Noel: 1913 snow far worse than this

Published February 17, 2007 at midnight

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Now that the snowy, freezing, rutted-streets weather is behind us (it is, isn't it?), let's console ourselves that this was not Denver's worst winter ever. That came in 1913.

A storm dumped between 30 to 50 inches of snow, from Fort Collins to Trinidad, starting Dec. 4 and relenting two days later. Denver shivered under a record snow: 45.7 inches. Georgetown, smothered under 63 inches in one day, set the state record for the 1913 storm with 86 inches.

Denver looked like a ghost town hidden under mounds of snow. Streetcars stalled in snowdrifts and were abandoned, blocking main streets. Outside of town, 22 passenger and freight trains were immobilized. People trapped downtown found shelter wherever they could, in hotels, churches and the new Municipal Auditorium. The Mile High City's 500 saloons overflowed with celebrants who spent the night consuming antifreeze.

By noon on Dec. 5 only wagon sleds, sleighs and skiers could travel the streets. No streetcar moved from Dec. 4 to Dec. 7. Denverites dug trenches through the snow.

Blowing and drifting snow in winds up to 35 mph made the blizzard hard to fight. Twenty- foot drifts buried houses. The city hired all able-bodied men at $2.50 a day to help with emergency snow removal. They shoveled the white stuff into wagons to dump into Cherry Creek, the South Platte and Civic Center. The 75-foot- high mountain in Civic Center did not melt until mid-June.

That winter of 1913, Denver received 115.9 inches (73.8 inches above average). Miraculously, the only Colorado fatalities reported were two Silverton miners killed by an avalanche. No major crimes occurred. And Denver gas, water, electricity and telephone service remained undisturbed.

The temperature during the storm never dropped below 21 degrees. It was a wet, heavy snow that collapsed roofs on at least 16 buildings. A baseball bandstand at Colfax and Broadway tumbled down under four feet of snow.

Not until Dec. 6 did the sun finally come out. Denver Mayor James M. Perkins declared Dec. 10 a "shoveling day" and ordered all able-bodied Denverites to do their duty. The city conscripted every horse, wagon and truck it could to help with the war on snow.

The administration's City of Denver magazine declared that being "snowbound for the first time in the experience of the city was proof to the outer world of the claims Denver always has made for her extraordinary advantages in climactic conditions."

Perkins, a physician who had been head of the city's health department, previously was fond of touting Denver's mild climate and abundant sunshine.

Eighteen months later Denver had a new mayor, William Sharpley. Perkins, realizing his chances were slim, did not even run.

Tom Noel welcomes comments at coloradowebsites.com /dr-colorado

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