Packing, Plowing, and Progress: The Story of Moving Snow

Despite a slow start, we are now caught up to the average snowfall for the winter and many of us are ready for it to be done with. People have been moving snow out of their way for a long time. Today we have efficient plows on motorized vehicles and snowblowers both large and small. Thanks to dedicated snowplow drivers, we are able to negotiate our highways and byways quickly and with relatively little difficulty. Historically, things were quite different.

The Age of Acceptance

In the 1700’s snow was simply not removed. People utilized snowshoes or created passable ways for horses, carts, and sleds to move by simply flattening the snow drifts. “The Great Snow of 1717” left four feet of snow and 25-foot-high drifts in New England. In 1772, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both trapped in their homes by three feet of snow.

Snow Rollers: Packing, Not Plowing

One approach to making passable roads was the horse-drawn snow roller which was used to pack and flatten the snow, thus creating a reasonably smooth and stable surface on which to travel using vehicles with runners. The roller was essentially a large, wide wheel filled with rocks. Some communities had a snow warden who was in charge of this process.

The most basic of snow removal tools, the scoop snow shovel, was introduced in the late 1800’s and one of the first was invented in 1889 by Lydia Fairweather.

Dealing with the snow in cities led to approaches other than just equipment for removing snow. Elevated tracks for trains avoided dealing with huge drifts on railroad tracks. The blizzard of 1847 ultimately led to putting trains underground with Boston in the lead in 1899 and New York following some years later.

Lessons from the Blizzard of 1888

The blizzard of 1888, which left some places with 50 inches of snow and drifts up to 40 feet tall, basically brought everything to a halt. One of the lessons learned was to start clearing roads at the beginning of the storm rather than waiting for the snow to stop – a practice still in use today.

The first snowplows were used in Milwaukee in 1862. They were plows attached to the back of a cart which was pulled by a team of horses or oxen. The downside to these plows was the snow left behind, which was piled up on the sides of the road. This made it difficult for people to access buildings. In New York City men were hired to follow the plows with horse-drawn carts into which the piled snow was shoveled. The carts then hauled the snow to the river or the ocean, where it was dumped.

Modern Machines Take Over

Over time, through the early 1900’s, motorized vehicles replaced horse-drawn devices and men with shovels. In 1920, in Chicago, the Barber-Greene snow loader was first used. It had a large, wide scoop and a conveyor belt and it moved on huge tractor treads. As snow was plowed it was first forced into the scoop, then caught on the conveyor belt which moved it away from the street and up a chute. From the chute the snow was dumped into a truck to be hauled away. By 1926, snowplows were put on the front of trucks, as they are still today.

Originally published in the February 2025 edition of our newsletter, Yore Connection