While present-day Ridgeway has been going through some pretty nasty weather, the Ridgeway of February, 1936 also suffered a series of storms that left the city buried in snow with little access to the outside world. The entire country was in the grips of “the longest cold spell in 117 years” with temperatures dropping as low as -25 degrees in parts of Harrison County. The Ridgeway school was closed for three weeks; services at both Methodist and Christian churches were cancelled and very few farmers came into town to do their trading as the
roads were buried under drifting snow due to the high winds. On one day, merchants reported only one customer coming into their shops, and they were pretty sure it was the same farmer going to all of them to get the best deal for his trade.
The Burlington trains were not able to run for a week due to snow blocking the tracks until a rotary snow plow was able to clear the lines. Until the trains could bring much needed coal for heating homes, coal was brought in by truck, but it was still not enough. Coal was then rationed from the school’s emergency supply in 300 pound allotments to residents in need. Even a light snowfall would drift so badly due to the high winds that it would close roads. Ridgeway’s woes even made a radio newscast based in Ohio: “It took a record-breaking storm to send the name of Ridgeway out over the air waves, and it was accomplished Sunday night at 10 o’clock when the 500,000 watt station of WLW, Cincinnati told the world that “Ridgeway was ‘isolated from the world by heavy snows.’”
As bad as it was for Ridgeway, Hatfield had it even worse. They were completely closed off from the world by snow for six weeks and were desperate for groceries, coal, medicine, and other supplies. They telephoned for help from the Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Eagleville. CCC members tried valiantly to dig out the roads to Hatfield only to have them blocked again by drifting snow. Finally, after “fighting their way through six miles of drifted snow”, four horse-drawn bobsleds reached Hatfield with much needed food and medical supplies.
