Show looking back Cache Valley winters: three months of poor sledding by AJ Simmonds For those of us who remember the cold the fence posts and the ubiquitous horses and sleighs of wilder 194849 the first snowflakes of fall’s first storm always draw an apprehensive sigh and a silent prayer Down state Cache Valley winters are a standing Joke but while we shiver with more cold records show that our winters are historically milder than those of Salt Lake Valley drift-covere- d From 1824 until the late 1830s the American trappers who roamed the Rocky Mountains in search of fur wintered in Cache Valley because they found it had less snow than surrounding areas The grass which grew as high as a horse’s belly in the summer remained exposed and animals could be grazed on the Valley floor and the foothills all winter In the whole history of the American fur trade there was only one winter that of 1825-2- 6 when fur men were forced to leave the Valley because of winter snow In that year the drifts compelled Bill Sublette to take his trappers to two camps: one near Corinne and the other on the present site of Ogden The trappers undoubtedly got their information from the Indians for until the late 1860s or early 1870s bands of Shoshoni and Bannock from the area around Fort Hall Idaho went into winter quarters in Cache One such camp was near Paradise Indian John (a later Mormon convert and resident of the Logan Second Ward) kept winter camp in Cornish and Trenton until at least 1868 The most famous winter camp of course was at Battle Creek north of Preston where in January 1863 Chiefs Sagwich Bear Hunter and Lemhi were ambushed in camp Battle of by the UA Army at the Bear River In 1849 Captain Howard Stansbury of the UA Army Corps of Topographical Engineers led an exploratory survey of the Great Salt Lake and northern Utah In discussing Cache Valley Captain Stansbury wrote: “At the time the reconnoisance was made all the information that could be obtained ed Cattle caught in a blizzard from the oldest mountain-me- n 1 886 (drawing from Harper's Weekly induced both Porter (of Fort Hall) and myself to believe that it was one of the most eligible spots in the whole country for winter stock It had been a rendezvous for the American Fur Company for many years and stock had been wintered there by them with great advantage The snow was seldom deep and the cattle not only retained their flesh but grew fat during the wilder” Colonel Stansbury was so impressed with the Valley that all the stock from Fort Hall was driven to Cache Valley for the winter of 184950 As the good Captain learned Cache winters can be tricky He wrote in his report to the Secretary of War: “The season however proved unusually severe the snow fell in the valley to a depth unprecedented and more than onehalf of the herd in which were included some of my own animals perished in consequence” What the Indians and trappers initially discovered what Stansbury Initially reported was that because of the Wellsville Mountains and our distance from Great Salt Lake Cache Valley gets less snow than Salt Lake Valley We average 10 degrees colder hut we get less 22786) snow The concentration of population has meant a heat build-u-p in Ogden and Salt Lake City which melts the snow faster than in Cache but as a usual thing there is more there to melt courtesy USU Special Collections and horses were wintered in the Valley That season again the snows fell deep and fewer than half the animals saw spring The hard winters have come in no pattern — with no 6 the predictability Alter pioneers were helped by a span of relatively mild winters — a series cruelly broken in 1873-7- 4 by probably the worst winter in Valley history Thousands of animals died on the open range and the settlers huddled for months in their inadequate cabins Charles W Fox of Franklin noted the winter in his diary: “This is the hardest winter we have experienced since settling Franklin it Began to snowe on the 27th day of November 1873 and the ground was not bare till April 24” A few years later the range cattle industry in the Valley was wiped out by another severe winter Overgrazing had depleted the range and the underfed animals did not survive 1887-18It was the lessons of that winter and which made alfalfa and derricks so much a part of the Cache landscape When winter 1918-1- 7 came in hard Cache had changed With the hard winter in the 1920s and the next in 193533 the spirit suffered more than the body 1855-185- The early settlers also learned about the Valley's open winters Though from the first days of settlement in 1858 some wild hay was cut as winter fodder for animals it was only a sometime thing Until 1885 very little alfalfa was planted in Cache Valley In the winter months stock was turned loose to graze in the uninhabited part of the Valley and on the foothills where the winds swept the snow away from the mountain ridges and exposed the dried grasses But as the American Fur Company found out in 1825-2-8 and as Captain Stansbury discovered in 1849-5- 0 and as readers of The Cache winters can Valley learned in 1948-4- 9 occasionally be surprising In 1855 after a drought in Salt Lake Valley Brigham Young established Elk Horn Ranch in present-da- y College Ward and ordered all the church herds from Salt Lake driven to Cache Valley for the winter About 2500 cattle hay-stac- ks what's up (p What's up in last words? Patriot John Hancock: “I shall look forward to a Inventor Alexander Graham Bell: “So little done so much to do” pleasant time” Artist Pablo Picasso: “Drink to me” President FhmkliaD Roosevelt: “I have a terrific When asked by his housekeeper if he had a last Marx Karl Walter Raleigh (about to be beheaded): “Tis a headache” Sir theorist world to the political message Depoaed Egyptian King Farouk: “There will soon retorted: “Go on get out! Last words are for fools sharp remedy but a sure one for all ills” Journalist EW Scripps: “Too many cigars this be only five kinds left: the kings of England who haven’t said enough” diamonds hearts spades and clubs” And no more was heard from the father of comevening I guess” Writer-ar- t Black Muslim leader Malcolm X (after being patron Gertrude Stela: “What is the munism Here are the exit lines of other notables according answer?” Not receiving a response she continued mortally wounded by an assassin): “Let’s cool it “In that case what is the question?" brothers” to “Famous last Words" by Jonathon Green: Showman PT Barnum: “How were the circus Economist Adam Smith: “I believe we must adMormon leader Brigham Young: “Amen" receipts tonight at Madison Square Garden?” (Newspaper Enterprise Assn ) journ the meeting to some other place" 19795 November -3 Harold The JournolVolley Monday 1'U I 1 1 ii'rit 'i i' FDR: m1:'! iV y ’i''1' I 'Headache' ) i i f " ( |