses to the railroads that winter were pretty staggering. Having to pay wages to thousands of men just to move snow again and again was costly enough. Thefts of firewood and coal to run the locomotives compounded the problem. The stories of railroad bridges being dismantled and the wood stolen and used for firewood meant major rebuilding of critical structures before trains could get from one town to the next. Most of the trains were stuck in place so long that, as the video mentions, water inside the locomotives could freeze resulting in disabled trains that required massive repairs. Despite massive efforts by the railroads, it still often took several days for the trains to get thru during The Long Winter and, depending upon what was loaded on the train when it began its trip, may not have had much useful cargo. For example, some of the trains in October or November arrived carrying loads of farm machinery and not loads of food or wood. Those trains that DID have useful cargo aboard likely got emptied out before they reached the farthest locations, meaning even if and when the train did arrive, it might have been empty of everything except the mail. Imagine waiting 10 or 12 days for a train, only to have it show up completely empty.
December of 1983 is still the coldest December of all-time in Minneapolis with an average temperature of 3.7 degrees. And that record book goes all the way back to 1875. The all-time coldest July since 1875 (avg. temp. 65.8) in Minneapolis occurred in 1992.
@@calcrappie8507 I was a teenager yet in the winter of 1983/1984 living with my mom and 2 brothers in Rochester and I remember December we had a cold spell in which the actual air temperature high for the day was -25f not including wind chill. I think that the air temperature low was around -40 or -45. I’m replying from my 2nd account, my other account is Boyd The Goofball.
In this day and time people are more worried about having a big screen TV or a new car to drive or the latest cell phone. I’ve always said let the same ones get cold and hungry and those petty things won’t mean anything. I’ve been hungry and cold. I’ll never go thru that again.
I lived in N Mn for 8 yrs and burned about 15 cords of wood a yr to stay warm. I had a chain saw. Still wonder how they did it back then as some homes had more than one fireplace. It had to be a full time job just to prepare for winter.
Now theres a winter to remember very well narrator. Being from nc I never have had a desire to move to Minnesota. If you were born ther thats different.
Imagine if the history of the snowmobile had begun years earlier powered by steam,,, how very useful it would have been during that winter. Though I don’t think that you want to tilt the active boiler of a steam engine around much.
In Little House Books Almanzo goes 12 miles to go get Laura Ingalls from her job at the school He went on a day with the mercury at -40degrees F. He went on a date. His friend told him "God hates a coward!". Imagine how cold it got after the sun went down.
I don't claim to be an expect on anything that happened about 150 years ago, but I tend to believe what was reported in the newspaper back then over what we do today. Many things have changed over the years.
Regarding taxes, how about if people want other people to dictate/"mandate" how the live to just voluntarily pay them and refrain from sanctioning politicians to use force/violence/aggression to take money from those who don't share such opinions, views, beliefs, prejudices, economics dishonesty or "false religion?" Sanctioning politicians to loot A to satisfy B is immoral; it is criminal.
Fast forward to today, where most have such delicate constitutions that they idle their vehicles endlessly so that they don't have to endure a minute's exposure to ambient temperatures, winter and summer.
I think a super volcano located in Indonesia erupted back in the late1870's which caused significant cooling off , which lasted for a couple of decades.
New Ulm is rolling prairie with trees in the river valleys and low lands. Most of those were cut down to clear for crops, build homes and supply firewood for the settlers. Probably more trees now. Very pretty area.
@@michaellovetere8033 Neither of these are caused by global warming or cooling it is just known as Natural Weather Variations. Weather and Climate are two separate things.
