Consensus knows that Prescott gets snow, but it almost never lasts long—often melting away before evening. This was the reasoning behind the city selling off its “excess” snow removal equipment. But then in mid-December, 1967, a below freezing cold-snap accompanied by four waves of heavy snow eventually produced 72 inches with drifts measuring up to 10 feet.
Ironically, it was the city of Phoenix that sent ten snowplows, at its own expense, to help with the crisis.
It all started Tuesday, December 12th when 18 inches piled up—already the storm was the biggest blizzard in twenty years, but it was only the beginning. “Trucks and trailers jackknifed across Yarnell Hill…prompting law enforcement officials to close White Spar road to further traffic,” the Prescott Courier reported. Additionally, a four car pile up occurred on Black Canyon highway as “a Texaco tanker overturned on the embankment, with the ensuing chain reaction involving three other vehicles.” Fortunately, there were no injuries. (The Black Canyon closure was significant because Interstate 17 had not yet been constructed.)
So many people were using the phone that many had to wait a full minute before they even got a dial tone. The Prescott airport closed at noon and would remain closed until after Christmas. Schools closed Wednesday the 13th, and would not reopen until 1968. Sheriff Al Ayers declared: “If we get anymore snow, we may have to declare this a disaster area.”
A decade before it became popular, citizens band radio was utilized to garner information from isolated areas. One sheriff’s deputy was required to transport a woman in labor to the Prescott hospital. The sheriff’s office called upon its Jeep posse to deliver food to outlying areas such as Lynx and Groom Creek, Walker, and Diamond Valley--where one officer had to temporarily abandon his vehicle to complete the vital deliveries on foot. One 8 year-old, asthma-suffering boy was brought to Prescott from Lynx Creek Estates to allow quick access to the hospital if need be. It took seven hours—until 8pm, for deputies to reach his house.
Often only a bulldozer was able to break through the tall snow drifts. Due to Prescott’s lack of snow removal equipment, her citizens came to the rescue. “Private individuals and firms have been operating magnificently,” the sheriff said. “They’re putting their own equipment out there, and it’s getting torn up.” Many civic-minded college and high school students called the city asking how they could help.
Cattle farmers were caught in a dire state as their livestock was stranded in the snow. “We can’t get in [to feed them]; they could be wiped out,” one worried.
“Our biggest problem is fuel,” the sheriff related. “People [in the outskirts] are running out of butane gas.” Helicopter owner Ralph Martin was asked to check on the welfare of some of the ranches.
The temperature rose only slightly above freezing and nearly no melting occurred. “Prescott was virtually isolated from the state,” the Courier described. “Mail had not moved in or out of town in over a day.” Highway 89 south into Phoenix was open only to vehicles with tire chains. Black Canyon highway still had only one lane of traffic open. “Highway 79 [now 89A over Mingus,] was virtually closed to all but official or emergency traffic.”
City Engineer Louis Bombardieri told the Courier “that the city’s clearing equipment was working on a 24 hour basis, but [no] more than one or two pieces were rarely in operation. ‘They last about half a day,’ he said, ‘and then they break down.’”
The Prescott Shopping Center (at Gurley and Thumb Butte road,) closed all of its storefronts, including the Fry’s grocery store, due to safety concerns. Every roof was sagging dangerously. Indeed, three people were hospitalized after falling through a plastic skylight there, while trying to clear the snow from the roof.
Then more snow fell. The total on the ground was now 38 inches. Over two dozen aluminum store canopies collapsed. Saturday the 16th, the sheriff’s office went into “emergency mode” and began hiring more privately-owned heavy equipment to help. Saturday night gusting winds and frozen temperatures caused huge snow drifts that covered over places where the snow had been removed.
As the Prescott hospital began to run low in its blood supply, ten pints were dropped from a plane at the Prescott airport before a deputy ran it to the hospital. That was hardly the hospital’s only problem. The roof over its kitchen was sagging two feet from the weight of the snow. It was the forest service that came to the rescue in this instance, providing equipment for a “field kitchen” that was erected in one of the hospital's recreation rooms.
A caterpillar bulldozer left for Cherry Saturday night and didn’t arrive there until Sunday morning. It was the first sign of outside civilization the small burg had seen in five days. As for Route 89 heading north, the Granite Dells weren’t reached until 5:30 Sunday afternoon.
Although Sheriff Ayers originally stated that more snow could well require a declaration of a disaster, when the second blizzard came through, he reconsidered. He was now reluctant because of the cost, and that local control of the situation would be lost to Phoenix.
“[Sheriff’s] officers answered a variety of emergency calls, including several women bordering on childbirth. In one instance, lawmen could only get to within 100 yards of one mother’s house, so they carried her out in a kitchen chair and took her to the patrol car,” the Courier described.
All roads out of Prescott required chains on tires and every merchant that carried them ran out quickly. Black Canyon Highway was still restricted to only one lane Sunday.
After its roof caved in, the Hassayampa Food Market began utilizing its Jeep (equipped with tire chains,) to make deliveries. Roof failures were many including the Pepsi-Cola warehouse and the Western Auto store.
