Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Remembering November 11th 1940

November 11, 2019 marks the 79th anniversary of the Armistice Day Blizzard in North America. Hunters from the Upper Mississippi River in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest, including Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois headed out in droves taking advantage of perfect fowling conditions but things just got worse and worse. Temperatures went from +55F to -55F and a white out ensued. Many hunters did not make it home that night. The bodies of more than 50 duck hunters, stranded on rivers, lakes and wetlands, dying from drowning and exposure were found the following day. Artist Michael Sieve's captured the storm in his painting "Armistice Day Blizzard ". Rest easy brothers and enjoy the big duck pond in the sky.

My father and uncle were out hunting on Heron Lake about six miles from their farm that day. Two of their good friends decided to try hunting on the north side of the lake and walked to a spot to hunt leaving their car parked next to my uncles Model A pick up. About the time the storm really started to hit my father and uncle got in their truck to leave. They waited longer than they should have hoping their friends would show up. They finely decided that they had to get out of there. It was a straight shot down the farm road home. They made it 1/2 mile from the farm and couldn't get up the hill. It was almost complete white out by then so they followed the barbed wire fence. Luckily they had their "chores" coats in the truck and some cotton work gloves. At the end of the fence they knew they were close to the house and barn but couldn't see it. They heard my grandfather fire up a tractor and made their way to the sound and walked up to the house not seeing it until they could almost touch it. They survived but their two friends didn't.