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How the The Hard Winter of 1880-81 Became "The Long Winter"

Presented by Cindy Wilson, Author of "The Beautiful Snow"

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s "The Long Winter" beautifully details the dramatic events of a winter of never ending blizzards, leading to railroad blockades.

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These blockades all but cut off fledgling communities in southwestern Minnesota and southeastern Dakota Territory.

Pulling from regional newspapers and historic photographs, Wilson provides an overview of the Hard Winter, reviewing the weather, the railroad efforts to battle the snow, food, and fuel.

Then, using letters between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, explore some of Wilder’s struggles to convert her family’s experience into a nearly perfect novel within the Little House series.

The presenter is Cindy Wilson, author of "The Beautiful Snow: The Ingalls Family, the Railroads, and the Hard Winter of 1880-81." The book placed Gold for the 2021 IPPY awards, and was a finalist for the 2020 Indie Excellence awards.

Cindy fell in love with the Little House books in third grade, when she selected "On the Banks of Plum Creek" from her school library. The series has captivated her ever since, with "The Long Winter" being her favorite. While she spent several years immersed in researching the Hard Winter of 1880-81, her ideal day is about eighty degrees with a smidge of humidity.

Among other things, Cindy loves to hike, bike, and kayak, and enjoys traveling to find new places to do those activities. She’s also an art quilter and a voracious reader. Early in the pandemic, she decided to learn to play cello and is mostly enjoying that, too!

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