While trying to remove snow from an awning, Mrs. Yancey Lewis fell 18 feet to the ground breaking her back and arm. Two other women fell with her, but were not seriously injured.
Sunday night brought heavy freezing rain and sleet which took down even more roofs. The Arizona Republic reported: “Three roofs caved in on the town’s famous ‘Whiskey Row’…and at an airplane repair shop at the Prescott airport.”
Garbage trucks could not maneuver on any side streets. The city recommended burning what could be, and either storing perishable trash in the garage “or possibly put some of it out on the snow for the birds,” the Courier suggested. The rest was to be condensed (cans flattened, etc.)
Citizens of Prescott found out that some large mountain lions and bears were still in the forest when deep snows forced them out of the mountains.
Finally, the Yavapai County Supervisors declared the entire county a disaster area. Mail deliveries had not been made to residential areas since the first snow fell five days before. Likewise, the Prescott Courier could not be delivered. Despite the last two weeks of a year providing some of the best advertising revenue for any newspaper, the Courier would not publish another edition after December 17 until the next year. (Trivia: In 1967 the Prescott Evening Courier decided to publish a morning edition instead, but went back to an evening edition in ’68.)
More snow fell the 17th. “Prescott has received 42 inches of snow since the storm began,” the Arizona Republic reported. “Officials said the town was completely sold out of overshoes and tire chains. They said wreckers in the area were even bogged down so deeply they could not operate.” Snow drifts reached ten feet tall.
Supplies began to dwindle and grocery stores implemented quotas of milk and other supplies. More air drops of blood were made to bolster supplies at the hospital.
Then another eight inches of snow fell bringing the total to 50.
“Prescott was another community in which most merchants forgot Christmas sales and fought to prevent collapse of their buildings under loads of heavy snow,” the Republic explained. When asked how holiday sales were going, Ed Getrost, manager of the Sprouse-Reitz store, proclaimed: “It’s gone to hell! I’m busy mopping up water leaking through the overladen roof and hoping that the stilts we have put in will prevent the snow and roof from collapsing on us.”
Prescott borrowed 10 pieces of snow removal equipment from Phoenix on December 19th for ten days. The $30,000 cost, including wages for eight workers, was paid by Phoenix (about $242,000 today.)
“The snow depth topped 5 feet at Prescott,” the Republic reported on the 20th, ”with rainfall during the day [that] flood[ed] the downtown. Volunteers and jail trustees labored to keep street drains cleared of snow to let the runoff escape.” Even Western Union announced it would only accept messages of “direct emergency” in Prescott.
A number of pronghorn were found dead in the Chino Valley basin due to the storm and the state Game & Fish Department monitored the situation, ready to provide supplementary feed for the wildlife, if and when necessary.
White Spar road from Congress Junction to Prescott finally opened to all traffic on the 22nd, but Highway 89A to Jerome would not open until the 28th and even then “the highway department cautioned against its use except in emergency circumstances,” the Republic reported. The Christmas Eve edition of this paper cited Prescott's snow total at 72 inches--a full six feet!
It took until January 2, 1968 for the Prescott Evening Courier to relate the story in retrospect: “Several have said that it will cost as much as the fire at the turn of the century.” On one ranch 18 head of cattle broke through the ice and drowned in a pool of water.”
“Sales have suffered throughout the town,” the paper continued. Ken Thompson, City Manager, estimated the cost at upward of $30,000 and that did not include damage to property and streets. He believed it would take a minimum of 60 days to calculate it all. “Parking meters, usually bringing in $150 per day had not been checked for two weeks.”
The city gradually returned to normal by the first of the year, but “the big snow of 1967” is still well remembered by all who experienced it.
For northern Arizona, 1967 delivered a Christmas way too white.
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SOURCES:
Arizona Republic, 12/29/1967 Pg. 30, Col. 3.
Prescott Courier, 12/14/1967 Pg. 2.
IBID. Pg. 1, Col. 6-8.
Arizona Republic, 12/16/1917; Pg. 7, Col. 4.
Prescott Courier, 12/17/1967; Pg. 1, all columns.
Arizona Republic, 12/17/1967; Pg. 2, Col. 2.
Arizona Republic, 12/20/1967; Pg. 1, Col. 8.
Arizona Daily Sun, 12/18/1967; Pg. 1, Col. 8.
IBID. Pg. 20, Cols. 1-2.
Arizona Republic, 12/19/1967; Pg. 20, Col. 5.
Arizona Republic, 12/18/1967; Pg. 13, Col. 1.
Arizona Republic, 12/20/1967; Pg. 10, Col. 1.
IBID. Pg. 19 Cols. 1 & 2.
Arizona Republic, 12/22/1967; Pg. 37, Col. 2.
Arizona Daily Star, 12/23/67 Pg. 16, Col. 7.
Arizona Republic, 12/24/67; Pg. 2, Col, 1
Prescott Evening Courier, 1/2/1968; Pg. 1, Col. 8.
I was 6yo in Flag when this storm hit. It was the most wonderous thing of my young life. I remember so clearly climbing the giant mountains of snow and sledding back down.
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