The bone-chilling winter storm of 1949 is sometimes called the 'Storm of the Century' (a title that has since been given to the brutal March 1993 blizzards that battered the east coast). The first storm hit southeast Wyoming on January 2, and ushered in two months of bitter cold and blizzards.

The official death toll for the region was 76, with 12 of those in Wyoming. Ranchers and farmers also lost tens of thousands of livestock. The state is prone to heavy snow, as this 1955 photo of Beartooth Highway at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park shows.

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