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If there's such a thing as a "100-year flood," meaning a flood that only occurs every 100 years, then this photo must be the "100-year winter ice storm." Nothing is written on the back of the photo, but there are several things to point out to tell the story to viewers in 2010.
First, the photo was taken in Bluffton by an unknown photographer. The scene is South Main Street, looking south. The house on the left appears to be 321 S. Main, what is today The Lamplighter Bed and Breakfast, owned by Joan Bauman.
The photo was taken after Jan. 10, 1906. That's when the interurban electric railroad opened for business. The tracks were laid in the center of Main Street. It appears that one of the interurbans made it through the snow because the only cleared part of the street is the center and you can view the rails. Obviously this was in the day before snowplows.
We are guessing that the two men walking on Main are posed by the photographer. Notice what appears to be a horse hitching post on the left side of the street.
The photo was created as a post card, as several early 1900-era photo became. The negative is 2 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches and certainly was made as a 'contact print' directly onto the post card. Technology in early 1900 was very advanced. The negative was so large that based on today's digital cameras, you could enlarge this photo onto the entire outside wall of Family Dollar and it would be very clear.
It's tough to guess the time of day the photo was taken, although looking at the shadows, one guess is that it's in the afternoon.
Based upon our contemporary experience of an ice storm a few winters ago, we know the seriousness of this event. Notice how low the branches are near the ground, indicating the weight of the ice on the trees.
In addition to this information, this is a rare photo because we find very few early photos of Bluffton taken in the winter. The photographer, of course, had to bundle up, drag some rather heavy equipment outdoors and set it up probably with a tripod, then take it down and go develop the film.
This photo is from the collection of Richard Boehr.
