SCOUTING YESTERDAY | Operation Snowbound spares hundreds of South Dakotans from starvation

This week in South Dakota history: Jan. 31-Feb. 6

Photo: South Dakota Public Broadcasting

Operation Snowbound was underway to free thousands of isolated Midwesterners seventy-five years ago, according to The Daily Plainsman. Seeing over 3,000 families freed in the first few days, what would become a six-week mission for the US Army had only just begun.

The first major storm in the winter of 1948-49 was one of the worst in two years, with 14 inches falling Nov. 5, according to the Lead Daily Call. Another more powerful system would move through the Great Plains just weeks later. Several feet blanketed Nebraska while Sioux Falls escaped with only eight inches. Travel was deemed impossible as plows were pulled from the roads and a reported 20 Midwestern towns were left isolated.

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Blizzards continued to hammer the Midwest throughout December, followed by a Jan. 2 storm that would become the basis for the first military operation of the season, according to the Rapid City Journal. Operation Haylift began days later when the Air Force supplied South Dakota with C-47 and C-32 aircraft from Denver to airlift over three tons of food and supplies to the Pine Ridge Reservation and stranded ranchers. Hay and feed for stranded cattle was also dropped.