North Dakota Blizzard
Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Other Topics
Forum Name: Shops, Barns, Varmints, and Trucks
Forum Description: anything you want to talk about except politics
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=208841
Printed Date: 13 Nov 2025 at 3:42pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.10 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: North Dakota Blizzard
Posted By: DanWi
Subject: North Dakota Blizzard
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2025 at 8:44pm
| Saw Something neat on YouTube today. They were talking about the winter of 1886/87. Temperatures were -60 degrees + windchill. Ranchers those free ranged cattle lost 80% of their herds that winter. One guy who was an engineer had studied the weather and saw that a severe winter was predicted had built an underground shelter capable of holding 300 head. They said after that winter ranchers built more shelters for cattle to prevent winter loss. I wonder if there are any of those underground shelters in existence today? |
Replies:
Posted By: im4racin
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2025 at 9:21pm
| Got a link? |
Posted By: DanWi
Date Posted: 08 Nov 2025 at 9:45pm
| Sorry no. Was watching YouTube on the the smart TV earlier. Posting from my phone now. Just search North Dakota winter 1886 |
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2025 at 8:01am
|
i cant imagine doing all that by hand... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX8OR0snRzw" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX8OR0snRzw ------------- Like them all, but love the "B"s. |
Posted By: DanWi
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2025 at 8:46am
| I was wondering about the labor to create something like that? Did they have any kind of steam shovel or bulldozer in the 1880s otherwise it would have taken many men to build this. And you would wonder how long it took? That part they didn't say. It said he was studying the weather patterns when he decided to build this. So did he build that year before winter? |
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2025 at 9:56am
apparently the winter of 1886 was a bad one for most of the US....Consider what it would take to DIG that hole... feed needed for 2-300 cattle... confined shelter space ... where to get the water... how to get rid of POO ....... this might just be a GOOD STORY !  ------------- Like them all, but love the "B"s. |
Posted By: im4racin
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2025 at 10:33am
| Clearly an AI video. There is getting to be a lot on YouTube these days |
Posted By: Coke-in-MN
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2025 at 3:24pm
|
My Cousin died in that blizzard as he went out o barn to check on livestock , never made it back to house - found his remains after weather cleared and wife went looking for him . His brother came over from Germany to settle his estate and stayed on in the US - he married his brother's widow a couple years later - that branch of family still resides in Southern MN around New Ulm MN My side of family ended up a few years later moving to Canada where now most of direct relatives live . My side of family farmed around Big Stone Co MN (Madison area) then moved to S Dakota - my great Granddad had invested in the US also and on a trip over from Germany ended up passing away in S Dakota and buried there at a town that no longer exists . ------------- Life lesson: If you’re being chased by a lion, you’re on a horse, to the left of you is a giraffe and on the right is a unicorn, what do you do? You stop drinking and get off the carousel. |
Posted By: Dennis J OPKs
Date Posted: 13 Nov 2025 at 1:11pm
| 1949 was a bad blizzard in NE & elsewhere in the Midwest. Back in those days' county roads were just narrow cuts through the hills and drifted full big time. Those cuts could have 15 or 20 ft of snow in them. No go for graders with V plows. Wait for the rotaries which were few & far between. Same story with railroads. In some cases, they were able to push through with dozers. Spring was an obvious disaster with mud & flooding. The "Good Old Days". |