Think we’ve had it bad with recent snows and sub-zero temperatures? Consider this 86-year-old Boulder Monitor article uncovered by Ellen Rae Thiel of Boulder’s The Heritage Center.
“Nearly 200 persons, most of them from Butte and Anaconda, were marooned last Sunday night at Boulder by heavy snow which made travel on the Butte-Helena road impossible,” begins the article dated Feb. 11, 1933.
“More than 100 of those who straggled into town after abandoning their cars were suffering from frostbite,” the article continues. “Emergency calls for aid brought Dr. D. E. Rainville and many residents of the town to the hotels and garages where the motorists had sought refuge. Many of the marooned people spent the night in private homes and the jury room at the court house was also opened to them.”
“The storm continued all day Monday, with temperatures falling far below zero during the night. Tuesday a.m. it was 30 below in Boulder, 40 below in Basin, 40 to 45 below at Elk Park and at the govt. Thermometer at Trask, an official reported the mercury had fallen below the 60 below mark.”
Thiel said by email that Trask was a town near Elk Park, and that the Butte-Helena road was “somewhat the same” as I-15 is today.
“It came a little differently over Boulder Hill,” she wrote. “It came directly into Main street of Boulder and then you made a right turn on Centennial and went on through Basin, etc.”
