Origins of Snowplow Extra -- Spearfish Lake Tales

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Subject: Origins of Snowplow Extra

Author:
Wes

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Date Posted: 13:01:59 03/18/13 Mon
In reply to: Wes 's message, "Re: I would not have gone through St Louis" on 11:55:52 03/18/13 Mon

The above post got me to thinking about how Snowplow Extra came about.

Perhaps thirty years ago I wrote a memo about the original idea for the story. Parts of what was in that memo made it into the story, and parts didn't. I haven't seen the memo in a long time, perhaps twenty years, but I remember some of it.

In the original version (which never got written), Bud, John and some firemen make a single run from Spearfish Lake to Warsaw, and I don't remember if they were even named at the time. They had a smaller and less capable snowplow, and only a single engine. Since they knew they were going to face some deep cuts, they put a construction crane railcar (a Burro) between the plow and the engine so the crane could dig though snow too deep for the plow with a clamshell. In Warsaw, the fire is getting close to a fertilizer plant and propane tank as they finally make it into town, and it's quite clear there's no stopping it -- all they can do is run! Bud hangs on to the last instant allowing people to climb onto the trail, wherever they can find a place to hold on, then backs out of town, just getting far enough from town before the ammonium nitrate and propane explosion flattens the town.

Obviously, a fair amount of that scenario made it into Snowplow Extra. But it's also clear that the original story was strongly influenced by the very real story of Jim Root and the Hinckley Fire in 1894 -- and a couple pieces of that made it into the story too. That's a thriller that really happened.

-- Wes

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