This is David Leon's recollection of the '49 Blizzard.
David was born in Alliance and has lived in Alliance all his life except when he and his six brothers were called to duty in WWII. I was 27 years old and newly married with a new son. We were living in Chimney Town (present day Good Samaritan). Many returning WWII veterans lived in these apartments. I was employed by Mr. Irwin (Jim Irwin's father) at Alliance Floral (present Alliance Floral Hoffhaus).
The day before the storm hit with full strength and brought everything to a complete halt, my mother and sister were on the passenger train returning from Denver. Well, needless to say, the train could not make it past Angora. So my mother and sister got off and were put into the small restaurant (which some of the building is still there), luckily, my brother-in-law was returning from Bayard and stopped in Angora, (not sure, but I think he needed gas for his car), when he saw my mother and sister and said he would take them into Alliance.
The day of the storm, I walked down to the greenhouse (which we called it), and when I arrived, we found out that one of the employees had not ordered coal for the boiler, which was to have been the day before. Needless to say, we had to dig out the alley between 4th and 5th streets in order for Neuswanger's to deliver the coal. After we received the coal, the alley was blown shut again by the snow and wind.
Mr. Irwin made me stay over the lunch hour and have lunch with him and his wife. Finally he noticed the storm wasn't slowing down and sent me home about 3 p.m. I started to go home, the blowing snow was so bad, and I could not see anything. As I was going, I kept bumping into houses on my way home. When I got to Flack Ave., I had to walk over a drift which had covered the road. When I finally found my apartment, I had to dig my way into the apartment. This trip back took me about an hour or more.
When I finally got home and changed into some dry clothes, I began to help my neighbors either dig in or out of their apartments. To my good fortune, the grocery store for Chimney Town was right next door. When I took a break from digging out, I decided to see if Mr. Hale (the owner) was in the store, so I knocked on the adjacent wall. When he heard the knock, he asked if I could dig his doorway open so if anyone needed milk or other necessities, when I dug him out, he told me to get what I thought I would need for me and my family. I then called the neighborhood and informed them that Mr. Hale was at the grocery store. Mr. Hale stayed at the store till all his supplies were gone. We all brought blankets and warm clothes for him.
Mr. Irwin called the next day and told me to stay home.
The third day, the wind was still blowing the snow around, but I needed fuel oil for the stove and heater in the apartment; so I found a sled and walked to the fuel station at 3rd & Hudson (still a fuel station there, I think it is only tire shop now). I picked up fuel for me and Mr. Hale, the walk took me about an hour and a half. After that, I went into work and we began to dig the walk-ways and Mr. Irwin's drive way out. The wind kept blowing in behind us, however the drifts were so high it only dusted the cleaned areas. The drifts were so high; you could actually walk on them on top of the greenhouse. The heat in the greenhouse kept the roof from caving in, (it was all glass at that time). I can't remember for certain which day, second or third, however the railroad freight office call Mr. Irwin and advised him that they had several boxes of fresh cut flowers which I believe were coming from Denver heading East; the agents asked Mr. Irwin if he wanted to take the boxes off their hands. So we went to pick the boxes up. When we got them back to the greenhouse, the employees divided them up and we took them home; so needless to say, my wife and the neighbors in Chimney Town had fresh cut flowers.
A couple days later, Mr. Irwin and I went to check on his onion cellar on his farm. When we arrived, due to the blowing snow and temperature we found pheasants on top of the cellar storage. They couldn't fly, so we enjoyed pheasant that night.
I think it was about a month before we could get around town. And like many others have said, the farmers and ranchers took the hardest damage and suffering.
I never realized like many other people have said, it is amazing we never lost electricity or our phones. Maybe it was because we had our own power plant in town. (The building is still at 2nd Street between Toluca and Big Horn).
Thank you, KCOW and Kevin Horn for allowing me to share my story.
David Leon
