The Big Snow of 1969 - Elmira Oregon

The Willamette Valley of Oregon rarely receives any significant sticking snowfall. However the last weekend of January 1969 lives on in the memory of many locals as "THE Big Snow".
An excellent overview of the storm can be read here http://ocs.orst.edu/page_links/extreme_weather/jan_69_snowstorm/jan_69.html
This video was originally shot on 8mm film by my parents (R.E. and Sharron Petersen) at our home on Faulhaber Road in Elmira, Oregon USA.
The kids in the film are me and my brother. Watch how the snow gets deeper as the weekend wears on. It got too deep for small kids to even walk in. The snow was heavy and wet, Dad is up on the garage scraping it off with a homemade tool so the roof wouldn't cave in.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• snow
• oregon
• elmira
• eugene
• willamette
• faulhaber
• veneta
• noti
• 8mm
• film
• 1969
• storm
• bolens
• husky
• tractor
• ford
• truck
• 1948

[powerpuffgir1]

Do you remember your house number? We have friends on that road. Due for some snow today 1/15/2012

[klawyaillahee]

@powerpuffgir1 there were no house numbers then, We were Route 2 box 482. I don't know what the current number is!

[heatblizzard]

What is he on in the end?

[klawyaillahee]

the roof of the garage?

the Bolens Husky Tractor?

[hazmat5793]

where on faulhaber is this? do you think we got more snow this january?

[klawyaillahee]

Our house was between warthen and horn road on the east side. It was called "the Old Smith Place" back then. Still there but badly remodeled and all the trees gone. i do think we got about as much snow locally this year, but it was all spread out over a longer time, so it didn't make the impact of the '69 storm. I live 30 miles west of Elmira now. :)

[james3000gt]

Did you know that Elmira and Veneta were sisters? No kidding. Both towns were named after little girls named Veneta and Elmira. The original settlers were from the family of faulhabers. Hence faulhaber road. That's what I was told anyway.

[james3000gt]

I lived in Mapleton then. I remember that snowfall very well. We all got out of school for 2 weeks. Well, maybe 1 week. but it was awesome. We had a wrestling tournament at the High School. When we went outside we had a foot of snow. All the visiting schools had to stay in Mapleton for a week with people who shared their homes. Back when people were people. lol

We made a sled run off our roof, which was piled with 5 ft of snow. Best snow time memories every. Especially cuz we got to stay home.

[gutboy17]

This is the coolest video on Youtube. I was born during this storm out in Vaughn.

[cmalves1]

I use to go to school at Elmira High back in 83, I lived in Walton for about 4 years.

[VenetaTownMayor]

I found a couple old newspapers in Goodwill several years ago with front page (and inside) pics of Eugene and surrounding areas during this storm. Entire city blocks were completely closed to traffic.

I was a little kid living in Corvallis at the time...we didn't fare any better up there.

[thepopster]

Wow,this brought up memories! Those were the days it snowed every year. I was a kid in Coos Bay and remember it snowed four consecutive days along the beach with this storm. It started as rain and turned to snow and kept snowing. Eventually, we lost power. Transformers were shortening out everywhere. I believe there was about 14 inches outside of our house (very rare for the coastline) and were out of school the whole week. Now the valley is lucky to get a couple of inches every other year.