Winter conditions in the past

While this past week icing and our 7" snowstorm have been a bit of a challenge, their severity pales when reading this excerpt from Port Jervis' The Evening Gazette for January 22nd, 1923:

"Early Sunday morning trucks and cars with ten men from G. W. Case Company and Rutan Auto Company's garages started out to open this 14 miles of road, which has been closed for automobile traffic for nearly ten days; and which was one of the most drifted pieces of road in this section. In some places snow banks were eight feet deep, and the farmers were driving through the fields in order to get the milk to the stations with sleighs."
.....
"Superintendent Charac Van Inwegen has had his troubles with the snow drifts between Port Jervis and Huguenot. This road was drifts most of the way to a depth of 3 or 4 feet. Mr. Van Inwegen succeeded in getting through to Port Jervis Saturday night and the first truck came through from Huguenot Sunday morning on this road;"
Port Jervis NY Evening Gazette 1923 - 0141.pdf

In the first half of the 1900's, there were severe snowstorms which impacted Montague. One elderly resident recounted that in those days they used such Big V plows to do the county and state roads.

After one storm, he related: "the banks along the road were close to five feet high". 

Another resident remembered being unable to exit her house for days, as the snow had piled a depth of some feet against her door.

Students who lived up on the road towards High Point Park [before the tracts were given over to the state] needed to have a parent meet them after school dismissed at the foot of the mountain with a horse pulled sleigh, in order to get home, as the road was otherwise impassable.

At least we're not dealing with this: