Remembering the big storm

It has been nearly 70 years since the infamous Blizzard of 1949, which has been considered one of the worst on record for the states of the northern plains of the United States. The first storm hit on Jan. 2, 1949 and was followed by subsequent storms that lasted through the middle of February brought more snow and more cold, paralyzing countless communities throughout the west.

"Small towns across Wyoming dealt with the challenges of having thousands of stranded passengers in their towns during the blizzard," James C. Fuller writes in the beginning of his book "The Wyoming Blizzard of 1949: Surviving the Storm."

Fuller, who is originally from Greenwood, S.C., now lives in Cheyenne after having retired from that city's F.E. Warren Air Base following 24 years in the military. Fuller, who holds a Bachelor's of Science in History and a Master's of Arts in American History, has always had a love of history.

The former South Carolina resident was at the Grand Encampment Opera House on Aug. 10 to talk about his book and speak with locals about the blizzard.

"It's always been my love, wherever I'm at, to understand the history that surrounds me so that people know because, so many times, people that lived in the town 50-60 years have no idea certain things took place," Fuller said.

It was happenstance that led the retired airman to even begin writing about the Blizzard of 1949.

"If I wouldn't have went to the documentary review at Little America there in Cheyenne, I probably never would have ran into the producer of "The Blizzard of '49" the documentary. Once that took place, stories were just kind of in a file. I never had planned on writing about the blizzard, it wasn't really my intention," said Fuller.

Arcadia Publishing, which owns The History Press, approached Fuller about writing a Wyoming history book - one that specifically focused on Cheyenne. The historian informed the company that there was a lot more history beyond the state capitol and chose to focus on the notorious blizzard.

"I've got so many stories that are available that the documentary never talked about because there just wasn't enough time," Fuller said.

The documentary, "Blizzard of '49," has a runtime of 57 minutes. Even with having written the book, which is 160 pages, Fuller stated that he is certain that he still hasn't been able to record most of the stories from that time. While much of the process was oral history, stories that were handed down from one relative to another, the Cheyenne-based historian also received copies of letters and diaries from families.

The rest of the work was delving into newspaper archives and libraries. Fuller credited the Wyoming Newspaper Project, which is maintained by the Wyoming State Library, as well as newspapers.com and Chronicling America for providing resources.

"It was going back to the archives and looking at basically every single newspaper that could have possibly been printed during that time frame," said Fuller. "Anybody that mentioned the blizzard, I just honed in on whatever that story was and was able to pull out a lot of good information on stories"

For anyone who is interested in getting into history, local or otherwise, Fuller encouraged them to begin by visiting their local museum or library and utilizing the resources available through those institutions. As for Fuller, while he is sure that he hasn't told all of the stories about the Blizzard of 1949, he's on a mission to uncover other little-known history of the Cowboy State.

"I just kind of feel it's my duty, as a historian, to tell the story of wherever I'm at," Fuller said.