-
JOHN ANDREWS
South Dakota is enjoying an unusually warm and dry early spring. Snow geese passed through a couple weeks early, tulips are popping out of the ground and, in what was a relief for thousands of high school basketball fans, the annual threat of a state tournament blizzard never materialized.
We’ve published several stories about such storms, but one of our most popular came from Bob Glanzer, an educator, banker, state legislator and longtime organizer at the South Dakota State Fair in Huron. He wrote about the vicious blizzard that struck on March 2-5, 1966. It killed at least 18 people, more than 100,000 cattle, sheep and hogs and put the lives of hundreds of basketball fans in peril.
After Doland lost to Bryant in the Region 4 basketball tournament in Huron on Thursday, March 3 of that year, about 250 Doland fans headed home along Highway 37 in steadily worsening conditions. Three bus loads and several cars made it to Pheasant City, a country gas station at the intersection of highways 28 and 37 about 18 miles north of Huron.
Linda (Hofer) Loewen was a high school junior. She and her family lived on the highway 2 miles north of Pheasant City. Loewen remembers her father saying, “This looks like a bad storm. I’ll turn the yard light on. It might save someone’s life.”
Little did her father know that a few hours later, two busloads of students and five carloads of Doland fans would arrive. In all, 88 people packed into that country farmhouse, where they spent the next 2 1/2 days.
Loewen says they tried to make everyone comfortable. The Hofers had milk cows, chickens and a deep freeze full of baked goods and meat. “They would tie a string of twine around Dad, and he would go to the barn to milk the cows and gather the eggs,” Loewen said. “Mom boiled dozens of eggs and they drank gallons and gallons of milk.”
About noon on Saturday, March 5, the wind let up and the snow stopped. There were 8- to 10-foot drifts everywhere, but slowly the stranded guests and school buses made their way back to Doland.
After we published this story on our website, we received dozens of comments from people around the state, including a few who stayed at Pheasant City and the Hofer farm. Tim Gilbert was almost 5 and wrote that Pheasant City is one of his earliest memories. “We had bought goldfish in Huron and forgot them in the car,” he said. “By the time Mom remembered and sent Dad to get them, the bag was frozen solid. Mom said not to worry, just let them thaw out naturally. By the end of the day, the fish were swimming around as if nothing had happened.”
Wayne Kayl said that his brother, Clenten Kayl, Jr., was among the Doland kids stranded at the Hofer farm. “He was a sophomore at the time,” Wayne said. “It took him a while before he would eat eggs again.”
Things might be different today, given the advances in storm forecasting and our constant connectedness through smartphones. At the very least, we can be happy that this year state tournament blizzards are just a memory.
John Andrews is the editor of South Dakota Magazine, a bi-monthly publication that explores the people and places of our great state. For more information, visit www. southdakotamagazine.com.