Large blizzard of 1873 to highlight March 18 event

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

The New York Mills Public Library is always busy with its regular offerings of Coffee Talks, Lego Club, puzzle exchange, three bookclubs and many other presentations and conversation opportunities throughout the year. In March and April, two events will be back by popular demand and available for the local community.

One of the library’s most popular speakers, Missy Hermes of the Otter Tail County Historical Society, will be back on Tuesday, March 18 at 1 p.m. to discuss the 1873 blizzard that swept through Minnesota and the severe impacts it had on this area. She will touch on NY Mills in particular and will also give some information on other large blizzards over the years.

“When Missy gives a presentation, she does a lot of research about different historical events in Otter Tail County,” said Julie Adams, Library Director. “One great thing that she always does is, she will find something local to share, so she said there will be NY Mills specific stories to share as well.”

The library will be sponsoring this event and will be free to all attendees. Preregistration is highly encouraged by calling the library at 385-2436. Hermes often brings items and photos to showcase the historical aspects of what she is presenting on.

“Missy often brings a lot of photos to share,” said Adams. “A lot of historical artifacts, depending on what they have available within the museum. Missy puts on quality presentations for us, it’s always a great opportunity to learn about history, obviously, I get to benefit from learning about that history myself, but what I most look forward to is providing that as an opportunity to our community.

“It’s a learning program,” she continued. “So I do hope people will learn some local history.”

Another special event, which will take place in April, will be the library’s tea party which is set for Sunday, April 6 at 12 p.m. This highly-requested event comes after a similar event was held in 2023 to celebrate the library’s 90th anniversary.

“In 2023, we had our 90th anniversary and we did this library tea as a throwback to how the ladies who had first organized the library in 1933 would do fundraisers,” said Adams. “So that’s how we fashioned it, along the same lines as what they used to do for getting the library started. From what I understand, it was a very popular event that they did for many years.”

When the time came and the anniversary tea party began, Adams was surprised at how high the participation was as community members packed in the library to eat finger sandwiches, scones, desserts, lemonade and sip a cup of tea.

“It was such a wonderful, feel-good event,” said Adams. “We had the whole place filled with people and since then a lot of people have been asking if we’re going to do it again. It may not be exactly how we had done that anniversary tea, but I hope it will be the same feel-good event for us.”

While this event is not necessarily a fundraiser, the Friends of the Library group is sponsoring the event and will be asking for reservations of $25 per person prior to March 28. These funds will help cover costs of the catering and decorations of the tea party. Adams mentioned that she finds this type of event to be valuable in the community.

“We often do try to have presentations and learning events,” said Adams. “But it’s also important to have community events—the sense of community, the sense of pride in what we do have here—those things are very important as well. That’s kind of the goal—the objective for the day—to just celebrate what we have here at the library.”