Sherburne History Center Blog

  The current weather conditions, drought, high heat, and lack or water reminds me of recent research into Sherburne County during the 1930s.   A time of worse weather conditions permeated throughout the county. Farming in Orrock Township after the difficult weather of the 1930s.  Notice the thick layer of sand sitting above the darker soil. In the years 1933 and 1934, the county suffered a major drought.   Farmers remembered the time as a “dust bowl.”   Some residents of Sherburne County remember this time as an end to farming in some areas of the county.   “The light, worn out soils took to the air and drifted like snow over the roads and onto front porches,” is the way historian Herb Murphy described it.   Some folklore of the times described Orrock Township as the “poison ivy capital of the world.”   Other tall tales suggested that “jack rabbits, when passing through Orrock Township, had to pack a lunch because there was nothing to eat.” ...

Weather extremes, the newspapers documented in 1936, wreaked havoc in Sherburne County communities.   Floods and high water in April and a ten-week drouth in August the weather played a significant role in life during a bad year in the 1930s economic depression. The headlines of the Sherburne County Star News, in April 1936, reported high water marks on the Elk River.   Camp Cozy suffered the greatest catastrophe.   The newspaper reported flooding and ice flows destroyed footbridges crossing the Elk River.   High water destroyed cabins along the river.   Yet, these reports seemed only a precursor to the weather extremes of later in the year.   In the summer months, heat waves burned crops and killed people in the upper Midwest.   The St Paul newspapers in the summer 1936 reported 100 people dying from heat.   Newspapers noted the heat allowed men to fry eggs on the city pavement.   The heat in Sherburne County seemed lower, yet sti...

            Today the local weather reports seem rather boring.   Each day the morning announcers lament the lack of snow in Minnesota .   Around town, however, friends are telling me to just sit back and wait.   When the snow comes, it is going to arrive with a great deal of fanfare.             History has shown that the month of November is a time of unpredictable and often frightening weather. Snow at SHC, November 2010             Only twenty years ago, the Halloween blizzard of 1991 witnessed a snowstorm that delivered more 28 inches in a two day period.   The snow started to fall at noon on October 31 and continue for two days.   It was a heavy, wet snow that stayed.   Trick-or-treaters were forced to climb over snow drifts to reach houses for candy.   In the Twin Cities, children...

If you are following the Sherburne History Center facebook page over the last few weeks you will have noticed we are a bit obsessed about the weather.   In studying local historic newspapers, it appears the concern for weather is part of the character of Sherburne County residents.   And, it simply isn’t the record highs and lows, the impressively strong winds, or tornadoes that roll through the county.   Each day the weather is unique and becomes an interesting facet of coming events.   Even the smallest details are noted. In August of 1894, the Sherburne County Star News reported not only was it hot (the daytime temperature hovered around 100 all week with a night time low of the high 80s), but also technology had taken a step forward for weather forecasters.   The newspaper reported, “ Elk River is now furnished with weather reports by telephone.   The character of the weather is no better than it was before.” Extremes in the weather were always...