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| Orange Walter Truck: A 1931 Walter Snow-Fighter truck used in Windham and surrounding communities from 1943 through the 1950s is shown. Equipped with a high V-plow and 12-foot wing, this powerful machine busted through tall, hard-packed snow drifts. The distinctive chug-lug-lug sound of its engine signaled snow-bound residents that their roads were about to be cleared out. The truck was owned and restored by Windham's Don Rogers. PHOTO BY WALTER LUNT |
It was starting to snow as Windham Center resident Lloyd Gilman, 19, pulled out
of his driveway in the late afternoon of Saturday, February 16, 1952. Despite
the threat of a storm, Gilman was determined not to miss the movie playing at
the Star Theater on Main Street in Westbrook.
By the time he emerged from the theater later that evening, the storm had
picked up immensely. “It was coming down hard and blowing a gale. I had my
father’s big, heavy Buick with summer treads. There were cars (that had slid)
off the road. I just kept hoping the cars ahead of me didn’t spin out on the
hills. I knew I’d be okay if I could just keep rolling.”
Gilman made it home, only to discover a very high snowdrift had formed across
the end of his driveway. “I (backed up and) half buried the car right into the
drift…and went to bed.” He shoveled it out the next day.
A savage nor’easter, working its way through New England, delivered blinding
snow and turbulent winds to Southern Maine on that Saturday, seventy years ago
this week. Weather forecasting was less sophisticated then – most people
expected snow, but the severity was a surprise.
In what became known as the great Blizzard of 1952, the storm turned out to be
two days of blistering cold, howling non-stop winds, and blinding snow. The
Weather Bureau, as it was known then, later estimated it had dropped 25.4
inches of snow, bolstered by 45 mph sustained winds and gusts to 65 mph.
Drifting snow mounted to 15 feet, higher in some spots. Up to that time, it was
estimated to be the third worst snow event in greater Portland history. “It was
a doozy,” said one resident.
Whole communities were marooned for up to 48 hours following the storm. Photos show drifts that climbed up the side of houses to the roofs, and children sledding out of second-story bedroom windows. One South Portland resident reported he couldn’t push his front door outward against thickly packed snow and had to exit a second-floor window onto a porch. After jumping into a snowbank, he observed his driveway was completely clear of snow. It was not uncommon to see tunnels, rather than shoveled paths that led from front doors to a driveway. Newspapers’ banner headlines announced most roads were impassable and filled in again almost as soon as they were plowed. All activity, except shoveling, was restricted for two days for most citizens.
Teams of shovelers helped to open up town squares so that snowbound residents
could reach essential services like grocery, fuel and pharmacies. Carrol
McDonald, 97, lived at Baker’s Corner (Binga’s) at the time. “All the roads
were blocked. You couldn’t go anywhere (and) everything came to a halt; you
couldn’t even get to South Windham.” But, he added, there was plenty of coal in
the basement to keep the fires going, and plenty of canned preserves from the
garden.
Statewide, the Portland Press Herald/Evening Express reported there were an estimated
1000 travelers stranded along roadways; main streets appeared as “ghost towns;”
hand-drawn signs that read “Careful, this is a car” were posted atop snowdrifts
that concealed vehicles within; mail in some isolated hamlets was delivered on
horseback, milk from farm to dairy was delivered by horse-drawn sleds; an
expectant mother gave successful birth after being drawn on a toboggan several
miles to a hospital and 200 travelers crowded into Union Station in Portland
after being rescued from their stranded vehicles on Route 1 near Biddeford by a
Boston & Maine railroad train.
At sea, in what is regarded as one of the most daring rescues of the U.S. Coast
Guard, 32 crew members of the storm-stricken tanker Pendelton, which broke in
two off Cape Cod, were rescued. Eight, however, were lost.
Longtime Windham resident and businessman Don Rich remembers two heroes of the
great storm, both non-human: the bulldozer and the Walter truck. Both possessed
unmatched plow power through high, wind-packed drifts, and were used on
roadways to literally clear the way for conventional snowplows.
The Walter, manufactured in New York by Walter Motor Truck Co., was known
chiefly for snow removal equipment. Called the Walter Snow-Fighter, it was a
heavy-duty, all-wheel drive truck with a specially designed chassis. In winter
it was equipped with a giant V-plow and a 12-foot-long wing. Built mainly from
1929 to 1980, it was well-known and appreciated by public works personnel,
private contractors and the general public.
Rich was a volunteer firefighter at the time of the great storm, and recalls
just as the storm had subsided, the siren at the North Windham fire barn
screamed out the unthinkable: a house fire while the roads were still clogged
with drifts. Living on Route 302, Rich waited to hear the familiar
chug-a-lug-lug of the Walter advancing slowly toward his house, pushing aside
the great drifts, a (tank pumper) fire truck right behind it. He boarded the
fire truck and learned the fire was located near the sharp turn on Highland
Cliff Road, the Kneeland House. Rich knew the family and feared they would
arrive too late. Unfortunately, he was right. As the slow-moving Walter and
fire apparatus rounded the corner on Highland Cliff, “…the (complex) was half
burned down – we could see there was no hope of saving it.” The Westbrook
American newspaper reported “Besides the house, a shed, garage and a barn with
50 tons of hay were lost.” The total loss was estimated at $10,000. All the
occupants got out safely. Few possessions were saved.
In Raymond, however, there was tragedy. Equipment from Windham was being used
to clear Egypt Road. According to Rich, a Walter truck, operated by private
contractor Joseph Gerdis, was attached and being pushed by a bulldozer. Gerdis,
it seems, sensed a problem, opened the driver’s door, and leaned out of the
truck to look back. He slipped, fell out and was killed.
Longtime and well-known Windham resident Norma (Kimball) Rogers said she
remembers the great blizzard. “I was just out of high school, and I lived with
my family on Albion Road. I missed a few days of work at Blue-Cross in Portland
because of (the storm). I also remember my brothers building (snow) forts out
in the yard. We were snowed in for days.”
Norma later married Don Rogers of Windham who worked at his father’s trucking
and excavation business at Windham Center. While his future wife was snowed-in
on the Albion Road farm, Don was working the storm in his 1931 Walter truck. He
told a reporter in 2012 (covering the storm’s 60th anniversary), “I plowed all
night and all the next day – the worst one we ever saw here.”
Perhaps Roger’s favorite story of the blizzard concerned the “freeing” of
Windham Hill residents. As he opened the road at the top of the hill, he was
greeted with hoots, hollers and clapping by a crowd of citizens on snowshoes
who had heard the chugging strain of his Walter’s engine coming up the steep
grade.
Don Rogers passed away in 2020.
These are just a few of the memories of the storm many were happy to forget. But
all had to admit, it really was a doozy. <
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