HOW BAD WAS THE LONG WINTER? THE PHOTOGRAPH.
HOW BAD WAS THE LONG WINTER? THE PHOTOGRAPH. I went on the internet to confirm how bad the “Long Winter” in 1880/1881 was. This article by Lee Svitak Dean on the Minnesota Star/Tribune site (February 10, 2014) describes the blizzards and their effect. Although the article does point out that the snow piled up to 12 feet in depth, the winter is best captured in the article by a photograph taken on March 29, 1881. (The photograph also appears in the wikipedia entry about the Long Winter.)
The man standing at the back of the train shows the scale of the snowfall.
This winter was not enough for Ma Ingalls to breach a cultural taboo by allowing animals to move from the barn into the house.