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November Blizzards
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The Rolfe Arrow — November 27, 1975
Two weeks ago, with a wedding and barn dance coming up, we were apprehensive about what the weather would be. It didn’t help to have friends reminding us of the 1940 Armistice Day blizzard. In fact, a few were downright apologetic after they mentioned that piece of history. The rain the weekend previous to the wedding and the realization of what that would have meant if it had been colder were a little discouraging. We were very fortunate, and the blizzard and very bad driving conditions of Wednesday, November 19, 1975 have made us realize all the more how lucky we were. The Rolfe Arrow of November 14, 1940, had this to say about the blizzard that year: "After two days of rainy foggy weather, a snowstorm of blizzard proportions struck this community, Monday, November 11. Driven by a wind of high velocity, the sleet-like show kept autos off the highway to a considerable extent. The temperature dropped from 48 to 10 degrees in a few hours. "A high wind continued all day Monday and Monday night, piling up the drifts so that many roads were blocked by Tuesday morning. The 9:15 train west could go no farther than Sioux Rapids. "1500 (of 2500) turkeys raised by Pat Wood five miles southeast of Rolfe were frozen in the blizzard Monday. Because roads were blocked, Wood was unable to reach the flock until Tuesday morning. Though the shelters provided for the turkeys were as good as those generally used by turkey raisers, the wind was so strong that the turkeys were blown out of the shelters and scattered in the surrounding fields. All were frozen except those covered by snow. They were dug out of drifts 4 or 5 feet deep. "Sterling Simonson, living near Havelock, lost 18 cattle in the blizzard Monday. "Bill Brinkman brought his load of students to Rolfe School Monday, but because of the danger of roads being blocked, he took the children back home before the Armistice Day program began at 10:00 o’clock. "Drifts four feet high blocked traffic along the west side of Rolfe’s main street Tuesday morning and business men were getting unaccustomed physical activity in removing them. "Arnold Wold went to St. Ansgar to spend the day, but spent 2 days because of the snow blocked highways. "The high wind Monday overturned 3 of the steel bins to be used for government corn storage. A large tree was blown across the road east of the Carl Hansen home. "Monday’s blizzard make’s this sound like a ‘Believe It Or Not’, but last week, Mr. And Mrs. B.T. Showers enjoyed fresh red raspberries from their garden patch." Doesn’t that sound a little like November, 1975?
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