Back than america canada russia & russian nieghbors & china japan korean & european Western the worst deadly winter & poverty was high millions died of harsh cold snow 🧐😳😬😬😬 Desert people died of hot lack of water hot fire🔥climate starvation 🥶😱
@@waynemaciejewski9764 Sorry. The Great New York City Blizzard Of 1888 Has Been BIG NEWS Since It Happened. And Ranks Right Up There With Other 19th Century National Disasters Like The Johnstown Flood And The Chicago Fire. Maybe You've Never Left Your State Or Have Been Stuck On A Farm All Your Life Without Electricity. Better Smarten Up And Study National American History. Look up The 3-Worst Winter Storms On-Line. And The 1888 N.Y. Blizzard Is One Of Them. Buy The One You Drag On About Is Missing Sonny Boy...
@@concolorfur361 Sorry. What I Watched Was LONG Enough And Could Have Been DOWNSIZED Considerably. If YOU Like That Drawn Out Kind Of Thing, Then Watch The Story About The Johnstown Flood, (in 1889), That Was A FAR GREATER National Catastrophy Than A Snow Blizzard. People Kept Finding Things From That Flood For 22-years Later, Hundreds Of Miles Down Stream In Ohio On That One.
@@davemckolanis4683 Thanks for the additional info. If I'm doing my medical work then i'm looking for just facts. When its history I love to know how people thought and acted in the past. Its in the details. Very different than today. We are in a different world.
Thank you....extremely well organized and narrated. This was the winter that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in THE LONG WINTER. We have a family joke about ''burning the furniture for heat''....no joke for those folks.
The audiobook by Beverly Volfie is on CZcams. The whole little house series are available for free.
@@eunicestone6532 Thank you.....yes, l've listened to her reading and it is excellent.
If I'm not mistaken you had a major super volcano located in Indonesia that erupted back in the 1870's which emitted mega tons of volcanic ash and sulphur dioxide that was released into the earth's atmosphere, in which cause significant cooling off and lasted for a couple of decades.
Thanks for the interesting post. I'm somewhat of a history buff. I've lived through some weather disasters myself, although none was as bad as this, so I can relate to what these people had to endure. It taught me to always keep some emergency supplies on hand.
Thank you for putting this together.
Now I realize how some of my ancestors died in their 40’s & 50’s in Meeker County.
Hard, hard life.
Growing up on a dairy farm in Minnesota not many winters went by without a good few snow storms. The worse I was in was in the early seventies in sterns county. We couldn’t get to the barn for over two days. It was a complete white out and couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Many others but that was the worse I went thru.
Imagine living in Minnesota during the 1800s and not having an excess of wood stacked in preparation for a bad winter... The level of shortsightedness a lot of the people had is concerning, considering I am probably related to some of them.
This is a very well narrated video. Nicely done.
The bad part is there is mostly prairie there. No trees.
People still don't prepare for emergencies to this day. Only thing they stockpile is maybe tabbaco and alcohol.
The perseverance of the people under those conditions tough breed survival reminds me of the books I read from Laura Ingalls Wilder the big snow
I actually live 30 min. from Walnut Grove where they have Laura Ingalls Wilder sod house from Little House on the Prairie and they have a pageant as well and I’ve never gone lol
I grew up in Mankato. My parents grew up on farms in Hendricks (30 miles West of Marshal). The Hendricks Centennial book has stories about Winter there-I believe about that Winter.
When I joined the Army, I was asked where I wanted to be stationed: I said any place warm. I retired in a Alabama.
Hey I live about an hour west of Kato lol
Laura Ingalls Wilder spoke of this winter in her book , "The Long Winter"..
She lived further west in Desmet South Dakota..
The continual blizzards forced the railroads to shut down operations until spring..
In a letter Laura has written yrs later , she described the brutal winter & just how near they came to starvation...
Twisted hay was their only source of heat & at dark they went to bed to save on hay burning...
Hundreds starved & froze to death in Mn. & S.D.
If you were caught out in a blizzard it meant almost certain death...
I read this hand written letter at her home in Missouri...
Its hard to imagine the severity of that winter..
I watched the tv show pretty regularly, and I think there was an episode pertaining to this, I remember a young man who Laura was sweet on, going to the next town to get flour, and was near froze to death upon his return, that show really gave me the idea of how tough it was to survive, and how hard the pioneers had it in real life.
