Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2006
Document Type
Article
Abstract
In 1888 a blizzard of epic proportions hit a broad swath of the Dakota Territory, Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota. In many areas a mild winter day changed to a total whiteout in a matter of minutes just as schools were dismissing for the day, resulting in a disproportionate number of children dying. The blizzard came to be known as the schoolchildren's blizzard and is still talked about today. My own grandfather as a nine-year-old schoolboy was caught in the storm near Columbus, Nebraska, and saved by an older brother who led his siblings along a creek to their farmstead. David Laskin's account focuses on both the weather conditions that made this blizzard possible and the experiences of some of the families swept up in it.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:3 (Summer 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.