Story submitted by INDOT
Dan Bewley is INDOT’s last man standing from the Blizzard of 1978, which buried Indiana cities and citizens under an avalanche of snow 47 years ago.
The Crawfordsville District employee is the last remaining active INDOT employee who plowed snow during the historic blizzard. Bewley is set to depart INDOT in April, but before slipping into total retirement, he shared a mountain of memories about the intense blizzard and its 20-plus-foot snowdrifts.
His tale is one of courage and dedication and understanding it requires a trip to the past.
Bewley Begins His Shift
At 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, 1978, the National Weather Service suddenly issued the first-ever statewide blizzard warning. Bewley had just turned 19. INDOT’s snowplow training was minimal back then, and he had only a few snow events under his belt.
Snow started falling furiously while Bewley loaded salt into his truck at the unit’s salt shed.
“Trucks back then took gas, not diesel, and we had our own gas pump,” said Bewley. “I filled both saddle tanks. Thank God I did that.”
(Photo caption: Dan Bewley in December 2024.)
Bewley Starts Plowing
In the darkness of night with snow coming down between 1 and 2 inches per hour, Bewley drove the truck out of the unit’s parking lot for his scheduled snow-plow route, which was to be entirely in Boone County. On his route he didn’t just have to contend with the show, but the wind too. “And it was blowing mighty hard, the most I’ve experienced during winter months,” Bewley said.
By 10 p.m., the winds had picked up, blowing at up to 50 mph, while snow kept piling up. Bewley persevered northbound on S.R. 75, staying in the middle of the road to create a driving lane and avoid hitting potential abandoned vehicles. The weather kept deteriorating, but Bewley made it to S.R. 47 and turned around.
Bewley Gets Stuck — For Days
“At this point, I could not even see the truck’s hood ornament, which was 5 feet in front of me,” said Bewley.
Forging ahead to create a new single-lane path on S.R. 75, Bewley, in essence, was flying blind.
About a mile south of S.R. 32 and 2 miles north of Advance, he felt a thud.
“I hit a humongous snowdrift in the middle of the road,” said Bewley. “I didn’t know it at the time, because you couldn’t see much, but it was deep and long. After many attempts to get turned around and head back to the unit, it was obvious that I wasn’t going anywhere."
Bewley radioed the Frankfort Subdistrict, giving managers his approximate location. It was almost 11 p.m.
“They advised that they were working on getting help to my location,” said Bewley.
That help never came.
Throughout the state, 2,300 INDOT snow fighters braved the elements, some working longer than 16-hour shifts. But visibility became a major concern, and any work the crews had done was swept over by wind-blown snow within minutes. At midnight, Gov. Otis Bowen called the Indiana National Guard and within a few hours ordered all INDOT drivers to leave their routes to team with the Guard and local emergency officials. In order, the priorities were to: rescue stranded motorists, assist those in need of medical services and help providers of these services get to work, and, finally, clear major roadways.
Bewley wasn’t the only INDOT employee stuck. Nineteen plow drivers from the Greenfield District’s Indianapolis Subdistrict were stranded and later rescued. The remoteness of Bewley’s location on S.R. 75 lessened the likelihood of any rescue attempt.
Unabated snow and 55 mph gusts shrouded whatever daylight was present the morning of Thursday, Jan. 26. It might as well have been night — Bewley still couldn’t see more than 5 feet away. The wind-chill index peaked at minus-51. Bewley, who had no food or water with him, ventured outside his cab only to go to the bathroom or eat snow to quench his thirst.
"The truck was running the entire time, so I’m grateful that I filled up both saddle tanks with gas,” he said. “The heat in the trucks back then wasn’t the best…I kept warm enough despite the holes and subpar heating system.”
He kept in touch with the Frankfort Subdistrict every three hours the entire day and night with no relief in sight.
“If the truck had died, I had no idea what to do about it,” said Bewley.
Meanwhile, the snow enveloped Bewley’s truck, almost literally. Snow built up and arced over the cab, practically encircling it.
“The truck was facing south, so luckily I could get in and out of the driver’s door when needed,” he said.
Night came, and Bewley shut his eyes. While he was sleeping, it finally stopped snowing after nearly 31 consecutive hours. Records could not be found for Boone County, but in Indianapolis, 15½ inches of snow fell in a 24-hour period, and there was 20 inches on the ground.
(Photo caption: Dan Bewley at the Lebanon Unit in December 2024.)
Bewley Gets Unstuck — Finally
At daybreak on Friday, Jan. 27, a “tap, tap, tap” sound startled the snoozing Bewley. A man was knocking on the driver-side door.
