History, Natural History & the Arts
It was a frigid January at Glens Falls in 1883, which was good for the ice men.
“The ice in the river at this point is now twelve inches thick,” The Morning Star reported on January 4th. “Several ice men announced they will commence their annual harvest on Monday.” [Read more…] about 1880s January Weather Reports: Ice Harvest, Cold Weather, Snow
Wilson Bentley (1865-1931) lived his entire life in Jericho, Vermont, where he developed a passion for snowflakes at an early age.
He started by collecting snowflakes and trying to create detailed drawings of each one, but the snow crystals’ tiny size and the speed at which they melted made this a futile task.
At age 15, with a microscope gifted to him by his mother, Bentley began experimenting with photography as a means of capturing the elusive design of a snowflake. [Read more…] about How to Preserve a Snowflake
If, when browsing the antiques shops of Washington County, you should spot an old hat with “March 12-13, 1888” marked inside, there is a story behind it. A story almost not fully told.
“It is unnecessary to speak in detail of the storm,” The Granville Sentinel reported on March 16, 1888. “It has been everywhere and all know its effect.” Then, as if the editor had second thoughts, the report continued for the full column and about half of a another, a rare luxury of space afforded only the most important of news stories in 19th century newspapers.
It was definitively the biggest storm of the season, and possibly of the century. [Read more…] about The Great Blizzard of March 1888 in Washington County
After Snowfall
I have come to like
the simple symmetry of
snow-blowing
our driveway.
It is like erasing
a great white board
revealing
a dazzling surface
on which to write again
the equations for
the rest of our lives.
About the Poet: Gene Ervine loves the crisp snowy winters of Alaska. He grew up in the cool, wet woods of the Pacific Northwest praying for snow. When his wife Nancy took a teaching job in a one-room school in a logging camp they moved to Alaska “for a year,” that adventure has stretched into lifetimes.
He studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Exposure to the Imagists and Beats have shaped his writing. Gene worked as an exhibit planner and writer for the Department of the Interior. He now lives in Anchorage. For over forty years Alaska’s varied landscapes and seasons have inspired him.