@@benscoles5085
In her book , which is fictional, she writes of a trip Almonzo & her father took to buy wheat for the starving town during the hard winter...
It may have very well made it into the show.
In truth , the family nearly starved to death..
Laura spoke in later life of not having the energy to get out of bed...
And of being lathargic & dull to the point she could no longer read or keep up with the school ciriculum..
In fact the school was closed because they didnt have coal to heat the building..
When the trains finally did come thru she told of the town breaking into rail cars meant for towns further west to find anything to eat...
Many starved & many froze to death in the county where she lived..
@@benscoles5085 that’s tragic, also I actually live in one of the towns mentioned in the show, Springfield lol
@@pdrphil8159 It wasn't Pa, who went with Almanzo Wilder to get wheat - it was Cap Garland.
@@Maridun50
Yes , I think you're right...
It was 30 yrs ago that I visited her home in Missouri...
So, my memory has faded..
i was raised up in winona & have fond memories!!! Minnesota sure isn’t what it once was… love your videos
And we think our lives are difficult.
great days to live less stress no phones no eyeballs what a great time
Thank you for a true story of America history,
Thank you for sharing this. well done
I remember an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" dealing with a huge blizzard. Was it perhaps based on this particular winter?
The book should give the year.
It was indeed.
However do read the book: "The long winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
The show is just loosely based on the books.,
The Long Winter was about the winter of 1880-1881
Same year according to her books
I worked a job in Red Wing Minnesota one time for two months January & February tons of snow and 10 below every morning when I got up to go to work. never again.
Follows the Little House on the Prairie book, about The Long Cold Winter.
Nice documentary. Thank you. I have friends in Watertown this day. A follow-up documentary on the floods is of interest.
I agree 100%. I REALLY Enjoyed this video, but I was disappointed in the end because it was cut short before addressing those anticipated floods. On the other hand, this video already documented enough Human Suffering, didn't it ???
Same storm came to Montana.Killed thousands of head of cattle...Storm was legendary..
People gonna party no matter what.
Another excellent and very interesting video - it must have taken you hours to put in all the little graphic details, let alone carry out the research for the info they were illuminating. Thank you.
It did make me wonder whether if one knew from the beginning how very long the winter was going to be, then could you bear to grind it out when it was already became so hard quite early on..? Perhaps there is hope in not knowing and just dealing with things day-to-day as they come; alternatively, there might be comfort in the knowledge that all such things do, at last, pass - and summer does come again.
That sounds like a horrific winter!
Men and boys worked for hours to shovel snow from the train tracks, often having three sets of men to raise it up beyond the 15 foot snowbanks (moving the same snow 3 times). Then, almost as soon as the snow was cleared, another storm brought new snow or enough cold winds to move the snow into new snowdrifts. So, the work was begun again in the same place. Some of the storms of The Long Winter were so brutal that pickaxes were required to break up the snow.
If they were lucky, hot tea or coffee was available from time to time for the snow shovelers. But, no Gatorade or Red Bull or any of the fancy energy drinks we have today. Most of the time, I am sure the shovelers worked on empty stomachs, too, as the people in homes along the tracks were short of food themselves, so feeding armies of snow shovelers (with or without compensation) may have deprived the home dwellers of their own meals.
All of this work for rather small pay and, perhaps if the crew boss was nice, a bucket of coal or an armful of firewood to take home -- if you had the energy or ability to even GET home.
The financial losses to the railroads that winter were pretty staggering. Having to pay wages to thousands of men just to move snow again and again was costly enough. Thefts of firewood and coal to run the locomotives compounded the problem. The stories of railroad bridges being dismantled and the wood stolen and used for firewood meant major rebuilding of critical structures before trains could get from one town to the next. Most of the trains were stuck in place so long that, as the video mentions, water inside the locomotives could freeze resulting in disabled trains that required massive repairs.
