Truckee in the Snow 1911

Happy New Year 2018 to all my readers and readers of the future. America January 2018 is living in the sun and blue sky, or freezing snow and ice. I will say the words not every person believes: climate change.

In January 1911, however, Truckee experienced a hard winter although on New Year’s Day there was no snow on Donner Summit. The blizzard that soon pelted the Sierra from the Gulf of Alaska prompted Chapter 15 in The House on Harrigan’s Hill that begins with snow, cold, and hunger.

The town has always been known for low temperatures. January is the coldest month. 1911 Truckee endured the strongest year for blizzards in twenty-one years. Traveling through the Sierra Nevada was always an adventure, and wood snow sheds were constructed to protect the rails and trains from heavy sliding piles of snow. In 1911 avalanches broke through the snow sheds, leaving passengers stranded. In time, some trains were supplied with whirring fans on the front which shoved snow off the rails and allowed the train to keep moving.

-original post January 2012