1910 storm left snow piles all over Mount Vernon

MOUNT VERNON — We can be glad that while the winter of 2025-26 is snowier than most these days, it’s mild compared to the winter of 1909-10.

The old postcard photo gracing the column this week, from the Knox Time Collection, was a photograph taken on Feb. 18, 1910, just after the second big storm in a week to hit Mount Vernon.

The previous storm had left ten inches of snow on the ground, when a new one hit on the Wednesday, just one day before the publication of the weekly issue of the Democratic Banner.

The second storm slammed into Knox County with heavy snow and high winds. While the storm dropped an estimated ten to fourteen inches of snow, the wind shaped it into huge drifts.

Late Wednesday, according to a report in the following day’s newspaper, four of Mount Vernon’s postal carries had to abandon their rural routes outside of town because of snow drafts topping 8 to 10 feet!

In town, the plowed piles only stood three to four feet high, judging by this picture. An amusing
detail can be found on the right in the foreground, where someone has placed a sign—ostensibly
for a lecture/picture show—that says “See what Peary found at the North Pole.” This obviously
refers to the controversial Arctic trek by Admiral Robert Peary, who in 1909 claimed to have
discovered the geographical location of the north pole, though some modern researchers have
claimed his supporting proof was very vague. Whether or not Peary really made it there, he and
others gave many talks about the expedition in 1910, so this sign would appear to be from one of
those talks. I could not, however, locate any information about a Peary talk in Mount Vernon in
mid-February of 1910, so I can’t help but wonder if this was a sign leftover from an earlier talk
that inspired someone to make a joke by placing that sign about what Peary saw at the North
Pole in a snow bank, which would pretty much duplicate the scenery of the far north.
According to the clock in front of Parr’s Knox Shoe store, the time was about 3:43 pm. The
clock across the street would disagree, though, holding the time as 3:42 pm. A sign in the
building with the second clock, at the corner of East Vine and South Main, advertises a Mid-
Winter Sale, reminding all that more snow was yet to come. With the new storm, Mount
Vernon’s snowfall total for the winter of 1909/10 was brought up to about eighty-three inches, far
more than we get in an entire winter these days.
So, let’s begin the new year with hopes that we won’t challenge the snow rates of over a century
ago. I’m perfectly fine dealing with three- or four-inch snows here and there. I have no
interesting in matching Admiral Peary’s real or faked Arctic landscapes.