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On the Porch

In 1909, a major snowstorm enveloped the region with blizzard conditions. Several photographs, many of which were printed on postcards, were taken in the region to document the large amount of snow. The museum has several postcards in its collection from the blizzard storm of 1909.

Last week, I shared the newspaper article, published on Feb. 5, 1909, after the first snowstorm. Below is the article about the second snowstorm that appeared in the Marshall News-Messenger on Feb. 12, 1909:

The second big storm of snow and wind began Monday evening at about seven o’clock, and the snow fell with constantly increasing quantity and with the wind rising to the dignity of a genuine blizzard until at midnight, when the storm gradually ceased. The severity of the storm so closely following that of but two weeks previous, caused even the old settlers to sit up and become reminiscent, wondering if winter was getting ready to crawl into the lap of spring, as in days of yore. Probably about fifteen inches of snow fell, but there were drifts from three to ten feet high.

The most serious damage was in the abandonment of all train service on the railroads leading out of Marshall. After Monday’s day trains there was none till Thursday morning, when the plow and train came through from the south on the Great Northern, and late in the afternoon trains went through in both directions. On the Northwestern there were no trains from Monday afternoon till Thursday evening, and as we go to press the line is not open from the east. Wednesday afternoon a plow came up from Tracy, and this side of Minneota went to pieces in a drift, the engine returning to Tracy.

Thursday morning another plow came up from Tracy and went west, while another plow from Tracy came to Marshall and went out on the line to Evan. A big gang of men with a rotary plow were working Thursday between Lamberton, bucking and shoveling snow. A train pulled out from Tracy for Huron on Wednesday, was stuck in the snow at Burchard, and the rotary plow was sent to its relief. On the Great Northern the Monday night train from the cities was held up at Granite Falls till Tuesday morning, when it came south and got as far as Russell, where it was stalled at the station till Thursday morning. The first train from the cities arrived in Marshall at 5’clock Thursday afternoon.

The photograph featured this week from the Lyon County Museum’s collection was taken in 1909 in Cottonwood. The photograph was printed on a postcard. Snow is shown piled high in front of the Cottonwood Hardware store and First National Bank.

The Lyon County Historical Society (LCHS) is a non-profit, member-supported organization. LCHS operates the Lyon County Museum at 301 W Lyon St in Marshall. The Lyon County Museum is open to visitors. To contact us, visit our website: www.lyoncomuseum.org, call: 507-537-6580, email: director@lyoncomuseum.org, or on our Facebook page.

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