Despite massive efforts by the railroads, it still often took several days for the trains to get thru during The Long Winter and, depending upon what was loaded on the train when it began its trip, may not have had much useful cargo. For example, some of the trains in October or November arrived carrying loads of farm machinery and not loads of food or wood. Those trains that DID have useful cargo aboard likely got emptied out before they reached the farthest locations, meaning even if and when the train did arrive, it might have been empty of everything except the mail. Imagine waiting 10 or 12 days for a train, only to have it show up completely empty.
since 1980 winters in Minnesota have been relatively mild.
Not all of them.
@@MustangsTrainsMowers name one year
YOU NEED TO LOOK AT THE DATA TO MAKE ANY ASSUMPTIONS@@timlabeaux8123
December of 1983 is still the coldest December of all-time in Minneapolis with an average temperature of 3.7 degrees. And that record book goes all the way back to 1875. The all-time coldest July since 1875 (avg. temp. 65.8) in Minneapolis occurred in 1992.
@@calcrappie8507
I was a teenager yet in the winter of 1983/1984 living with my mom and 2 brothers in Rochester and I remember December we had a cold spell in which the actual air temperature high for the day was -25f not including wind chill. I think that the air temperature low was around -40 or -45. I’m replying from my 2nd account, my other account is Boyd The Goofball.
We haven't seen snow like that since the Halloween blizzard, and to think of all the snow shoveled by hand. 🤦
It Still Couldn't Match The East Coast Blizzard Of 1888. Check That One Out For Burring Cities And Causing Damage...
the halloween blizzard wasn't so bad of a blizzard, its just that it came when people were totally unprepared and not expecting a snowstorm in October
Remember Halloween blizzard. Could not go 7 miles to get home for 2 days. Came out of nowhere. Trick or treat!!!
Interesting and well done.My main concern from this is the recording of theft and dishonesty in "normal" people.
Getting enough wood to burn to keep warm was a major problem.
In this day and time people are more worried about having a big screen TV or a new car to drive or the latest cell phone. I’ve always said let the same ones get cold and hungry and those petty things won’t mean anything. I’ve been hungry and cold. I’ll never go thru that again.
oldfarmer I hope not, too.
I lived in N Mn for 8 yrs and burned about 15 cords of wood a yr to stay warm. I had a chain saw. Still wonder how they did it back then as some homes had more than one fireplace. It had to be a full time job just to prepare for winter.
Now theres a winter to remember very well narrator. Being from nc I never have had a desire to move to Minnesota. If you were born ther thats different.
Eight of my grand nana children's young died of harsh snow 🌨️❄️🏔️poor life only four survived two boys two girls
Ah the good old days!! I remember the 60tees. And 70tees deep snow and 30and40 mins plus temperatures !!!
Very interesting!
How bad is it that in March -- with the end of winter presumably in sight -- people are using buildings for fuel to stay warm? Sheesh!
very ell narrated congrats
hubert humphrey was very young when his dad told him this story..
Imagine if the history of the snowmobile had begun years earlier powered by steam,,, how very useful it would have been during that winter. Though I don’t think that you want to tilt the active boiler of a steam engine around much.
It would be to heavy
That must of been the long winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about
It is... And, it's also the storyline of the Little House show where Charles gets caught out on the blizzard when he went hunting for a deer.
@@guidosarduce4054 Which was pure fiction.
Read the books instead, please.
In Little House Books Almanzo goes 12 miles to go get Laura Ingalls from her job at the school
He went on a day with the mercury at -40degrees F. He went on a date. His friend told him "God hates a coward!". Imagine how cold it got after the sun went down.
Wow! Dam global warming even back then, they should have been taxed for horse farts🤣
😜😆😆😆😆😸😸😸
And use electric trains, and windmills
Your lack of facts proves your ignorance. Read some books and help yourself. You desperately need it.
