![]() Many areas were reporting temperatures well above freezing, but this warmth was actually fuel to the storm that would hit later that day. An unusually warm air mass moved in from the Gulf on the morning of January 12th. The highs were subzero and the lows were around minus 30 in Bismarck. The beginning of January that year had been brutally cold. The new homesteaders also understood the hardships of drought, grass fires, swarms of grasshoppers and blizzards, but this blizzard tested their limits and resulted in many leaving the area. In written testimony, this land was described as a blessing with fertile ground and millions of acres to be farmed. The number of farms went from just over 17-thousand to about 95-thousand. ![]() The population skyrocketed from just over 135-thousand to over a half a million. Many migrated from Scandinavia and Europe so they could worship as they pleased, escape poverty and start a new life. ![]() But at the day progressed, it was anything but normal. It was on this day in 1888 that many in North and South Dakota, then known as the Dakota Territory, as well as Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa were waking up to a seemingly normal day. ![]() ![]() One hundred thirty-four years ago, North Dakotans were hit with one of the deadliest blizzards to hit the country. ![]()
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