Blizzard of 1955 - Cheyenne, WY (Sheridan, Warren AFB: hotels, school, living in)

[Mike from back east]

Folks, here's a memory from my father-in-law....he sent it in honor of this weekend's heavy snow that is predicted for here in Colorado.

"Maybe this snow will be the pile-up type, maybe 3 or 4 feet. The one I was in 1955 up in Cheyenne was 36 inches in 24 hours. That slowed things down for couple days! My hotel was over a Woolworths store and the snow was over the top of the store's front doors and the hotels too. Cars in the street were completely covered. They had to come in with front loaders and scoop up the snow and haul it away in dump trucks. No school for a couple days at the Francis Warren AFB."

Anyone out there recall the 1955 whopper?

s/Mike from back east
Colorado Springs

[Munshine]

I wouldn’t recall it, and because I wasn’t born yet. However, it interests me, and mainly because, even though I now am a resident of WY, I am a native of northeastern Colorado, (a county which is adjacent to Wyoming’s southern border/approximately 55-65 miles from Cheyenne), and my parents and sibling were living in this Colorado location in 1955. I’m just wondering if Colorado, at least, the section I’ve referred to above, was also hit by this storm as Cheyenne was?

Thanks for sharing the recollection of this past storm! It does make a person realize “it could always be lots worse than it is now”.

[ElkHunter]

Mike, That's not uncommon. The snow storm mentioned about 1955 was not a real big thing. It's only happened about 15 times since then. haha For instance, ask about 1983 from folks in Wyoming. They called it the 83 of 83. Roofs caving in, roads were blocked for a week. I can remember riding a snowmobile down main street in Sheridan and we were looking in the second story windows. There was no first story. It was buried. If you didn't have a snowmobile, you didn't get to work. Course, if you worked at 7/11 you just didn't open. But I worked in a coal mine and they kept right on operating. haha Yeah, snow up here is not uncommon. However, having said that, we haven't had a bad snow in years.

jim