News: Neillsville, Wis. - Cold Temps (Near Record Cold - 1962)

Contact: Dolores
Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Listeman

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) January 18, 1962

Cold Temperatures (Near Record Cold - 1962)

You think it was cold last week when the thermometer dug in at -20 to -30 degrees (and lower in some selected locations)?

Well it was; but not as cold as it might be - and has been.

The cold weather led Kurt Listeman of Neillsville to peruse his records and newspaper clippings.  He came up with Neillsville’s coldest day on record, a shivering -51 degrees below zero, on February 9, 1899.

That was even lower than the 47 degrees recorded in 1951, which most of the present residents of the County will recall.

The -51 below temperature was only the low point in a period of 35 consecutive days of January and February during which the thermometer did not poke its columnar head above zero.

And at the same time the thermometer at Merrillan and Hatfield agreed at -55 below.

On the following morning, February 10, 20 men started a two-week job of filling the Listeman’s three ice houses, with 6,000* tons of ice.  They cut from O’Neill Creek pond, in the heart of Neillsville, through ice 50 inches thick.

(*Note, was that 6,000 tons of ice or 6,000 pounds of ice?)