Comments on: Blizzard Of The Century

By: Mike Marcotte

Mike Marcotte — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:14:57 +0000

It was fun reading your memories from that storm! I recall having our town in SW Minnesota (Slayton) being one of the only schools in the region not closed initially that Friday morning January 10th. Almost immediately we were alerted that we were being sent back home. Unfortunately, for the farm kids, most of them were unable to return home as the country roads were not safe for travel. My mom & I ventured uptown on foot around noon to buy groceries as we knew we would be housebound for the long run. Sidewalks were knee deep in snow already and we walked down the middle of the street to get there. Meanwhile, my dad was stranded at his work in Marshall for several days! That was a friday, and it wouldn’t be until the following Wednesday that we would finally go back to school!

By: Rosette Grinstead

Rosette Grinstead — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:42:57 +0000

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By: South Dakota Magazine » Lund Remembers The ‘75 Blizzard

South Dakota Magazine » Lund Remembers The ‘75 Blizzard — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:53:48 +0000

[...] blogger extraordinaire Doug Lund has some kind things to say about our magazine on his blog, Lund at Large. He also has something to add to a story about the 1975 blizzard in our current issue. Doug was [...]

By: Gene

Gene — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:14:07 +0000

I remember the night the tower came down. (the second time) I got snowed in at my cousin’s place in Sioux Falls. It was close to midnight and we were watching Paul Harvey. All of a sudden the screen went blank. I told my cousin, there went the tower. I was staying over night (same cousin) years prior when the plane hit the guy wire the first time. I lived less than a mile from the tower site growing up. I used to sit on the roof of my parents house and watch the sections being pulled up. Hope it never happens again.

By: Doug Lund

Doug Lund — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 02:46:51 +0000

Love reading your storm memories, folks. Danny..a fascinating account!

By: Danny Schoffelman

Danny Schoffelman — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 23:16:53 +0000

At that time in my life I was milking 30 cows in a drafty old barn and had 200 big springing holstien hiefers to feed. The cold and high wind made it unsafe for my dad to go out side with his asthma. Silage wouldn’t have stayed in the bunk even if you could have got it to come down the silo chute. There was a good tree break on the north and west sides and we had 15 big hay stacks lined up on the inside. These were stacks made the old fashioned way with a Dual and hay bucker. Electric wire seperated the cows from the hay. I got on top of the stacks and pitched hay to the ground so the cows could reach hay under the wire. Repete this task for three day. Its very exhausting working in -30 with 50mph winds. Thank God I was 22 at the time. Needless to say none of our cows died and neither did I. Instead of calling this the storm of the century I think I would call it the Appocolips. It was that scary.

By: Joel F

Joel F — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:52:36 +0000

The blizzard I best remember was a 3-dayer in November of 1975. There was too much ice and packed snow on the James River hill on hwy 42 for my truck to make the climb. I backed that semi a quarter mile to a driveway to get off the road and spent the next three days at a river bottom farmer’s house.

By: Doug Lund

Doug Lund — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 14:32:31 +0000

I received the following from Don Costine..a technical director at Keloland at the time
Don wrote: “Another fond memory from the past! I remember working the sign-off shift that night. There was strong wind and blowing snow downtown. We were planning on spending the night at the Town House next door because our cars were drifted in. Dwight Wollman was the engineer on duty. When we went off the air, we thought that we had lost a microwave dish because of the wind. Dwight called the tower and talked to Les Froke. Dwight said that Les was sitting in the dark and that the tower had fallen. Having heard that, Dwight “fired up” the Suburban 4×4, took the sign-off crew home, then drove out to check on Les. The next day, Dwight was picking up the sign-on crew, news staff, and other station staff who came in to help with the broadcasts. Later, he picked up the sign-off crew, so that we could dig our cars out of the parking lot before reporting for work. I don’t think that Dwight had very much sleep that night. That was an exciting time!”

By: Crawford T.

Crawford T. — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:59:27 +0000

Yup, I was just thinking of the big blizzard of ’75 this past week. Couldn’t pick up any ABC shows out in the country for a whole year and a half after that.

By: grouse

grouse — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 06:14:45 +0000

I was working at KSFY-TV at the time, and you’re right, there was no back up tower. We were off the air entirely, until they hoisted that ’58 Buick on top of the building and started shooting out a signal that reached all the way to 41st street when the wind blew from the north. The signal wasn’t much, but programming did continue. The advertisers were literally spending about a dollar a holler. To the station owner’s credit and to my everlasting gratitude we never missed a paycheck. When we were off the air entirely we did some painting, some filing, some spec. spots etc. I don’t think you would find a company today that would do that for their employees. Today, you would be laid off period.