Excerpt from Esther's Town

Few Esthervilleans could forget the year 1936. A bitter cold winter was followed by a capricious spring and by an unfriendly drifting summer that added insult to the injury of empty stomachs. Heavy drifting snows snarled railroad traffic, and the cold soon emptied the coal bins. As coal trains stalled in mammoth snowdrifts, the community ran perilously low on fuel. Mayor Fred Ehlers recruited volunteer shovelers, who rescued a train loaded with coal that got almost as far as Estherville when once again it was stalled in a deep cut. Daily bulletins published in the paper kept anxious readers informed on the progress of the train bringing them coal, which finally reached the town as residents were steeling themselves for cold houses. Fears of empty coal bins were no more than allayed when other fears replaced them. On Thursday, April 30, a funnel cloud roared in from the west over the bluffs along the river.


Esther's Town, by Deemer Lee

Excerpt from Esther's Town

Lewis Paulson would long remember the miserable journey he made as postman in February 1861 when during a raging blizzard it took him five days to make the forty-five mile trip from Estherville to Algona. The public rewarded him with a $9 contribution for the trip he made on snowshoes. At one point he was temporarily blinded by the snow, lost his way, and wandered in virtually a circle for one whole night. He didn't stop to rest for fear of freezing to death. Stumbling accidentally near a cabin when he thought he heard someone calling hogs, he found hospitality that saved his life.

Esther's Town, by Deemer Lee

Iowa Farm Photo of the Week

Winter Scene: 

Iowa Farm in Your Pocket: A Beginner's Guide, Kirk Murray

Snowplow Shoveling

The snowplow these men are shoveling out in Estherville was powered by a locomotive and used to clear train tracks. 

Was This Heaven? by Lyell D. Henry, Jr.