“A local farmer had walked through snowdrifts on his property and asked if I was hungry,” said Bewley. “I answered a resounding, ‘Yes!’”
“I’ll never forget this,” said Bewley. “I looked up and saw snowdrifts more than 20 feet high, just below the wires of the telephone poles. The drifts were that high for a couple hundred feet in each direction.”
Bewley followed the farmer and did a double-take: The farmhouse was 100 feet away (2024 photo, above).
All this time, Bewley’s truck was almost right in front of the farmhouse, but he couldn’t see it, and the farmer couldn’t see Bewley’s truck. Only when the snow and winds subsided could the two connect.
Bewley Gets Back on the Road — And Stuck Again
After breakfast, the farmer and his family fetched a tractor out of their barn and hooked a snowblower to it.
“I drove the truck back and forth a few times and was able to turn it around and head back toward Lebanon,” said Bewley. “When I informed the subdistrict of this, they advised me that I was one of the few trucks out. They wanted me to go to Zionsville to get State Road 334 opened.”
“When I turned off the ramp toward Zionsville, I ran into another humongous drift,” said Bewley. “I contacted subdistrict personnel, who told me to turn back.”
Because it was daylight, Bewley had seen the drift ahead of him and had become only partially stuck. It didn’t take long to break free from the drift, turn around, and follow the subdistrict’s instructions.
“I couldn’t believe it, but I was able to make it all the way there,” said Bewley. “But when I got to Zionsville, everything was shut down. I could do only so much, and I headed back to the Lebanon Unit.”
Bewley Joins Coworkers to Team with the Indiana National Guard
After Bewley reported back to the unit, the Guard and INDOT shifted priorities. Manning 68 armories across the state, 2,500 guardsmen had helped more than 5,000 refugees. With most people rescued, dealing with the roads moved to the top of the list.
“They had tanks and armored personnel carriers to break through those high drifts,” said Bewley.
"We worked with them to ensure that nobody was stuck on the highways, remove abandoned vehicles from the roadway, plow snow, and help with the snowdrifts on the road,” said Bewley.
For the next week and beyond, Bewley and his workmates were out in full force.
“Our unit was working nonstop clearing the roads,” said Bewley. “A few times, I saw snowmobilers jump over the path that we just cut.”
(Photo caption: During the 1978 blizzard, snow almost reaches the telephone wires on New Road, south of Mishawaka.)
A Lifetime Impact on Bewley
“This was a time in my life that I will always remember,” said Bewley. “I tell my grandchildren about it, and they can’t believe that the snow ever got that deep.”
Eventually, Bewley became a Lebanon Unit crew leader and herbicide specialist. He advanced to become a district heavy equipment operator, bridge foreman, and, finally, a bridge inspection technician. Even though he had moved away from Maintenance, he still plowed snow in the district.
In a bit of irony in 1999, Bewley built a house just east of Advance only two miles from the spot where his plow truck got stuck. He has spent a quarter-century commuting past the site on S.R. 75, forcing him to remember the little details, including how naïve he was. Every time after that incident, even if only a few flurries were forecasted, Bewley brought food and a candle with him in the snowplow.
But Bewley didn’t do much deep thinking about the incident — until recently.
In June 2024, Bewley retired from INDOT after 46½ years. However, since that time, he has continued to work for INDOT via the state’s Bridge to Retirement program, which enables agencies to double-fill positions of long-term employees for a knowledge transfer between the retiring employee and their successor.
Bewley will leave INDOT for good in April 2025 and the last time that he plowed snow was the 2023-2024 season. During that winter, a doomsday snow forecast by meteorologists almost spooked Bewley, who had just turned 65 years old. Remembering that 11 Hoosiers died in the 1978 blizzard, including several who perished in snowdrifts after leaving their stranded vehicles, sent chills up his spine. For the first time, emotions overcame him.
“The last year I plowed snow, they had predicted a potential blizzard,” said Bewley, his eyes welling up and voice cracking. “At the time, I was telling my wife: ‘You know, it’s just my luck. My first winter here, I had a blizzard. My last winter here, I’m going to have a blizzard. And I just don’t know if I can survive the second one.’ It’s pretty emotional.”
Thankfully, Bewley got through his last plowing season with INDOT unscathed and can go into retirement knowing he helped keep the roads safe for countless Hoosiers over the years. Watch the full interview with Bewley.
(Photo caption: The Blizzard of 1978 impacts the State Road 66 Lloyd Expressway in Evansville.)