Editing Blizzard (section)

===The Snow Winter of 1880–1881===
{{Main|Hard Winter of 1880-81}}

[[File:Train stuck in snow.jpg|thumb|left|A snow blockade in southern Minnesota, central US. On March 29, 1881, snowdrifts in Minnesota were higher than locomotives.]]

The winter of 1880–1881 is widely considered the most severe winter ever known in many parts of the United States. 

The initial blizzard in October 1880 brought snowfalls so deep that two-story homes experienced ''accumulations'', as opposed to drifts, up to their second-floor windows. No one was prepared for deep snow so early in the winter. Farmers from North Dakota to Virginia were caught flat with fields unharvested, what grain that had been harvested unmilled, and their suddenly all-important winter stocks of wood fuel only partially collected. By January train service was almost entirely suspended from the region. Railroads hired scores of men to dig out the tracks but as soon as they had finished shoveling a stretch of line a new storm arrived, burying it again.

[[File:Blasting ice with dynamite from in front of steamer on the ways, by Stanley J. Morrow.png|right|thumb|263x263px|[[Stereoscope|Stereoscopic]] view card showing "Blasting ice with dynamite from in front of steamer on the ways, by Stanley J. Morrow" ~  A view of Yankton's riverfront after the flood of March 1881.]] 
There were no winter thaws and on February 2, 1881, a second massive blizzard struck that lasted for nine days. In towns the streets were filled with solid drifts to the tops of the buildings and tunneling was necessary to move about. Homes and barns were completely covered, compelling farmers to construct fragile tunnels in order to feed their stock.

When the snow finally melted in late spring of 1881, huge sections of the plains experienced flooding. Massive ice jams clogged the [[Missouri River]], and when they broke the downstream areas were inundated. Most of the town of [[Yankton, South Dakota|Yankton]], in what is now South Dakota, was washed away when the river overflowed its banks after the thaw.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/winter/little-town-in-nara-2.html|title=Prologue|date=8 March 2012|work=archives.gov}}</ref><ref>{{citation|url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/history/robinson/liii.txt|title=Chapter LIII: Dakota Territory History – 1880–1881|work=History of South Dakota|author=Doane Robinson|volume=1|date=1904|pages=306–309}}</ref>

==== Novelization ====
Many children—and their parents—learned of "The Snow Winter" through the children's book ''[[The Long Winter (novel)|The Long Winter]]'' by [[Laura Ingalls Wilder]], in which the author tells of her family's efforts to survive. The snow arrived in October 1880 and blizzard followed blizzard throughout the winter and into March 1881, leaving many areas snowbound throughout the winter. Accurate details in Wilder's novel include the blizzards' frequency and the deep cold, the [[Chicago and North Western Railway]] stopping trains until the spring thaw because the snow made the tracks impassable, the near-starvation of the townspeople, and the courage of her future husband Almanzo and another man, Cap Garland, who ventured out on the open prairie in search of a cache of wheat that no one was even sure existed.