Surprising wind, snow and ice leave hunters stranded on the river

By Correne Martin

To honor those who died as well as those who risked their lives to rescue others, a commemorative sign now stands in Ferryville acknowledging the regionally historic, tragic and deadly Armistice Day Storm of Nov. 11, 1940. The permanent sign was unveiled to the public at a ceremony last Tuesday, Nov. 10, at River View Park.

“It’s part of our regional history in the Ferryville and Lansing area, and all up and down the river. When you read about this storm, it’s amazing anybody survived,” said Joanne White, of the Ferryville Tourism Council.  

It has been 75 years since the infamous storm, which claimed the lives of 161 people throughout the Midwest, including 20 duck hunters on the Mississippi River between Red Wing, Minn., to Prairie du Chien. In that time, much has been mentioned about the mild temperatures of the early morning plunging nearly 60 degrees in a matter of hours, as sleet turned to snow and then into a blizzard dropping between 16 and 27 inches of snow. But, according to Ron Slack, who was born and raised in the Ferryville area and worked for the railroad, no historical marker has ever been placed in the region.

“I’ve always heard about that storm: Guys were husking corn during the day it was so nice, but by that afternoon, the wind (which reached 75 mph) had blown some chickens up against the garage and froze them there,” Slack said. “So last spring, when I was watching a show about shipwrecks of the Great Lakes, I decided we needed to do something.”

The Ferryville Tourism Council then began gathering information about the Armistice Day Storm in order to complete the sign in time for last week’s 75th anniversary ceremony observing the disaster.
In their research, they met Madison area freelance reporter Ted Eisele, a duck hunter and Crawford County conservationist who has interviewed survivors, researched and written about the storm for years since his father enlightened him as a college student. Wisconsin Outdoor News published an article by Eisele about a 1940 storm survivor in its October 2015 edition.

“This is a part of the outdoor heritage of this state. So many people were out hunting that day because it was a holiday,” Eisele pointed out. “Hunters didn’t have the Gore-Tex we have now. They didn’t have the weather forecasts. And the birds came in advance of the ferocious wind, rain, sleet and snow; they knew [the storm] was coming. They were so focused on the ducks that, all of a sudden, the waves were so big and they weren’t equipped to handle it.”

In addition to Eisele’s recounting of the unfathomable tempest, Ferryville was honored Nov. 11 to hear from survivor Jim Bosanny Sr., of Monroe. Bosanny was 15 years old the day of the storm and enjoying a day of duck hunting with his dad when the weather changed.

“I was just a snot-nosed kid. It was cold and the wind blew constantly. It was howling,” Bosanny spoke. “We picked up what decoys we could and got the Johnson five-horse started. I had lost my gloves and both my boots were filled with water. My hands were covered with ice.

“My dad put me on the oar. There were a lot more islands in the river at that time. But we were going with the wind and when we finally got to shore, we were a long way from dad’s car, which was a 1938 Pontiac two-door. The water in my boots had frozen by then so dad had me stand in the door jam and he cut my boots off. They were black boots we got from the fire department. When we got home, my mom stripped me down, put me in the tub and thawed me out.”

Aside from Bosanny’s experience, scores of hunters in nearby bottom lands battled the elements in the night-long siege to survive. Local heroes were numerous for braving the weather to find disoriented and frozen hunters. In rural areas, people welcomed high school students as well as strangers into their homes. Power lines fell, animals froze to death. Fifty-nine sailors lost their lives when two freighters and two other vessels sank on the Great Lakes.

According to an article by Eisele, Max Conrad, a lifelong aviator from Winona, Minn., flew over the backwaters of the Mississippi looking for hunters who were stranded. He threw out supplies and flew in the direction hunters needed to go to get out, or he guided rescue boats to the hunters.

Commercial fishermen used their boats early the next morning to search the Big Slough for survivors and to bring in their bodies. Dangerous conditions and frigid temperatures made the task daunting.
Bill Howe, of Prairie du Chien, was just 17 in 1940. He personally took extra clothes and a rat boat up to Ferryville from Prairie du Chien, on orders from his dad, Lyman, who knew the phone operator in Ferryville.

“She knew dad and she knew the Valleys, who had a rat boat that wasn’t iced in,” Bill recalled. “Way out on some of the islands were two groups of hunters. The veteran river men went out with some warm clothes for them.”

Mrs. N.A. Torgerson, Ferryville correspondent for The Courier newspaper on Nov. 12, 1940, summarized the horrific moment in history very well. “The people of Ferryville have not yet recovered from the shock of the Armistice Day Storm. It will go down in history as the worst storm ever witnessed by the oldest inhabitant.”

The commemorative sign at Ferryville’s River View Park was sponsored by Friends of Pool 9, Ferryville Tourism Council, Flyway Fowling Guide Service (Cpt. Todd Lensing), Grandview Motel (Todd and Donna Lensing), Ron Slack, Sherry and Larry Quamme, Gary and Jeanne Rutter, Michael and Joanne White, and Kelly and Brent Hutchison.