Chinook

43” by 25”

by Frances Murphy

My hometown, Rexburg, Idaho, is in the high desert of southeastern Idaho, near Yellowstone Park, where winters are very cold, and snow is plentiful. In February 1960 there was lots of snow on the ground. Then the warm wind, the “Chinook”, came. All the snow in area was melted in a day! The Teton Fork of the Snake River just outside of town was raging. “YAY”! Schools were closed! I loved the name of the wind—Chinook. I learned it from my dad. It sounded like the ancient Indians, and it rang of mystery and stories around a campfire.