In the wake of the Children’s Blizzard that ravaged the upper
Midwest in Janauary of 1888, something of a war of words broke
out in the newspapers. First, there were arguments among the
midwestern papers over how many fatalities the massive storm had
actually caused, along with accusations of a coverup to
purposely reduce the number of those killed. Then publications
out east picked up the stories, adding their own commentary to
the mix. In his book The Children’s Blizzard, David Laskin
writes the following: “What was at issue here was not just the
accuracy of the death toll figures, but the truth about the
climate of the prairie. A region that could slay a thousand
innocent American citizens in the course of an afternoon did not
look like a fit place for human habitation – quite the contrary
– whereas if the figure stood at a mere couple of hundred, that
could be written off as an unfortunate sacrifice on the path to
progress. In essence it was an argument over image and
reputation: prairie public relations.