National Affairs: Death on the Range

It was the most bitter winter the West had known since 1889, still remembered as the winter of the Great White Ruin. Since January's great blizzard (TIME, Jan. 17), one swirling snowstorm had followed another; Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota had been hit by 18 in 27 days. There had been incessant cold—temperatures had fallen as low as 40° below zero. Howling winds piled the snow in endless dunes. On the range, feed was buried deep; springs, watering troughs and streams were frozen; ranch houses were isolated, thousands of miles of roads were...

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