@@concolorfur361 try taking a chill pill. Best stay out of comedy clubs, you might actually think the comedians are serious.
🤣🤣🤣
Sounds like the winter of 2022
This is why I move to Florida
Hate to nitpick but wheat is harvested in July August at the latest.
I don't claim to be an expect on anything that happened about 150 years ago, but I tend to believe what was reported in the newspaper back then over what we do today. Many things have changed over the years.
Regarding taxes, how about if people want other people to dictate/"mandate" how the live to just voluntarily pay them and refrain from sanctioning politicians to use force/violence/aggression to take money from those who don't share such opinions, views, beliefs, prejudices, economics dishonesty or "false religion?" Sanctioning politicians to loot A to satisfy B is immoral; it is criminal.
As the wise old Thomas Sowell said “ what exactly is your fair share of what someone else has worked for?”
maybe we need to pay more attention to who we elect. it's our decision.
Kansas, she said, is the name of her star!
I had to shovel out my car in NYC in a couple of blizzards
Wow...
Fast forward to today, where most have such delicate constitutions that they idle their vehicles endlessly so that they don't have to endure a minute's exposure to ambient temperatures, winter and summer.
I bet the temperature was subzero
Oh that climate change crisis!
I think a super volcano located in Indonesia erupted back in the late1870's which caused significant cooling off , which lasted for a couple of decades.
@@rebeccarhodes6611 the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa was very large, but did happen after the winter of 1880-81.
I'm guessing there aren't many trees in Minnesota.
New Ulm is rolling prairie with trees in the river valleys and low lands. Most of those were cut down to clear for crops, build homes and supply firewood for the settlers. Probably more trees now. Very pretty area.
Survival is foremost so is 02..h20 body temperature Celsius Kelvin Fahrenheit..commida ayer.. Video life i 💘 YOUR ancestors too
Everyone’s getting hit by trains
hard scramble life
@Matt Start It's Called "HARDSCRABBLE" Life.
Globel warming !
Climate change has been initiated by the industrial revolution and it has only become worst.
Nah..global cooling....
@@michaellovetere8033 Neither of these are caused by global warming or cooling it is just known as Natural Weather Variations. Weather and Climate are two separate things.
That damn climate change...lol.
Back than america canada russia & russian nieghbors & china japan korean & european Western the worst deadly winter & poverty was high millions died of harsh cold snow 🧐😳😬😬😬
Desert people died of hot lack of water hot fire🔥climate starvation 🥶😱
This Story Could Have Beef REDUCED To Less Than HALF The TIME, An Should Have Skipped Over The NON-Essential Stuff That Was Included.
Let me know when your story is out till then always remember you could stop watching anytime
@@waynemaciejewski9764 Sorry. The Great New York City Blizzard Of 1888 Has Been BIG NEWS Since It Happened. And Ranks Right Up There With Other 19th Century National Disasters Like The Johnstown Flood And The Chicago Fire. Maybe You've Never Left Your State Or Have Been Stuck On A Farm All Your Life Without Electricity. Better Smarten Up And Study National American History. Look up The 3-Worst Winter Storms On-Line. And The 1888 N.Y. Blizzard Is One Of Them. Buy The One You Drag On About Is Missing Sonny Boy...
you should read the cliff notes version. I wish it were longer. I guess we are not all the same.
@@concolorfur361 Sorry. What I Watched Was LONG Enough And Could Have Been DOWNSIZED Considerably. If YOU Like That Drawn Out Kind Of Thing, Then Watch The Story About The Johnstown Flood, (in 1889), That Was A FAR GREATER National Catastrophy Than A Snow Blizzard. People Kept Finding Things From That Flood For 22-years Later, Hundreds Of Miles Down Stream In Ohio On That One.
@@davemckolanis4683 Thanks for the additional info. If I'm doing my medical work then i'm looking for just facts. When its history I love to know how people thought and acted in the past. Its in the details. Very different than today. We are in a different world.