How About Those Snowplows?

Christina Dendy
Jan 26
2 min read

Lots of snow hit much of the United States over the past several days. Here in southwestern Ohio, we got about 12 inches. Our hound dog wasn't too thrilled as he is not a snow puppy, but he enjoyed barking at the snowplows when they came through.

We spent a long time shoveling out from our door to our curb, and we're fortunate to live in a community with lots of snowplows that take care of the roads, streets, and parking lots. Ohio has upwards of 1,700 snowplows in its official fleet though I'm sure many more folks hop in and help. Thank you to all of them.

Pragmatic innovators in the United States began submitting patents for snowplows in the 1840s with the first document horse-drawn snowplow put to work in Milwaukee in 1862. (Before that, there was a super-cool invention called a horse-drawn roller, similar to the one shown below, which tamped down the snow to make it easier to travel atop.) Learn more here.

from the Indian Bureau of Motor Vehicles

The first snowplow designed to affix to a motorized vehicle came along a little later, in 1913, from Pennsylvania Good Roads, Inc. Learn more here.

At any rate, all the snow and the digging the plowing reminded me of one of our favorite winter books, Small Walt by Elizabeth Weiss Verdick and Marc Rosenthal, so I decided to share it and some other fun books dedicated to the wonder that is the snowplow.

Small Walt by Elizabeth Weiss Verdick and Marc Rosenthal

A heroic little snowplow and his pal, Gus, brave a big blizzard ...