Hazel Miner: The Heroic Big Sister Whose Ultimate Sacrifice Made Her A National Celebrity In Death
Siblings are notorious for their bickering but at the end of the day, many brothers and sisters would do just about anything for each other. The ultimate sacrifice was made by 15-year-old Hazel Miner in 1920 when she and her younger brother and sister were caught in a brutal North Dakota blizzard. Sadly, she didn’t make it, but the way she sacrificed herself to save the younger children made her a national celebrity in death.
On March 15, 1920, Hazel and her younger siblings, 10-year-old Emmet and 8-year-old Myrdith, set out as usual for their one-room schoolhouse in Center, North Dakota. The children traveled the two-and-a-half miles from their family farm in a horse-drawn sleigh every day school was in session. Spring was around the corner but had not fully arrived yet on the Great Plains, where the snowy season was often long and brutal. As the day wound down and the afternoon approached, a fierce blizzard arrived on the prairie even though temperatures had been in the 60s just that weekend. Class was dismissed early to allow the students enough time to return home safely.
Concerned for his children’s wellbeing, William Miner rode to the school on a saddle horse to escort them home himself. Upon reaching them, he was retrieving his mount when the sleigh horse, Old Maude, became startled and set off with the…
