Powder River Examiner -

While perusing the Montana Historical Society’s excellent quarterly publication, we came across an article about the terrible weather across much of the West and Northern Plains in 1949. Looking back through early 1949 issues of the Examiner, we discovered articles on the storms and how the winter was dealt with by the local populace. We will include snippets from that time period over the next few weeks.

January 21, 1949

Three Blizzards Since Christmas Holidays Are Responsible for Hardest Winter Since Heavy Snows of 1935-1936 Winter

The much-advertised blizzard that was forecast for Montana Monday night failed to materialize for which residents of southeastern Montana were deeply appreciative. The five-day forecast given over the radio on Tuesday noon advised but little change in the weather over the weekend.

At least 20 inches of snow has been measured at the Broadus weather bureau station since January 1st with the precipitation measuring .98 inches. This snow has come at time of high winds and huge snow drifts are the rule throughout Powder River and Custer counties.

Three blizzards since Christmas have caused untold damage to the livestock industry in this area but the true losses will not be known until spring. The Sonnette area has been snowed in since November with no traffic beyond the Sonnette post office since the 1st of December.

The Ridge community has also been snowed in since November with the situation becoming desperate there the first of this week. County snowplows left Tuesday noon for this area and will open the road up Ranch creek as well as the road to the Wyoming line on the Little Powder River. Last week the snowplows opened the road to Moorhead but this road was closed by Saturday’s blizzard. Residents of the Ridge community are running out of coal and coal trucks followed the snowplows in Monday afternoon.

Calvin Thex, Otter Creek rancher, phoned to the county commissioners on Monday asking for help to clear the road on Otter Creek. He said that the drifts on the Otter Creek road were the biggest he had ever seen. Unaccustomed to severe winter weather conditions for over 10 years, ranchers have failed to supply themselves in many instances with adequate fuel and food supplies to withstand a long siege.

Efforts to keep the road to Little Powder and Powderville open have met with little success. Sunday the road was opened to Pilgrim creek but the wind had this filled again by Monday. The Pemberton brothers are keeping the road open from highway 212 to Little Powder at the Bridgeview school.

The few visitors from the rural areas who manage to get to Broadus report that there is more snow everywhere than right in the section around town.

Last Saturday’s blizzard with visibility cut most of the time to 100 feet or less piled snow into huge drifts throughout town.